HGEA Boss: Borreca is an Anti-Union Parrot
215 Candidates File for Neighborhood Board Elections
2015 Legislative Calendar: A Guide to the Deadlines
Earned Income Tax Credit – A Solution to Poverty?
Rail: Cynical City Officials Spinning, Ducking, Dodging and Finger-pointing--Few Believe Them Anymore
Shapiro: City officials have been so misleading for so long in spinning the construction costs, timetable and operating expenses for the $5.26 billion rail system that few believe what they say anymore....
There's more cynicism in attempts by current leaders to blame shortfalls on bad decisions of previous administrations....
The governor and Legislature can end the ducking, dodging and finger-pointing.
They can demand a financial plan that credibly reflects how much more slippage to expect on costs and timetables and how much rail will realistically cost to build and operate.
They can insist the mayor, City Council and HART all agree on a financial plan so there can be no room for further blame-gaming.
If the response isn't compelling, they should deny a tax extension and let the city make do with what it has.
The question is whether lawmakers have the guts to keep faith with Oahu taxpayers, considering that their own campaign funds are filled by the same developers, contractors, construction unions and banks that have powered the deficient rail plan at the city level.
read ... Buck Stops Here
Caldwell: I'm Not Hiding Behind Grabauskas Skirts, Really
As mayor, I promised to build rail better, and to be open and transparent on its funding. I am not backing away from that promise. (Know them by what they deny.)
Minutes after Dan Grabauskas, executive director of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, announced to the HART board the need for additional funding to build rail, I held my own press conference to report to the public what actions I planned to take, in partnership with HART, in order to get the rail financing back on track....
...perhaps most important, I will be advocating vigorously during the legislative session to extend or lift the sunset on the GET surcharge for rail. Last year, I fought for a similar bill, (and lost) and this year, I've already met to discuss this issue with the House speaker and the finance chairwoman, and am scheduled to meet with the Ways and Means chairwoman. I will meet with as many of the remaining senators and House representatives as I can in the coming months. I also will testify before a joint House Finance and Senate Ways and Means committee hearing on Jan. 26....
The rail is a city initiative. As mayor, I am fully engaged in finding the solutions we need to get rail completed. (But I want you Legislators to play the heavy on this little bitty tax thingy, okay?)
read ... Wants you to take the fall for him
Caldwell: Raise Taxes or I Won't Finish Rail Project
SA: ... the main solution they're clearly pursuing is to lift the 2022 sunset on the Oahu GET surcharge, which funds most of the project....
It's an idea that rail officials were exploring even before rail fell into financial trouble, as a way to fund extensions to the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus and Kapolei — even though the Legislature in 2005 authorized the surcharge with a clear expiration date.
Caldwell, who was a legislator in 2005 and voted in favor of the surcharge to fund rail, recalled on Friday that "everything was on the table" during lawmakers' discussions to get the measure passed, including the idea to "come back later" and try to lift the sunset date.
He acknowledged that's what's happening now.
Caldwell further said Friday that he intends to visit all 76 state legislators in hopes of persuading them during their upcoming session this year to lift the sunset.
If they don't get it lifted this year, he said, the public transit system is "in trouble" of seeing construction stall. State procurement laws don't allow government agencies to sign contracts without the dollars to pay for them.
Without sufficient funds, "we're not completing the system that we promised to the people of this island," Caldwell said in an interview Friday.
read ... Doubletalk
Borreca: Don't believe predictions of construction job growth
SA: One of the driving reasons for building Honolulu's over-budget heavy rail system was that it would create up to 11,000 new jobs over the next eight years, according to the transit industry web site Honolulu Rail for Growth.
So what happened?
At last week's state Council on Revenue's meeting, state and private economists had to admit, construction jobs have yet to rescue us.
"We are only building some rail and some high-rises. The construction has been dominated by the neighbor islands and the vast majority has been single-family residential," reported Carl Bonham, University of Hawaii economist and council member....
According to First Hawaiian, Hawaii lost 12,500 construction jobs during the recession. So far only 3,900 of those jobs have returned....
Having government pay for solar by awarding solar tax credits doesn't create a real construction industry, Brewbaker said.
"This bids up the cost of and bids away resources from actual construction of new buildings and actual new capital formation," warned Brewbaker....
Precisely as Explained:
read ... Don't Believe
Taxpayers will likely pay for charter school’s 'Psychic Healer' debt
SA: The payments to Rainbow Healing Arts are among nearly $102,000 in school expenses throughout 2013 and 2014 flagged as suspicious by the state Public Charter School Commission, and that prompted a raid of the campus in November by the state Attorney General's Office.
The commission overseeing public charter schools took the first step last week toward shutting down the school for insolvency, voting to revoke the charter. The Hawaiian-focused school had run out of money before the end of last school year, and stopped paying its staff and rent, ending that year with a $502,000 deficit.
Court documents seeking a judge's approval for a search warrant, recently obtained by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, reveal details about the state's investigation into suspected first-degree theft, money laundering, falsification of business records and tampering with government documents by the school's founder and longtime director, Laara Allbrett, who was forced to resign in July.
(Fabulous Tidbit: Transsexual Hina Wong-Kalu, is 'director of culture' at Halau Lokahi Public Charter School.)
The commission handed over to investigators a list of expenditures in the past two fiscal years totaling $101,873.23 for which the audit found there were either no supporting documents or justifiable reasons for the payments.
For example, Jewal Allbrett, founder Laara Allbrett's daughter, was neither an employee nor contractor for the school, but was allegedly paid $11,747 for administrative duties, after-school care, information technology services and teacher support, according to Hanagami's affidavit.
Payments totaling $6,760.70 were paid to Angela Kahealani, listed as a psychic healer on Kauai, who also had no contract with the school. Although school policies required that vendors be paid using school checks, "it appeared that Laara Allbrett concealed payments to Angela Kahealani by converting moneys from the account into U.S. Postal Service money orders," court documents said.
Records show the school also paid $21,347 to a Jamie McShane, who was not on staff or a contractor for the school. He allegedly was paid for services ranging from plumbing and public relations to office maintenance.
Hanagami, a certified fraud examiner, said he found multiple invoices characteristic of an internal false billing scheme. Invoices charging the school for various services — including $900 for office painting and $775.50 for clerical assistance — had the same generic format, font style and size, with "Mahalo Nui Loa!" printed at the bottom. None of the invoices had addresses where the payment was supposed to be sent.
The audit also found that while Halau Lokahi did not provide food services for students, $6,618 was spent on food supplies, including purchases from Costco, Sam's Club, Foodland, Walmart and 7-Eleven.
"The purchases appeared to be for personal use by Laara Allbrett," court documents said.
Allbrett justified some of the questionable expenses to the commission staff. She said the $10,000 allegedly paid to Rainbow Healing Arts, for example, was for acupuncture services offered to the staff "for treatment to help them improve efficiency and effectiveness in the classroom," according to court documents....
read ... Nepotism is Expensive
New prison key part of broad reform
SA: In a recent interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Gov. David Ige answered a question about Hawaii's prison system by saying he favors finding a private partner to invest in a new facility here.
It was an unscripted moment with political columnist Richard Borreca, but it was one that raised eyebrows in the social service and legal professions. Among the critics of this notion are those worried about the growth of a private prison industry in Hawaii, replicating a trend that has proliferated across the mainland.
To conclude that both positions are correct is not as incongruous as it appears. Hawaii does need to replace its aging prisons with more efficiently designed facilities, but lacks the public resources to do so. At the same time, the state should reduce its prison population, replacing incarceration with strategies for addressing social problems that have better potential for salvaging troubled lives....
Those who say private, profit-making prisons often lead to laws and enforcement policies that aim to drive a larger population to fill the beds raise a valid concern, one borne out in research. But leaving the management of prisons strictly in the hands of government hasn't worked very well either. Witness the practice of sick-leave abuse by staff in public prisons here. Too often, families have been deprived of visitation days because of staffing shortages -- a serious problem state administrators seem powerless to solve.
read ... New Prison
Ian Lind Edges into Cartoon Controversy
ILind: And then Crumb describes two cartoons he submitted for publication. Here’s the first.
I’m not going to make a career out of baiting some fucking religious fanatics, you know, by insulting their prophet. I wouldn’t do that. That seems crazy. But then, after they got killed, I just had to draw that cartoon, you know, showing the Prophet. The cartoon I drew shows me, myself, holding up a cartoon that I’ve just drawn. A crude drawing of an ass that’s labeled “The Hairy Ass of Muhammed.” [Laughs.]
A second cartoon shows the artists wife looking at the drawing.
“Oh, my God, they’re going to come after us! This is terrible…I want to live to see my grandchildren!” And then she has me saying, “Well, it’s not that bad. And, besides, they’ve killed enough cartoonists, maybe they’ve gotten it out of their system.”
Neither cartoon accompanies the NY Observer story, at least the online version.
But both drawings can be found here.
Meanwhile:
read ... Stand With Charlie?
Sour Poi for Abercrombie?
ILind: A friend of mine pointed to an item appearing in Honolulu Magazine’s current list of “Sour Poi Awards: Celebrating the Strange, the Stupid and the Scandalous of 2014.”
The item has to do with former Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
DEAD WRONG
In April, as the gubernatorial race heated up, Gov. Neil Abercrombie publicly questioned the significance of late Sen. Daniel Inouye’s deathbed letter. He told the Los Angeles Times that construing Inouye’s letter, which recommended Colleen Hanabusa as Inouye’s successor, as his dying wish was “problematic.” Abercrombie wound up apologizing to Irene Hirano Inouye, the widow of the late senator, and would go on to lose the gubernatorial primary election by an unprecedented 36 percentage points.
Honolulu appears to be drawing a causal connection between Abercrombie’s comments on the Inouye letter, and his subsequent defeat at the polls.
But there’s an obvious problem for this narrative.
As my friend noted:
But they never get around to mentioning that the voters eventually selected Abercrombie’s choice for the Senate seat over Inouye’s choice.
That seems like a pretty critical thing to sidestep.
read ... Sour Poi
Dope Doctor 'Happy' With Marijuana Dispensary Proposal
KGI: Dr. David Barton, who has operated his Hawaiian Pacific Pain and Palliative (fancy word for 'doped up') Care satellite clinic out of the Kauai Design Center in Kapaa for the past five or six years, said he is cautiously optimistic about what legislation may be developed from the recommendations but has noticed that attitudes toward medical marijuana are slowly changing for the better.
“We’re pretty happy, actually,” Barton said. “I think better days are ahead and good people are trying to do good things.” ....
At the crux of the longstanding debate on medical (sic) marijuana is how to provide the nearly 13,000 qualified and licensed patients potheads in Hawaii with the medicine drugs they need crave....
The task force, Au Belatti said, struggled to address a number of specific issues, such as the sale of “edibles,” or food items that (little kiddies love) containing marijuana, including cookies, brownies and candy. Many of these issues, she said, will most likely be addressed as dispensary bills moves through the state Legislature.... (Question: How can we get them started young, so they will keep buying?)
These recommendations also allow medical marijuana sold at dispensaries to be subject to the state’s 4 percent general excise tax, Au Belatti said.... (Thus giving the State an incentive to sell more dope. As a bonus the people will be dopey, dumb, lazy and paranoid--easily manipulated.)
read ... Dope Dealers
Sanford Dole Led Union Cavalry During Civil War
KGI: In 1862, during the American Civil War, support on Kauai for the Union found expression in the formation of a paramilitary unit called the Koloa Volunteers.
By 1863, it could field a 15-man troop of cavalry led by Capt. Sanford Dole armed with antiquated muskets and a sword taken from the Waimea Russian Fort by sugar pioneer Valdemar Knudsen.
Dole would become one of the leaders of the 1893 revolution that deposed Queen Liliuokalani, the president of the provisional government that replaced the monarchy, the first president of the Republic of Hawaii, and the first governor of the Territory of Hawaii....
Kauai was not, however, without its southern sympathizers.
Scotsman Robert C. Wyllie, the foreign minister of the Hawaiian Kingdom and owner of Princeville Sugar Plantation, believed that the South had the right to secede from the United States.
Another southern supporter was Godfrey Wundenberg, Wyllie’s first manager at Princeville Sugar Plantation.
Outspoken in his backing of the South’s cause was Grove Farm Plantation founder and Kauai Circuit Court Judge Herman Widemann.
read ... Civil War
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