Kenoi Must Resign
Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative Secretly Killed
DBEDT: 65,000 New Housing Units Needed in Next 10 Years
Legislative Week in Review: Sex, Drugs, Birth Certificates, and a Place to Hide the Kids from Mom
"Through a Glass Clearly: Predicting the Future in Land Use Takings Law"
Criminal Defense Lawyer Thinks he can Help Kenoi Avoid Prison
HNN: Hawaii News Now has learned that Big Island Prosecutor Mitch Roth has asked the state Attorney General's office to review Kenoi's transactions but so far neither agency has decided to open a formal investigation.
"Any investigator would have to establish circumstantially or through direct evidence that the mayor intended not to repay, that he somehow tried to hide or camouflage these expenses and that's not been the case here," said defense attorney Myles Breiner....
Since taking office in 2009, Kenoi has racked up more than $120,000 on his county purchase card. Nearly all of that was for legitimate business travel but about $9,000 was spent on personal items, such as a $900 night at the Club Evergreen in 2013 and $400 at the Camelot Restaurant & Lounge in 2009....
questions still remain as to how the finance department allowed Kenoi to get away with so much personal spending for so many years....
Can You Handle the Truth? >>> Billy Kenoi helped Pali Shooter
read ... Beat the Rap
Kenoi kept misusing county card despite warnings
SA: Hawaii County finance officials had warned Mayor Billy Kenoi several times that his personal purchases on a county credit card were improper, but the spending practice did not stop until December 2013 when he charged $892 at a Honolulu hostess bar, the finance director says....
when it became a practice rather than the exception, Sako said she and then-Finance Director Nancy Crawford spoke to the mayor.
"Basically, we had some discussions with the mayor about not using it for personal use," Sako said.
When asked about his response to these discussions, Sako replied: "I actually wasn't in the meeting, but I know she (Crawford) talked to him, so I'm not sure."
When asked whether she felt she could not stop the practice, Sako said: "I pretty much left it up to the director to handle." ...
The statements from 2009 to 2015 reflect a pattern of lavish spending for drinks, dining and some luxury hotels and appear to show a pattern of frequent flying in any given month. The mayor admitted spending in excess of $100,000 in trips in six years. The statements show he has flown to Honolulu and other local cities, Washington, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Texas, the Philippines and Japan.
Kenoi has frequented hostess bars in Honolulu, charging $400 one night in 2009 at the Camelot Restaurant and Lounge.
Kenoi has also used his card to pay for his $565 Hawaii Bar Association dues, luxury stays at the Marriott Waikoloa Beach for $469 per night, $280 at the Lava Lava Beach Club and $120 at the Kamuela Big Island Brewhaus.
A 1999 memorandum forbids the purchase of alcohol for consumption by county employees....
2009 Card Statements , 2010 Statements , 2011 Card Statements , 2012 Card Statements , 2013 Card Statements , 2014 Statements , PCard Procedures Oct 2013 Final
read ... So Kenoi was Lying when he said he didn't know it was improper
State Attorney General takes over Criminal Kenoi Investigation
WHT: A state attorney general investigation and an ethics complaint are following this week’s revelations that Mayor Billy Kenoi regularly used a county-issued credit card for personal purchases ranging from a $1,200 surfboard to visits to Honolulu hostess bars.
County Prosecutor Mitch Roth said he and state Attorney General Douglas Chin had discussed the issue Tuesday, and decided that it would be best for Chin to handle the investigation, to make it more independent of the county.
“With all the questions and inquiries and accusations, it just should be as transparent as possible,” Roth said Friday. “An independent review would be better than having another county agency look into it.”
Chin could not be reached on Friday, a state holiday for government workers.
The county’s legislative auditor is also looking into the county’s use of purchasing cards, known as pCards. Auditor Bonnie Nims had said last month the audit is ongoing and expected to wrap up in the next few months. She couldn’t be reached Friday for an update.
And, a Kapaau resident who has previously filed election complaints in a County Council race said he plans to file an ethics complaint next week. Lanric Hyland is a supporter of Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille, who has frequently butted heads with Kenoi.
A very subdued Kenoi, reached Friday afternoon, said he’s cut up his pCard and plans to cooperate with any investigation. He said no one has contacted him from either agency....
On Tuesday, the county released the charge card statements and receipts for Kenoi’s reimbursements over the years. In addition to the Club Evergreen charge, Kenoi had, in September 2009, charged $400 at another Honolulu hostess bar, Camelot Restaurant and Lounge....
In addition, Kenoi on Tuesday paid the county another $7,503.90 in charges and interest attributed to purchases from 2009 to the present that he says were charged in conjunction with official county business. He paid for them in order to err on the side of caution, he said.
Among those payments was $990 to the Sansei Restaurant in Waikoloa, managed by Wille’s 2014 campaign challenger Ron Gonzales. In all, Kenoi had charged $2,387.62 to Sansei over the past four years.
read ... Prison Next
Five Senators Named to Investigate Galuteria
SA: Kim tasked the committee of five senators with reviewing documents and evidence related to Baker's complaint, and recommending to the full Senate whether there is any basis for further action.
"I've always served with transparency, so I plan to cooperate fully with the committee and the chair," Galuteria said.
The special committee members will be Senate Judiciary Chairman Gilbert Keith-Agaran (D, Waihee-Wailuku-Kahului); Ways and Means Chairwoman Jill Tokuda (D, Kailua-Kaneohe); Tourism and International Affairs Chairman Gil Kahele (D, Hilo); Sen. Ron Kouchi (D, Kauai-Niihau); and Sen. Sam Slom (R, Diamond Head-Kahala-Hawaii Kai).
Baker said the city clerk concluded that Galuteria lives with his wife and mother in his mother's apartment at Royal Capitol Plaza on Curtis Street in Kakaako. Baker contends in his complaint that it "defies logic" that the three could be sharing a 548-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment.
Baker's original complaint also noted Galuteria was claiming an owner-occupant property tax exemption for a home he owns in lower Palolo, which Galuteria said was an oversight. Galuteria said he corrected the error on the tax exemption and repaid the city for back property taxes he owed because of the incorrect exemption.
Keith-Agaran, chairman of the special committee, said he does not believe the Senate has created this type of body before. "There's no precedent, so the first thing we've got to do is decide what kind of process we're going to follow."
Earlier this session, the House also responded for what members there believe was the first time in its history to a complaint challenging the residency of one of its own....
read ... Tax Cheat or Liar?
Star-Adv: New Prison Part of Turtle Bay Deal
SA: The governor has released $5 million, set aside but unspent under the administration of former Gov. Neil Abercrombie, to start the planning on a long-needed expansion of jail capacity and the improvement of its deplorable conditions.
That funding will enable the state to solicit proposals to replace the Dillingham Boulevard facility that is infamous for its overcrowding. The official bed count at OCCC stands at 989, but in reality it houses as many as 1,300 inmates.
Nolan Espinda, director of the state Department of Public Safety, favors a replacement facility designed to accommodate 1,500. As much as this state needs to reduce overall incarceration, this sounds like a reasonable adjustment to make for current and anticipated future needs.
What makes the timing fortuitous, of course, is that there are now opportunities to leverage the value of the 16-acre Kalihi site into a redevelopment that can produce a better use for the urban parcel without an excessive cost to taxpayers.
The rail project's alignment follows Dillingham, boosting the potential of transit-oriented development on the OCCC site to yield more affordable housing units for rent and purchase.
And that attraction means there could be significant benefits to a land swap involving this parcel and 15,000 acres of agricultural and conservation lands in Central Oahu. In exchange, a private partner could underwrite the construction of a new Halawa facility, thus saving the state money.
This notion is still alive at the state Capitol, with Senate Bill 284 still moving. That bill, principally about finalizing a deal preserving part of Turtle Bay, includes a call for the state Office of Planning to study the acquisition of agricultural acreage through a land swap.
read ... OCCC plan is progress
Obamacare Offers Money to Community Health Clinics
SA: Hawaii health officials are pushing a bill that could give community health centers nearly $20 million to help thousands of Medicaid patients with chronic conditions improve their health.
House Bill 1161 proposes to take advantage of a 9-to-1 match program for federal money available through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The bill would give health centers the state backing needed to apply for the federal money. The funds would be used to target patients with multiple complex diseases under Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income residents.
Community health centers have pledged to invest $2 million to draw down $18 million in federal dollars to expand so-called Medicaid health homes in which providers coordinate all primary, acute, behavioral health and long-term care services for patients in low-income communities across the islands.
The state would need to invest at least $1 million for administrative costs. The measure is now in the Senate Ways and Means Committee but has yet to receive a hearing....
read ... HB1161
Homeless Drunks Find Loophole at Waikiki Pavilions
SA: ...he encountered about seven homeless campers passed out at Waikiki Beach pavilions edging Kuhio Beach.
"The smell of urine permeated the humid air — and blood from a visible foot wound had been washed into a pool on the ground with a discarded Band-Aid," Howard said.
Inspired by this scene and by his mounting frustration over worsening conditions at the pavilions, Howard created a WordPress blog and YouTube video site and has started posting daily updates with plans to continue until the pavilions regain suitability for public use.
Howard said overall conditions in Waikiki have improved since the city banned sitting and lying on Waikiki sidewalks last year. However, that anti-loitering law doesn't extend to the pavilions or the grassy areas around them. Police may clear pavilions of loiterers only between 2 and 5 a.m., when park-closure laws are in effect. As a result, Howard said, the pavilions have become the last bastion for a small group of homeless people who don't want to move into shelters or accept services....
read ... Bums Outsmart Politicians
Tweekers Jump 150%--Nearly 1% of Workforce
SA: The number of Hawaii workers testing positive for crystal meth, or "ice," rose to 0.9 percent of all those tested in the first quarter from 0.6 percent a year earlier, according to the latest workforce drug testing by Diagnostic Laboratory Services Inc.
Marijuana, the most commonly detected drug in the tests, also was up to 2.5 percent from 2.3 percent in the first quarter of 2014, the data shows. Opiate use was flat at 0.2 percent, while cocaine use dropped to 0.2 percent from 0.3 percent.
read ... About the future
HB888 Illegal to Carry Gun While Drunk
KHON: KHON2 went to the administrator of Honolulu Firearms and Range to ask how a .38-caliber revolver can be shot accidentally.
Cameron Cortez said you would need to pull or “cock” what’s known as the hammer and then pull the trigger to fire. Without pulling on the hammer, you can still fire the weapon, but it would take 10 to 12 pounds of pressure on the trigger to do that.
“In order for you to lift 10 pounds with your finger, that’s how much pressure you would need to pull, you have to exert quite a bit of pressure on the hammer itself to pull it back anyway, so… everything you do on this firearm is intentional,” said Cortez....
There have been several other incidents over the past year in which Honolulu police officers accidentally fired their guns.
Last September, an off-duty officer accidentally fired his gun while inside the restroom at Target in Salt Lake. No one was hurt.
In August, officer Jens Magelssen died after accidentally shooting himself while showing his gun to friends at home.
Just days later, another officer’s gun went off while he was trying to make an arrest in Pearl City....
There is a bill currently moving through the legislature that deals with law enforcement officers who are intoxicated while carrying a weapon.
Sen. Will Espero, D-Ewa Beach, says right now there are issues regarding whether an officer can be given a breath or blood test if it’s suspected that he or she is intoxicated while carrying a gun.
House Bill 888 would change that by making “it a petty misdemeanor for a person to recklessly possess and discharge a loaded firearm in a public place while the person is intoxicated.”
read ... HB888
Greenmail: Usual Suspects Demand Payoffs for Telescope Construction to Continue
KITV: A quieter day at Mauna Kea on Good Friday. There were no arrests on this holiday and no construction was underway on the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Protesters were back again. They did turn away a truck for a company that was to build a fence around the construction site.
Protesters were allowed on the site where they walked around and built an ahu -- a far cry from Thursday when there were arrests.
"The goal now is not to stop the building of this observatory. The goal now is to get all of these observatories off this mountain," said longtime community activist Walter Ritte....
OHA trustee Peter Apo, speaking on behalf of himself, made it clear that, while he respects Ritte, getting rid of the telescopes is not his goal. Apo wants a stand down on construction of the telescope. He's calling on the governor and University of Hawaii President David Lassner to make it happen (pay off OHA).
"By declaring a 30-day moratorium and create a quiet period to which time the governor should assemble the right set of leaders in an attempt to engage in meaningful, not condescending, meaningful conversation payments" said Apo....
Apo wants the state, along with Native Hawaiians, to revisit the management plans of Mauna Kea (And give OHA money)...
Ritte says he met with the governor's chief of staff Mike McCartney, Lassner and the Department of Land and Natural Resources Wednesday night...
The university issued this statement today: "UH welcomes all calls for more dialogue and is actively meeting and addressing the issue at the highest levels." (Translation: "Just Pay OHA already.")
McCartney issued this statement; "We are aware of this situation and are deeply involved in discussions and conversations about this important matter. However, we must respectfully decline to comment at this time to protect the integrity of these discussions and allow productive conversations to continue." (Translation: "We'd like to pay OHA.")
Apo says he will also encourage OHA as a whole to get behind a push for a moratorium and renewed conversations. (Translation: "OHA can't get paid until all 9 are in agreement.")
Read: $50M Rent Demand Letter
Protester: "This is bigger than me." (LOL!)
KGI: Anti-GMO Thug makes best of opportunity for cred
read ... Ritte = Sharpton
Pesticides: Fear Mongering Anyone?
KE: Jan TenBruggencate had posted a commentary on Civil Beat about pesticides, and how much more likely it is that homeowners will be misusing the stuff than agricultural entities, which are actually trained in their application and have machines that can pinpoint their delivery.
This prompted Theresa Menard, a Hawaiian bat expert, to post a link to a CDC study on “Acute Pesticide Illnesses Associated with Off-Target Pesticide Drift from Agricultural Applications: 11 States, 1998–2006.” She noted that it found:
Common factors contributing to drift cases included weather conditions, improper seal of the fumigation site, and applicator carelessness near nontarget areas. Agricultural workers and residents in agricultural regions had the highest rate of pesticide poisoning from drift exposure, and soil fumigations were a major hazard, causing large drift incidents. Our findings highlight areas where interventions to reduce off-target drift could be focused. Drift included off-target movement of pesticide spray, volatiles, and contaminated dust.
So I checked out the report, which was quite interesting, especially its conclusion, which Theresa apparently missed:
These study findings suggest that the incidence of acute illness from off-target pesticide drift exposure was relatively low during 1998–2006 and that most cases presented with low-severity illness.
Aerial applications were the most frequent method associated with drift events, and soil fumigations were a major cause of large drift events.
Granted, soil fumigation could cause drift from Hawaii fields. But when you consider that they aren't doing aerial applications here, and acute illnesses from drift incidences were relatively low even in places where they are doing aerial spraying, how likely is it that westside residents truly are getting sick and dying from the pesticides used there? Especially when there hasn't been even one case of worker pesticide poisoning in those fields.
Fear mongering, anyone?
Meanwhile, the state has posted data on all the restricted use pesticides sold in each county. Civil Beat took credit for pushing the state to comply with Act 105, without also noting that the data is essentially meaningless, as those of us who opposed this time-wasting bill had predicted.
But Kauai folks should take some comfort in the fact that a total of 15,949 pounds were sold in their county — how did Councilman Gary Hooser ever come up with his claim that the seed companies alone were using 18 tons? — compared to 138,632 pounds on the Big Island, 334,097 in Maui County and 906,890 on Oahu. And the bulk of it was chlorine, used in water and sewage treatment facilities.
SA: Punahou Children Spout Anti-GMO Ignorance
read ... Fear Mongering
DLNR Leader Must Embrace the Eco Religion
Boylan: "Enhance, protect, conserve and manage Hawaii’s unique and limited natural, cultural and historic resources held in public trust for current and future generations of the people of Hawaii nei, and its visitors, in partnership with others from the public and private sectors.”
Aside from the run-on sentence, state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ mission statement sounds like it’s from the book of Genesis: “Enhance, protect, conserve and manage” for generations unto infinity....
Says one former DLNR employee: “For its first 50 years, DLNR’s task was to develop land and water for development. We’re past that. The role of the modern-era DLNR is stewardship of land and water.
“A lot of passionate people look to DLNR; people for fishing in an area, people opposed to fishing in the same area, people for development, people opposed to it. Some have short-term, self-interested motives.”
Dealing with absolutists hasn’t been easy for either the department or the people who’ve led it. No modern DLNR chair has survived more than one term since Bill Paty....
“It may be the hardest job in the state,” says Robert Harris, former executive director of Sierra Club Hawaii. “The chair has to say yes to the good and no to the bad. His job extends from development to conservation, and he has to persuade representatives of both to buy into his decision.” ...
So, if not Ching, who? All agree it should be a good communicator with knowledge of DLNR’s varied roles. Foley would bring back Bill Aila, Gov. Abercrombie’s appointee; Harris mentions Matthew Fox of The Nature Conservancy, Lea Hong of The Trust for Public Land, Josh Stanbro of Hawaii Community Foundation or Aulani Wilhelm of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
How about a certain someone straight out of the book of Genesis?
Read it if you dare: Crichton: Environmentalism is a religion
read ... DLNR Director’s Job Has Changed
LA Times: Giant Golf Ball a $2.2B Hole in Hawaii Anti-Missile Defense
LAT: If North Korea launched a sneak attack, the Sea-Based X-Band Radar — SBX for short — would spot the incoming missiles, track them through space and guide U.S. rocket-interceptors to destroy them.
Crucially, the system would be able to distinguish between actual missiles and decoys.
SBX “represents a capability that is unmatched,” the director of the Missile Defense Agency told a Senate subcommittee in 2007.
In reality, the giant floating radar has been a $2.2-billion flop, a Los Angeles Times investigation found.
Although it can powerfully magnify distant objects, its field of vision is so narrow that it would be of little use against what experts consider the likeliest attack: a stream of missiles interspersed with decoys.
SBX was supposed to be operational by 2005. Instead, it spends most of the year mothballed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
The project not only wasted taxpayer money but left a hole in the nation’s defenses. The money spent on it could have gone toward land-based radars with a greater capability to track long-range missiles, according to experts who studied the issue.
read ... The LA Times
Kamehameha Withholding Evidence Against Alleged Child Molester ex-Teacher
SA: State law requires employees or officers of public and private schools to immediately report to police or the state Department of Human Services if they have reason to believe that child abuse has occurred or may occur in the reasonably forseeable future.
Attorney Michael Green represents the students whose privacy Alisna is charged with violating and the students' parents. He says school officials never informed the students that they may have been crime victims and lied to the student body when announcing Alisna's departure from the school. He said school officials even encouraged students to maintain contact with Alisna.
Green said Kamehameha Schools officials may have allowed Alisna to destroy evidence of more victims when they let him clear out his apartment before police had the chance to search it.
read ... Destroyed Evidence?
Default on Student Loan, Lose Professional License
ABC: According to a list from the National Consumer Law Center, 22 states including Hawaii have laws that enable suspension of state licenses issued to student loan defaulters. The professions and licenses affected by suspensions vary by state and cover a wide range of earning potential, but some of them include doctors, social workers, barbers, transportation professionals and lawyers — the lists can be quite extensive. If your state is on the list and you’re at risk of defaulting, you might want to research the details:
read ... Hawaii
Hawaii’s State Senate passes Armenian Genocide resolution
PA: Hawaii’s State Senate unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide and declaring April 24 as a day of remembrance and commemoration of the Armenian Genocide, according to Asbarez.
Hawaii State Senators who introduced the bill, including Suzanne Chun Oakland, Donovan Dela Cruz, Will Espero, Breene Harimoto, Les Ihara Jr., Lorraine Inouye, and Russel Ruderman, were present with Armenian American community member Artur Artenyan at the signing of the resolution...
Gone: Takai, Cabanilla Inside Azerbaijan’s Bizarre Hawaii Lobbying Push
read ... Armenia
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