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Saturday, May 24, 2014
May 24, 2014 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 7:00 PM :: 3974 Views

Feds Begin ‘Rule Making’ to Create Akaka Tribe

Decision on CNMI Vote Demonstrates the Illegality of OHA's Nation-Building Process

Hawaii GOP pledges Jones Act reform

Heritage: Jones Act Hinders National Security

UHERO: Tourism Weakness Continues

May 23, 2014: Office of Elections Releases Updated Candidate List

House candidate with criminal rap sheet withdraws from 2014 race

Democratic Party Chairmanship Vote a Referendum on Closed Primary

Borreca: Since at least 2007, one of the party's most divisive issues has been pushed by Anthony Gill. He wants to close the Democratic Party's open primary system.

The party filed suit in federal court to close the state elections and lost.

Gill is now handling the appeal and running for chairman.

In a recent Star-Advertiser interview, Gill said that the Democratic Party should be considered like any other organization with its leaders or representatives elected by members.

"We say we would like to nominate our candidates with our membership whom we know and trust, and, you know, because we're inclusive, we're happy to also take the vote of anyone who will publicly say they will support our party," Gill explained.

This plan, while supported by the party's central committee, has been criticized by many elected Democrats, who say it will lower the number of Democrats voting in the primary election and does not broaden the party's base.

Gill defends his plan, saying: "There's a remarkable correlation between people who are elected and people who think that the current system is wise. (They) have learned how to use the current system. I do not say that they're all like that. Many Democrats, particularly those who remember the problems of grassroots organizing in the first place, completely understand the party's position, and there are others who do not."

Ohigashi, who as a central committee member voted against Gill's proposal, said the open primary system has broad support.

"The 1978 Constitutional Convention changed the process and the voters ratified and I respect the voters," she said in an interview.

It is almost too much to ask of Hawaii history that the Gill-Burns battles of the 1970s remain to haunt the party.

But Ohigashi was quick to mention that as a young woman, she worked in the Legislature, and when a fight among Democrats broke out, it was Burns who as governor was able to calm down and unite Democrats to push forward major legislation.

read ... Democrats still haunted by Gill-Burns battles of '70s

PUC head Mina Morita fined $31,000 for unauthorized rentals

SA: The state Board of Land and Natural Resources  voted Friday to fine Public Utilities Commission Chairwoman Hermina Morita and her husband $31,000 for building and operating a pair of unauthorized commercial vacation rentals on restricted conservation land on Kauai.

Morita and husband Lance Laney, the listed landowner, were further ordered to remove the two rental cottages, discontinue all commercial activity on the parcel, and submit an after-the-fact application for a large garage constructed on the property.

Meanwhile: Zoning Board: Abercrombie's Supreme Court Pick Operating Illegal Enterprise for Over a Decade

read ... Another Day in the Nei

Ethics panel closes case against Rep. Cabanilla over nonprofit

SA: In a letter Tuesday, Leslie Kondo, the commission's executive director, said the commission accepted Cabanilla's assurances that she, her son, and her legislative staff did not receive any compensation related to their work for the society and would not receive any of the money if the grant is released by Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

Lawmakers are generally exempt from the conflict of interest provisions of the ethics law, but are covered under the fair treatment section and are prohibited from representing or assisting businesses for a fee before the Legislature.

read ... Another Rida Cabanilla Story

Unions, Obamacare Conspire to Destroy Sister Isle Hospitals

SA: The HHSC had requested $150 million in the budget during the past legislative session but secured only $102 million for 2015. The $48 million shortfall will require reduced services and other drastic measures.

Corporation officials have anticipated the possibility of reductions in force....The agency is developing plans for navigating through the next year with these cuts, with the first draft due by mid-June, said Alice Hall, HHSC acting president and chief executive officer. Labor costs present the greatest challenge, Hall said, especially because of retirement benefits and work rules that don't neatly fit the requirements of a 24/7 operation like a hospital.

This problem demands a solution, so it's hard to rationalize the failure of Senate Bill 3064 during session. The measure would have authorized HHSC and its subsidiary regional systems to transition to a new management system with private partners, organized as a nonprofit corporation or public-benefit corporation....

Those who opposed the bill outright included the unions that represented the majority of employees in the system; they did not seem to recognize the urgency of the situation....

Hall cited a state-commissioned 2010 report on the system that estimated labor savings from privatization of the workforce at $50 million annually.

She and other regional officials also correctly reference another strength of a public-private partnership: access to private capital for needed facility renovations.

For example, Maui's aging facilities need rehabilitation, and capital costs have been compounded in the near term by the information technology upgrades required under the Affordable Care Act, said Wesley Lo, regional CEO.

The various regions are now in the process of making some hard choices about what the state can afford to deliver to residents over the coming year, and it's plain that the Legislature will have to face the unrelenting realities of rising labor costs. Simple math suggests the problem will not go away.

Background: Legislative Report: Convert HHSC to non-profit, dump civil service (full text)

read ... Public hospitals fix can't wait

Kauai Dem Legislators Force Hospital Cutbacks, But Pose as Saviors

KGI: Most people don't know it, but you can thank Sen. Ron Kouchi that the two public hospitals on Kauai are still open.

"I was in the room when Sen. Kouchi said, 'We can't do this,'" said Rep. James Tokioka Thursday morning during a recap of the legislative session. "Everyone needs to understand what happened."

"Sen. Kouchi was very instrumental in making sure that special funding was done," he added

About 50 people attended the meeting of the Lihue Business Association at Duke's Canoe Club. Kauai's legislators, including Kouchi, Tokioka and Reps. Derek Kawakami and Dee Morikawa fielded questions....

A bill this session that would have given HHSC officials the ability to work with private health care partners was rejected by legislators.

"That bill did not make it out. We felt there was more discussion needed," (HGEA operative) Morikawa said

"It's uncertain if a public/private partnership would ever be accepted," Kouchi said.

read ... HGEA Laughing at the Ignorant Peasants

John Sosa: Longtime educator urging DoE to take a critical survey seriously

SA: In May 2013 he was honored as the best high school principal in the state, hailed as a tireless leader who had elevated the Hawaii Kai school to lofty international standards. That September, the DOE abruptly placed him on administrative leave along with two office staff, accused of unspecified fraud.

It was an ignoble end to what had been an acclaimed 44-year career in the DOE, including years as a teacher, principal and district administrator. At Kaiser, Sosa led teachers and students in implementing the rigorous International Baccalaureate curriculum. Standardized test scores rose, as did extracurricular involvement and parent engagement. Empowering school-level employees — especially principals — to meet the needs of their individual school communities was his mantra.

Now, eight months later, the DOE’s internal investigation remains unresolved. Sosa, who maintains his innocence, retired in December. He hasn’t stopped caring about Hawaii’s public schools, and is speaking out in the wake of an independent survey that found broad discontent in the principal ranks about the direction of the DOE, especially the central state office that oversees Hawaii’s single school district.

PR: Closed

read ... Internal Investigation

HPU loses 10% of students; lays off professors

HNN: HPU enrollment decreased by nearly 10 percent from 7.462 in the fall of 2012 to 6,736 in the fall of 2013, a school spokeswoman said, noting the drop was primarily with part-time students, "especially in military campus programs due to federal budget sequestration."

A year ago, HPU officials admitted the school was dealing with an operating deficit. As result, in May and June 2013 HPU laid off nearly 24 administrative staffers, cut some part-time faculty and eliminated about 60 sections of courses.

Friday, a school spokeswoman would not confirm whether the school still has an operating deficit or disclose how much of a deficit the school has.   

HPU is reducing retirement benefits for all employees, with annual employer contributions going from 11-percent of their salaries to six percent of their pay, which Kloenhamer said remains a "competitive benefit package."  

read ... 10% of Students

Cost of Preventing Ala Wai Canal Flood Rises to $200 Million

CB: Federal officials propose spending $200 million to erect walls around the Ala Wai Canal and build upland detention ponds to protect Waikiki and other areas from a major rainstorm that could cause catastrophic flooding.

The plan includes 3- to 5-foot walls around the canal, and detention basins that span five upland streams that feed into the canal. The Ala Wai Golf Course, Hausten Ditch, and land owned by Woodlawn Cemetery would be turned into repositories for floodwater.

The plan is designed to “reduce flooding in and around the Ala Wai and to save lives,” Athline Clark, a project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, told a small group at Stevenson Middle School on Wednesday during the second of two community meetings to discuss the proposal.

But the estimated cost has soared, and federal and state funding is far from certain. As of last year, Army Corps officials had pegged the cost of design and construction at about $100 million. The cost has since doubled, said Clark.

The earliest construction would begin is likely 2020, she said.

HNN: Army Corps of Engineers proposes wall along Ala Wai Canal

read ... $200M

DR Horton Loads Contaminated Soil into Kapolei Development

KITV: "For a number of weeks before the state health officials closed down the excavation of the track, some soil was transported by truckers off-site,” said Deputy Health Director Gary Gill.

The Department of Education told KITV seven trucking companies may have hauled soil from the area.

It turns out that part of the campus was built over an old navy landfill and that’s why elevated levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic were found in the dirt.

The state says some of that soil ended up at the site in Kapolei and in a Kaneohe resident's back yard....

But state investigators are also following up on leads that some of the dirt may have gone to a second location on Oahu's windward side.

Meanwhile developer D.R. Horton told KITV the area where the soil was taken is permitted for stockpiling and is located far away from homes it is building.

The site is under control of Royal Contracting.

Read ... Royal Contracting

Docs: Honolulu Occupy So Unimportant its not Worth Spying On

DN: The documents are posted on the PCJF web page Out from the Shadows: The Hidden Role of the Fusion Centers in the Nationwide Spying Operation against the Occupy Movement and Peaceful Protest in America and may be downloaded for convenient searching off-line....

Honolulu (HPD?) also spied and reported on its Occupy movement, but did not seem to be greatly concerned. Here is one hit from a quick search of the documents:

Honolulu fusion report

The reports on other cities are far more detailed.

Hawaii’s fusion center is mentioned in the documents, which include the emails of correspondents located in Hawaii. An email which may belong to HPD Lt. Gordon Shiraishi is on the recipient list of a report on “Emerging Issues in the Occupy Movement” dated Dec. 2, 2011, which describes in detail tactics such as “Mic check”, which of course should be considered as expressions of free speech and not subject to police surveillance. Another email receiving documents was that of Chief of Police Louis M. Kealoha.

The documents reveal that The United States Conference of Mayors coordinated reporting via conference calls of mayors and police chiefs and via a survey facility maintained on their website. A reminder informs contributors that “Be assured that that report will not attribute information to any individual city.”  Well, the survey is no longer on their website, but the information is out. Where could information about Honolulu come from, for example, except from Honolulu?

read ... Newly released emails and docs reveal not much about the Honolulu Occupy movement

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