Pono Choices: Proposed Keiki Caucus Bills Would Undermine Parental Rights
UH Board of Regents Nominees Sent to Ige
Staff of Bankrupt, Nepotistic Charter School to be Paid Thru End of Month
Hawaii Defense Foundation Urges Supreme Court to Take Up San Francisco Gun Control Case
OHA Hires Design Team to Develop Kakaako Makai Plan
Leeward Coast Third in Homelessness
Hawaii Obamacare exchange projected to be financially viable — in 2022
Hospital Partnership: Hard to Buy HGEA Lies
PBN: Another big player is the Hawaii Government Employees Association, which represents employees at the state-owned hospitals. Executive Director Randy Perreira sees the proposed deal as more of an acquisition by HPH than a partnership.
Perreira is doing what every union official tries to do — protect his membership.
However, it's important to note that Hawaii Pacific Health is heavily unionized. It has contracts with the Hawaii Nurses Association, United Public Workers, International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Hawaii Teamsters Local 996. If the partnership goes through, HHSC employees likely would still be members of unions, just not the HGEA.
Given that fact, we find it hard to buy Perreira's contention that unionized hospital workers would be less served under a public-private partnership than they are now.
read ... Hard to Buy HGEA Lies
Hawaii state-owned hospitals request $267M for next two years
PBN: The Hawaii Health Systems Corp. presented its biennium general fund subsidy request of $267 million at a legislative informational briefing Wednesday, leaving some lawmakers speechless, and others concerned about how the state-owned hospital system's request inflated so rapidly.
The system, which oversees 13 hospitals statewide, is requesting $117 million for the 2016 fiscal year that starts July 1, and about $150 million for the 2017 fiscal year.
According to the system's testimony, its shortfall will continue to grow over the next two years because of collective bargaining underfunding, (thanks, Neil) a fringe benefit rate increase of 10 percent, (thanks, Neil) and a loss of revenue from a federally mandated introduction of a new coding standard called ICD-10 (thanks, Obama).
The statewide public hospital system needs $48 million in emergency appropriation for the current fiscal year on top of an already appropriated $82 million. The $48 million would cover underfunded collective bargaining pay raises the past two fiscal years, HHSC CFO Edward Chu said....
Dr. Linda Rosen, HHSC CEO, explained that the increase for FY 2016 is due to $80 million needed for collective bargaining costs, $35 million for fringe benefits, and $30 for revenue loss from the new coding standard. She also said that the system is losing $12 in state funding for collective bargaining this June for FY 2016....
Luke, doing her best to keep flacking for the HGEA, responded by calling the system's request for collective bargaining an "excuse." She also raised a concern about the budget request and its relation to the recent announcement that the Maui Region hospitals are seeking to enter a public-private partnership with Hawaii Pacific Health, a move that requires Legislative approval.
"I hope this is not an effort for HHSC to put the Legislature in the position that we have no choice but to privatize Maui," she said.... (Go ahead, make my day.)
The system began a contingency plan last fall that included attrition savings, hiring freezes, eliminating 109 vacant positions, and a Reduction in Force by 33 employees. In addition, Maui Memorial Medical Center closed its adolescent psychiatric unit.
A decrease in federal Medicare reimbursements has also been a considerable financial burden for the public hospitals, as 65 percent of the system's revenue comes from Medicare and Medicaid supplemental plans, according to Chu.
read ... Price of HGEA
New PUC Docket to Examine Deferring HECO-NextEra Buyout
IM: The Public Utilities Commission Daily Activity Report for January 14, 2015 states that a new regulatory docket has been opened.
Docket 2015 -0009 is titled, “Application for commission action, petition for declaratory order, and/or petition for rulemaking to fulfill the requirements of the commission's orders and inclinations on the future of Hawaii's electric utilities, etc.” The document was filed by the Sierra Club, Blue Planet and Solar Industry.
The Daily Activity Report did not list the other Motion filed by the community groups and individuals....
read ... New Docket
OHA, State Officials Discussing Kakaako Makai Land Swap
Borreca: Former Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who offered the deal, said the land was worth $200 million and OHA leaders agreed, even though they acknowledged later (changed their story and claimed) that without changing a law forbidding high-rise residential development, the land was worth much less. (And some people actually believed them, LOL!)
"As you know, we had complained that we didn't think the settlement was worth $200 million during the last (legislative) session. We didn't think so and we still don't think so," Apo said in an interview this week.
Adding that some state officials want to talk to OHA about swapping the land for other parcels that would be more developable, Apo said the OHA sentiment is to stay put.
"The caveat to all that is our emotional commitment to stay and stay the course so we can try to create a place that everyone can be proud of," Apo said.
"We really want the opportunity to demonstrate what good planning looks like." (Translation: I want to waste Trust money on the contractors drawing the 'master plan', then abandon it.)
That picture is being drawn by a team of architects, business consultants, researchers and community specialists....
OHA, however, faces another hurdle in amending the state law controlling Kakaako Makai develop-ment because two of its big legislative supporters are out of office: former Sens. Clayton Hee and Malama Solomon.
Any change to the Kakaako land is controversial; Apo acknowledged that just getting something rammed through the Legislature will not work, so instead OHA has to develop some real consensus.
That will be a big hurdle — but without getting that community buy-in, no number of million-dollar studies or plans will be enough for OHA to see any money flow from the land.
Related: OHA Hires Design Team to Develop Kakaako Makai Plan
read ... OHA's best-laid plans for Kakaako might still go awry
AP, NYT, Drudge Suddenly Feature OHA's Push for Fake Indian Tribe
AP: Rodenhurst and other Hawaiian nationalists who long for a return to the days when the islands were ruled by royal families are increasingly dominating the debate about the future of the islands' indigenous people. And their insistence on someday restoring the kingdom threatens to overshadow a federal proposal that could, after years of lobbying by advocates, offer Native Hawaiians some of the same privileges that have long been available to other native groups.
Now, the U.S. government is considering extending to Native Hawaiians the same type of tribal recognition that many American Indian tribes have had for generations, potentially giving special tribal status to more than 200 programs (which already exist) and securing (from non-existent legal challenges) lots of federal money, including nearly $14 million for health care, $32 million for education and $10 million for housing (which is federal money already coming in to OHA cronies, not new money). The issue has reawakened distrust between moderates who generally support the idea and absolutists who want to see the kingdom rebuilt, even if it means chasing an all-but-unattainable goal - dissolving the state of Hawaii....
Resentment over the annexation is nothing new among Native Hawaiians, but it resurfaced in June, when the Department of Interior began considering extending tribal status, which moderates believe is a far more realistic goal than somehow reversing Hawaiian statehood.
"People will criticize that federal recognition is not the end-all, be-all for Hawaii's population, but it is what I believe is achievable in my lifetime," said Michelle Kauhane, president and CEO of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement....
The Native Hawaiian Roll Commission collected more than 125,000 20,000 names of people (and stole another 105,000 from other lists) eligible to elect leaders and eventually draft a constitution.
Former Hawaii Gov. John Waihee, a grave-robbing crook, is chairman of the commission. He said a new tribal government could negotiate with the U.S. to return military and other lands to Native Hawaiians. (Reality: Tribes place all their land under federal BIA control.)
"This is a very important milestone in protecting what we have," Waihee said. If tribal recognition were "as bad as some people say it is, why hasn't anyone in the history of the United States ever given it up? What happens is, most people are trying to get it."
The latest tribe to obtain federal recognition was the Shinnecock Nation of New York in 2010, and there are now 289 groups seeking similar recognition, said Jessica Kershaw, spokeswoman for the Department of the Interior.
The department is currently reviewing public comments about Hawaiian recognition, a process expected to take several months.
Note: This article covers no actual event, only a series of interviews, yet it was picked up by the New York Times and the Drudge Report. Look what has happened in the last few days....
read ... Suddenly Sovereignty--or Just a Blip?
OHA trains its board members on ethics and on the Sunshine Law
DN: Most likely these trainings were precipitated by this OIP finding reported by West Hawaii Today:
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs violated the state Sunshine Law when trustees corresponded by telephone and email before sending a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry rescinding an earlier letter by Chief Executive Officer Kamanaopono Crabbe.
Then the board violated the law again when it refused to allow public comment before conducting a closed-door session discussing Crabbe’s conduct.
That’s the finding of the state Office of Information Practices in a Nov. 7 opinion responding to a complaint by six Hawaii residents.
Related: Lawsuit: OHA Uses Corporations to Sidestep Open Meetings Law, Loot Assets, Line Cronies' Pockets
read ... OHA to train its board members on ethics and on the Sunshine Law
Kidani: Massive Tax Hike to Fund DoE Should be Considered
SA: The DOE says it needs approximately $19 million in emergency funding from the Legislature this year to cover shortfalls in its school lunch and bus transportation programs or, officials warned, services would be cut.
House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke (D, Punchbowl-Pauoa-Nuuanu) questioned why the department wouldn't be able to find other programs or services to cut before cutting the bus and lunch programs.
"Unless you folks look internally and see what programs you can either do without or reduce, we'll continue to face this problem," she said.
On the other hand, Sen. Michelle Kidani (D, Mililani-Waikele-Kunia), chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, proposed the idea of creating dedicated funding for the DOE, which educates 175,500 public school students.
"I know no one wants to talk about increasing taxes, but I think everything should be on the table," she said.
read ... On The Table
Cancer Center Will Be Out of Money in Two Years Unless Alternative to Tobacco Tax Revenues is Found
SA: Lawmakers blasted the University of Hawaii for lax oversight of the struggling Cancer Center, which officials have cautioned will run out of money in two years, in a wide-ranging budget hearing Thursday at the state Capitol.
The Cancer Center, a research unit of UH-Manoa, ended last year with a nearly $10 million deficit and is draining its reserves to stay afloat. UH President David Lassner told members of the House Finance and Senate Ways and Means committees that the university isn't sure what will happen if the reserves are depleted.
"You can sustain yourself for two more years … then what happens after that?" Senate President Donna Mercado Kim asked UH President David Lassner.
"We don't have that answer here today," he said. "It is not clear — without support from some source — that Hawaii can maintain a (National Cancer Institute-designated) cancer center."
The center is one of 68 federally designated centers in the country, and its researchers attract about $20 million a year in federal research grants. But UH says the center is running in the red because of an outdated business plan that assumed UH's share of the state cigarette tax would remain steady at close to $20 million a year to fund operations at the center.
As fewer people smoke, cigarette tax revenues have declined annually. Meanwhile, the recent expansion of the center's Kakaako facility has left the center with an $8 million annual mortgage payment that it can't afford....
Dr. Jerris Hedges, who was named interim director of the center in November, said he's looking at ways to cut costs by "right-sizing operations" and consolidating core functions of the center and the medical school, which share a campus. He said the center also is working with its community hospital partners to explore ways to generate additional revenue through clinical trials.
Lawmakers also criticized the university for not being more proactive in seeking additional revenue streams in such areas as commercializing inventions, licensing logo wear and attracting more foreign students, who pay higher tuition rates.
"I'm certainly concerned about what the university is doing overall to maximize your ability to raise funds," Kim said, "instead of just coming to the Legislature every year and saying, ‘We need more money.'"
Related: UH official offers three solutions to Cancer Center financial crisis Without Tax Hike
read ... This is a Push for E-Cig Taxes
Hotel tax revenue is County Councils' 'top priority'
KGI: Officials representing four of the state’s five counties say they will come together to push for five separate bills when the state Legislature convenes next week.
Those bills, outlined in a package jointly backed by the Kauai County Council, Honolulu City Council, Hawaii County Council, and Maui County Council, range from assisting domestic violence victims to funding a primary care training program for the state’s public health care provider, Hawaii Health Systems Corporation.
But what lawmakers and county officials agree will be a hot-button issue in the Legislature is one key topic in the package: garnering a larger share of the state transient accommodations tax. The tax is levied on the gross rental income of short-term accommodation operators in the state and divided among all four counties proportionally....
Rep. Daynette “Dee” Morikawa, D, Koloa-Niihau agreed. She said county officials may find themselves in a hard-pressed position if they push for more TAT money....
Rep. Derek Kawakami, Wailua-Hanalei, said he supports the collective effort of the counties to regain their full share of the tax revenues and will “help to educate some of the other representatives on the importance and the historic partnership that the state has had with the counties as far as the allocation of the TAT.” ....
MN: Conservative approach is best with new revenue projection for the state
read ... Top Priority
GMO faces likely stalemate in state Legislature thanks to Idiot Ruderman
HTH: The new chairmen of the House and Senate agriculture committees are both from the Big Island, but their stance on genetically modified crops couldn’t be more different.
The strong positions Senate Agriculture Chairman Russell Ruderman and House Agriculture Chairman Clift Tsuji have taken on each side of GMO laws almost guarantee a stalemate on issues such as state pre-emption of county farming regulations, counties’ home-rule rights and just about anything dealing with GMO limits or labeling when the state Legislature convenes for its regular session Wednesday.
Tsuji, D-Hilo, is returning to the leadership post following a short absence after a long stint chairing the House Agriculture Committee. In 2010, national GMO advocacy group Biotechnology Industry Organization named him, along with former House Speaker Calvin Say, co-legislator of the year for their support of agriculture bioscience.
Ruderman, D-Puna, Ka‘u, is beginning his first term as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. Ruderman owns the Island Naturals chain of natural food stores and strongly supports GMO labeling and counties’ home-rule rights in the area of GMO regulation.
Committee chairmen have broad powers in the state Legislature to schedule or not schedule bills for hearings. But components of bills can, and often do, get attached to other bills during end-of-session negotiations in conference committees.
read ... GMO faces likely stalemate in state Legislature
Sex Trafficking Measures To Be Proposed This Session
CB: The Anti-Trafficking Task Force, comprised of lawmakers and anti-tracking activists, is pushing what would be the first sex trafficking law aimed specifically at pimps.
Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland and Rep. John Mizuno, who serve on the task force, are expected to introduce a handful of bills that could bolster sex trafficking prosecutions.
Currently, there is no law in Hawaii that addresses sex trafficking. Instead, individuals who traffic women are prosecuted under the “promoting prostitution” statute in Hawaii.
read ... Trafficking
Health Department Flouts Law Calling for Online Access to Care Home Reports
CB: Hawaii's program remains far from implementation despite an 18-month lead time to meet the Jan. 1 deadline to make inspection reports available online....
The department’s annual report to the Legislature, filed in December, suggests the department doesn’t understand when the deadline was.
In a description updating lawmakers on Act 213, the report says the law requires the department to start posting the inspection reports online “beginning July, 2015.”
Another sign of impending delay came last September during a meeting of the Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs.
Keith Ridley, a board member and head of the department’s Office of Health Care Assurance, which oversee the vast majority of the state’s long-term care facilities, said at the meeting that the posting of the inspection reports “will depend on the priorities of the new governor to clarify the language relating to what has to be posted and the timing of the postings,” according to the meeting minutes....
SA: Unpaid caregivers need training
read ... Access?
Electrocution Hazard: Solar Panels Slow Firefighters Down
KHON: Solar panels save energy, but is there a hidden danger behind them?
Honolulu firefighters were called to Kalihi after some solar panels caught fire Thursday morning.
It happened at around 9:30 a.m. at Hagadone Printing on Puuhale Road. Workers were evacuated as firefighters extinguished the flames.
Fire officials say the fire was relatively small, only six inches high, but crews were forced to take extra precautions.
“We really want to make sure that the scene is safe and we try to turn off all inverters and make sure electricity is shut off before we start to attack a fire like this,” said Capt. Curtis Aiwohi. “It takes a while, but we want to cover all the bases before we start putting our guys in harm’s way.”
Since solar panels are always generating electricity, firefighters proceed with caution because they don’t want to get electrocuted. Aiwohi says it’s helpful if homeowners know exactly where their power panels are, so that step is taken care of quickly.
In this case, firefighters put out the flames 13 minutes after they got there.
read ... Solar Fire Hazard
Fire union says city breaking contract, wasting tax money
HNN: The firefighters union said Honolulu Fire Chief Manuel Neves is costing taxpayers more money and creating hardships for firefighters and their families by changing the way the fire department allows firefighters to volunteer and fill-in for co-workers who are facing family health crises.
It's one of a half dozen issues over which the firefighters union has filed complaints with the Hawaii Labor Relations Board. The union's leaders unanimously approved a "no confidence" vote in the fire chief last March....
"For whatever reason, the fire chief is purposely making a decision to restrict our own firefighters from helping each other," said Bobby Lee, president of the Hawaii Firefighters Association, the statewide union of firefighters.
Lee said the union has filed a complaint with the state labor board.
Taxpayers should be upset, Lee added, because the new policy means firefighters are being paid overtime to cover Peter's shifts, when for years they were able to volunteer to fill-in for each other, a practice Lee said was previously allowed on Oahu, and is currently allowed in neighbor island counties and under their contract.
"This particular decision, no question, is costing taxpayers more money," Lee said.
HFD Battalion Chief Terry Seelig, speaking for the HFD administration, said, "There's no change, no restrictions in doing substitution. It just has to be by the policy which is to have someone in the same capacity."
read ... Fire union says city breaking contract, wasting tax money
Homosexual Prostitute Tells His Story
HI: Doug Upp remembers the first time he had sex for money. It was in the early 1990s, and he was skating around Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. A van started following him, and the driver asked if he needed a ride. He declined.
“So I went and skated to the next corner, and there he is again,” says Upp. The man asked if Upp was sure that he didn’t want a ride.
“He’s all, ‘Are you sure? I’ll give you money.’ And I was like, ‘Money? What, you owe me money?” explains Upp. “‘For what?’”
The man replied that he wanted to perform oral sex on Upp, who agreed and got in the van. He’s been dabbling in the sex industry ever since.
HI: Hawaii: sex trafficking hub of the Pacific
read ... About Homosexuality
Snowden to return to Hawaii — via video link
SA: The event will be at the Hawaii Convention Center from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m Feb 14. Tickets are $5, and available by phone at 808-522-5906 or email to office@acluhawaii.org or mail to P.O. Box 3410, Honolulu, HI 96801.
The forum is also expected to be simulcast live on Olelo Community Television and other community media stations statewide.
The event will be at the Hawaii Convention Center from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $5, and available by phone at 808-522-5906 or email to office@acluhawaii.org or mail to P.O. Box 3410, Honolulu, HI 96801.
read ... Snowden
Traces of pesticides found in water systems
KHON: Trace levels of the chemical dieldrin were detected in the Honolulu Board of Water Supply Pearl City Shaft. The levels of dieldrin found were well below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lifetime potential cancer risk level for dieldrin in drinking water.
In addition, trace levels of bromacil were recently detected in water samples collected at the Board of Water Supply’s Waialua Wells Pump 1. Hawaii Department of Health (DOH) officials assure consumers that the water is safe to drink as levels were well below the EPA Lifetime Health Advisory Level for drinking water, and bromacil is filtered out through Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) treatment before being delivered to drinking water supplies.
read ... Traces
State proposes 473% rent hike at Kalaeloa Airport
HNN: Tenants at the Kalaeloa Airport said they're being driven out by soaring rents and heavy-handed management policies.
Since the U.S. Navy handed over Kalaeloa to the state nearly 16 years ago, the state's No. 2 airport has been home to dozens of commuter planes, flight schools and corporate aircraft.
But the state is proposing to quadruple rents for many, forcing the departure of several businesses.
"We've already lost about five aircraft off the airfield just in the last six months. Guys just selling their stuff and leaving," said Brad Hayes, director of the Naval Air Museum Barbers Point.
Added longtime tenant Tony Ferrara: "They don't want general aviation. They are not here to make general aviation thrive. They are not assisting general aviation in any sense of the word," he said.
Ferrara has housed his Commander 112A aircraft at Kalaeloa for more than a decade, paying $380 a month in rent. Now the state wants to charge him $1,800 a month.
read ... Rent Hike
DLNR Socks Boaters With New Insurance Requirements
WHT: The state Department of Land and Natural Resources will require vessels using temporary moorings to carry insurance for accidents and groundings, following the wreck of the Hawaii Aloha earlier this month.
The state funded the $150,000 contract with Sea Engineering Inc. for the salvage and debris removal of the 75-foot cement sailboat after it capsized in a storm and washed ashore near the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai on Jan. 3. The sailing ketch, owned by YWAM Ships and loaded with supplies for a humanitarian mission, was not covered for the work under its insurance policy. One sailor, 24-year-old Aaron Bremner, was lost at sea in the accident.
Ed Underwood, administrator for the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation, said the policy — which will be effective immediately — is needed to protect Hawaii state taxpayers. Under the rule, the current $500,000 general liability insurance requirement for long term moorage will be extended to boats staying even for a few days. Underwood estimated the cost of the insurance to run around a few hundred dollars a year.
read ... Another Expense
Molokai Group Seeks Control of Fishing Grounds
MN: Growing tension between Molokai residents and outside fishermen is all the more reason for the island to adopt a community-based management plan sooner rather than later, one group says.
Founded in 1993, Hui Malama o Mo'omomi manages the north shore of Molokai by coordinating beach cleanups, hosting educational groups, organizing use of the beach's two pavilions, planting low-growing plants to control erosion runoff and lobbying the state Legislature for initiatives to "protect our aina."
For more than two decades, the group has sought to designate all the marine waters up to 1 mile off the northwest coast of the island, from 'Ilio Point on the west to Kaholaiki Bay on the east, as a community-based subsistence management area.
MN: Ellison’s Lanai plans could double isle’s population in 20 years
read ... Molokai
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