HS Senior Launches pro-Telescope Petition
Stewardship by UH to protect Maunakea for future generations
Final Act 221: Hoku Plant Cut Up, Pieces Auctioned off
Small Business Tax Index -- Hawaii 47th
HPD Accreditation Requirements? $80 to Find Out
Kauai Council Calls for ‘Home Rule’ on Marijuana Dispensaries
Forbes Worst States for Taxes: Hawaii 31st
Public input sought on school calendar
Hawaii State Auditor Presents 2014 Annual Report
HAWSCT Clarifies Joinder Of Indispensable Parties, Timely Appeals
Chief Justice Appoints Dyan M. Medeiros as Oahu District Family Court Judge
Kenoi a Dead Politician Walking
Bob Jones: A couple of citizens’ letters to Hawaii Tribune-Herald newspaper nicely sum up the two issues exactly the way I see them as a 52-year resident of Hawaii, a 60-year journalist and (I think) a man of some common sense.
Ray Chaikin of Waimea said of Kenoi: “If you elect to stay, you would have virtually no opportunity to serve the county in any meaningful way because you would be instead focused on defending yourself from a barrage of folks crying for impeachment.”
That’s hard to refute. I suspect an audit of every Kenoi expense while traveling will be extremely troubling to his constituency and maybe even criminal. And his past police record says he’s been a man of bad behavior problems — even as he has reconfigured himself as a smart, funny man of the people with a law degree.
But you practically have to be a condemned man on death row not to have a personal credit card these days. You have to be demented to use a government credit card to pay a huge bill at a club known for girls who drink “tea” with you at $20 a shot. Or to buy yourself a surfboard and a bike.
No, he’s permanently damaged goods. Depending on the audit results, he could be doing jail time. Whatever, he’s got his hands too full of personal crises to be trusted to give full attention to the many needs of this island with its distinctive geographic and demographic mixes.
read ... Dead Politician Walking
Kenoi Silent After Being Caught Double Dipping
HNN: Back in February 2012, Big Island Mayor Bill Kenoi traveled to Honolulu to visit the state Legislature and to meet with the Philippines Consul General.
He received a $180 advance, or per diem, to cover his meals and other incidental costs. But during the same trip, he also charged $160 on his county credit card, or pCard, for meals and drinks at the Shinsho Tei restaurant in Nuuanu.
A Hawaii News Now analysis of more than 140 pages of Kenoi's travel and credit card records shows that the mayor collected more than $4,000 in per diems on trips that he also used his pCard to pay his restaurant tabs. The practice of getting money from two sources to pay for the same thing is often called double dipping.
"Then that would be a concern because that would mean the traveler is being reimbursed twice, or allowed to have money twice for the same purchase," said former state Auditor Marion Higa.
Here are some other examples from Kenoi's records:
-- In February 2013, he charged $160 on his pCard at the Tsunami restaurant on King Street while receiving a $100 per diem.
-- While to Washington, D.C. in 2011, he spent $484 at Clyde's Gallery Place restaurant, while receiving a $600 per diem for the trip.
-- And in June 2013, the mayor charged $300 on his pCard at the Tsukuneya restaurant on University Avenue, even though he received a $90 per diem from the county.
When asked about the per diems, a spokesman for the mayor had no response....
Higa says that because the questionable use of the credit card occurred for so long, she questions whether the county had the correct internal controls in place.
"Is anyone checking or looking at what was advanced versus what was claimed," said Higa....
HTH: Kenoi pays back another $2,000; Embattled mayor mixes pCard use with politicking
read ... Kenoi Caught Again
Expenses for Mayor Billy Kenoi did not come with receipts
KHON: It all started with questions about a nearly $900 tab at a Honolulu hostess bar, questions that have now led to an investigation by the state attorney general.
The mayor’s spokesman told Always Investigating Wednesday that besides e-mailed itineraries for flights, hotels or rental cars, there are no receipts for any of Kenoi’s pCard spending as mayor.
The county pCard policy requires cardholders to document all purchases....
There are more than 230 others in Hawaii County who also have pCards.
One name jumps out on the list because she’s the mayor’s sister: Mary Kenoi-Okajima. She’s a planner in the county Office of Aging, but she holds a pCard with a credit limit as high as many department heads: $5,000.
There are some upscale hotels on Kenoi-Okajima’s statements, but (proven liars at) the mayor’s office says (claims) those were either reimbursed by the state or booked for someone else....
Liquor Control director Gerald Takase...said, “The feds kind of require the states and the counties to monitor it for them, so a lot of our travel spent, well the mainland travel anyway, is to keep abreast of what’s new on the federal level.”
Takase says trips to places like Las Vegas, Virginia, San Antonio and California help them learn how other counties are tackling new fads like powdered alcohol or controlling legalized marijuana in case that ever becomes Hawaii law too....
HTH: Unlike Kenoi, Department heads follow P-Card Rules
read ... Expenses
Maui News: Kenoi's Sense of Entitlement 'Cannot be Tolerated in Public Official'
MN: ...it is hard to understand how Kenoi could have been confused about using his pCard twice to pay bar tabs at Honolulu hostess bars. Then, of course, it's hard to see how he could consider purchasing a $1,200 surfboard a public expenditure - but he put that on his pCard, too.
It is obvious that Kenoi just got into the habit of using the Hawaii County card as his own personal credit card. The use (and abuse) of the card is so brazen that it exposes a sense of entitlement that cannot be tolerated in a public official.
The scandal has surely derailed a bright political future. It will be interesting to see if the attorney general's investigation determines his actions warrant criminal charges.
read ... Kenoi Intolerable
Anti-Telescope Protesters Opportunistic, Self-Righteous
SA: The recent wave of TMT opposition has gained momentum in "a superficial way," he said, with opportunistic sovereignty activists using the $1.4 billion telescope as an easy target in a larger battle.
"It's a lot easier to attack the TMT than a new hotel in Waikiki, I guess," he said....
Eighty percent of that telescope lease money will go to the Office of Mauna Kea Management to safeguard the mountain and its cultural treasures, he said, while the remaining 20 percent will go to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
As for the education funds, those are already flowing, he said. They were recently distributed to more than 30 classrooms across the island. The Hawai‘i Community Foundation has also distributed $500,000 in science, technology, engineering and math learning grants to Hawaii island schools and nonprofits....
Coleman said astronomy helps diversify Hawaii's economy and generates more than $90 million a year, a high-tech, low-impact sector providing good jobs. The TMT project, he said, will ensure that Hawaii remains the premier locale for astronomy research for 50 years....
"Our alii would have said it was crazy (to block the TMT). They would have said to take advantage of this opportunity," he said. "To move into the modern world gives honor to our ancestors."
For Maui resident Bronson Kaahui, the uproar over the TMT telescope is a source of great frustration.
"I find it irritating," he said, "because if they're going to spend this much energy and focus on something, it should be for something that matters, such as the DHHL (Department of Hawaiian Home Lands) wait list and getting people a piece of land."
Kaahui, 29, is a former Libertarian Party state Senate candidate from West Maui who is a science advocate and outspoken critic of the anti-GMO movement. He said it's ironic that most Native Hawaiians are Christians, yet they are leaning hard on the ancient Hawaiian religion to support the sacredness of the mountaintop....
Kaahui said the anti-TMT movement is being driven by a desire for the social benefits derived from supporting a cause — the feeling of self-righteousness, social networking and sense of purpose. It's the idea of being part of something, he said....
read ... Protesters
Before Rail and GMOs, There Was the Jones Act
CB: In some ways, the Jones Act has clearly failed. In the 1940s, the U.S. built the vast majority of the world’s big vessels. Today, it is an also-ran.
One clear indicator of the rise of the world’s current shipbuilding leaders — and of the failure to keep the U.S. competitive in the field — is embedded in the names of America’s competition. The world’s largest shipbuilder is Hyundai Heavy Industries Co, while its competition includes Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Yes, Hyundai, Daewoo and Samsung; three iconic industrial or tech companies.
Collectively, South Korea, Japan and China produce more than 90 percent of large-scale non-military vessels every year, according to data assembled by Martin Stopford, a British economist who has spent decades studying the maritime economy.
Most of the remaining major shipyards in the United States are building for the military, leaving a handful to construct the largest Jones Act vessels. For many years, those shipyards produced a couple of large merchant vessels annually, leading to supply bottlenecks. There are many signs their workflow is speeding up after hitting its nadir, thanks to America’s shale oil boom. (A 40-year-old law that bans most U.S. oil exports guarantees that Jones Act vessels will move it between American ports.)
But that doesn’t mean the U.S. is returning to competitiveness in the global market. International maritime consultants Drewry Maritime Research recently highlighted that two 850-foot container ships scheduled for delivery to Matson Navigation Inc. from Aker Philadelphia Shipyard in 2018 will cost $209 million each; a comparable ship built in Japan, South Korea or China can cost $50 million or less. The lower prices, shipping industry experts and economists told Civil Beat, are due to the massive scale of production or substantially lower salaries and environmental standards.
“I don’t know of anyone who would really argue that by building ships in the U.S., we are saving money,” said Sumner La Croix, a University of Hawaii economist who has worked as a consultant to Young Brothers, the company that dominates Hawaii’s interisland trade.
La Croix said that if freight companies could purchase international vessels at a fraction of the price, they would likely pass on the cost benefits in a heavily regulated industry like ocean transport. This could eventually result in lower prices for shippers and, ultimately, customers who purchase goods in Hawaii.
read ... Jones Act
Senators Grill Water Board Nominee, Delay Decision
CB: The 83-year-old former sugar company executive has been nominated by Gov. David Ige to serve a four-year term on the state Water Commission, which handles disputes over water use. Balfour previously served on the panel from 2009 to 2014.
Balfour’s nomination was one of several considered Wednesday at the Capitol, but it was the most contentious.
Nearly 3,500 people signed a petition opposing Balfour’s nomination. Balfour spent decades working for American Factors (AMFAC), one of the Big Five commercial agriculture companies, and critics say he’s biased in favor of corporate interests.
But only a few of those opponents showed up to testify in person Wednesday, in contrast to the confirmation hearing for Carleton Ching last month, which resulted in the governor withdrawing his nomination to head the Board of Land and Natural Resources.
read ... Delay Decision
Legislation on the Move
House Resolution Backs Electric Co-op
HTH: Among them is House Resolution 105 which, along with its companion House Concurrent Resolution 169, expresses support for continuing the discussion about efforts to facilitate local ownership and control of electric utilities.
Last month, the Hawaii Island Energy Cooperative, a nonprofit group of Big Island community and business leaders, filed a motion with the state Public Utilities Commission to intervene in the pending sale of HEI to NextEra in order to explore the idea of public ownership, similar to Kauai Island Utility Cooperative on Kauai.
Marco Mangelsdorf, spokesman for HIEC, has not closely followed the resolutions in the Legislature but said there is growing support for the energy co-op option on the Big Island, as well as the municipal option on Maui....
Additionally, the House approved HR 158 and HCR 227, which were introduced by Rep. Chris Lee of Oahu and request that the PUC protect the public interest in reviewing the proposed acquisition. They task the PUC with determining whether NextEra is likely to act in the long-term best interests of Hawaii ratepayers, as well as determine how the merger would impact rates, services and the state’s ability to achieve its renewable energy goals, according to the document....
HCR 227 and a separate measure, HCR 9, requesting the PUC conduct a public hearing on the approval of the sale of HEI, also received support from the full House and have been referred to the Senate committee on CPN. A hearing has not yet been scheduled.
IM: State Legislature advancing NextEra resolution
read ... House adopts HEI-NextEra resolutions
NextEra Will Take Hawaii Where it has Taken Florida
PBN: “NextEra Energy has been moving down the path of continuous improvement in cost and quality for three decades, whereas Hawaiian Electric is just starting down that path,” Gleason said. “NextEra Energy is one of the largest and most capable companies in the industry, with all the necessary access to capital, technology and talent, whereas the Hawaiian Electric Cos. are comparatively smaller and stretched in many directions.”
Hawaiian Electric, through its top executive, said it will undergo a transformation regardless of whether the acquisition is approved or not.
“We recognize the need to improve and to act with an even greater sense of urgency, and have already initiated a corporate wide transformation process,” said Alan Oshima, president and CEO of the Honolulu-based utility, one of the largest non-government employers in the state. “We will transform the companies regardless of whether the proposed combination is approved, but the transformation process will be accelerated, and the necessary course corrections will be more effective and less costly, if the proposed combination takes place. And, the sooner it takes place, the better.”
read ... Can't Wait?
Oahu electric rates continue to decline as Oil Prices Fall
SA: The bill for a typical household using 500 kilowatt-hours on Oahu will be $140.96 in April, according to Hawaiian Electric Co., the state's largest utility provider with service to Oahu, Maui and Hawaii island.
The price per kilowatt-hour dropped to 26.1 cents this month, down from 26.7 cents in March.
The lower bills are due to the falling price of fuel, said Darren Pai, HECO spokesman.
"Lower fuels costs have contributed to lower effective rates," Pai said.
April marks the lowest electrical rate Oahu customers have paid since February 2011, when the rate was 26.4 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Along with the decreasing prices, the utility reported a decline in customer energy use. HECO now reports the typical customer as one who uses 500 kilowatt-hours a month, down from it previous definition of "typical" as 600 kilowatt-hours.
read ... Oahu electric rates continue to decline
DoE Solar Plan Still Lagging
PBN: A major plan to help Hawaii’s 255 public schools reduce energy consumption and costs, initially hindered by Hawaiian Electric Co.’s slowness of interconnecting rooftop solar energy systems, has received approvals for 24 schools in phase one, with another 45 schools in the process of being assessed for systems.
Brian Kealoha, regional manager of Opterra Hawaii, which acquired Chevron’s renewable energy and energy efficiency arm gave PBN an update in an exclusive interview this week on the major initiative, called “Ka Hei,” that aims to reduce the $62 million in annual costs the state Department of Education spends on electricity, gas, water and sewage fees.
“We are a little behind, but we are tracking well with what we would accomplish in phase one,” he told PBN. “One of the biggest changes that happened from inception to now is the change of interconnection rules [by the utility]. Anytime you’re going to do something of this size and scale, you will run into a few challenges along the way.”
Earlier this year, Opterra Hawaii came under fire for not progressing enough on the five-year program, whose goals, in addition to reducing energy use, include building a diverse portfolio of new, clean and on-site energy generation, as well as implementing aggressive energy efficiency and conservation measures including demand response.
read ... DoE Solar
Enrollment drops at town public schools, prompting rumors one school will close
HNN: Public school enrollment in the urban Honolulu area has fallen in the last five years while enrollment in Ewa and Kapolei, where families have moved in search of affordable homes, is on the upswing....
Araki said enrollment at Kaimuki has dropped by nearly one third in the last five years, going from 1,030 to 730 students....
In the last five years, public school enrollment in urban Honolulu that includes Kaimuki, McKinley and Roosevelt high schools as well as the middle and elementary schools that feed them declined by nearly 800 students or five percent.
But enrollment in the Campbell and Kapolei high school complex went up by eight percent in the same period, adding 1,200 students....
read ... Rumors
HART says rail guideways are safe despite concrete looming above
KHON: Ewa-bound drivers see a massive column going up on the H-1 Freeway, just past the Waipahu exit, with a large portion extending over the road.
As they drive under the rail guideway that’s being built, this is how some of them feel:
“A lot of times I feel kind of unsafe. I don’t want to be driving right under it,” said driver Paula Asamoto.
“At night, maybe it’s a little bit scarier,” said driver Shane Imai. “Just that way it looks, it looms over the freeway a little bit.”
The H-1, H-2 merge will have the most drivers traveling under the 20-mile rail line. So how safe is it?
read ... HART says rail guideways are safe despite concrete looming above
Maui PD Claims NM Officers Arrested Over Burglary
KRQE: Maui police tell a different story about why a former New Mexico police chief and reserve officer were arrested.
In 2013, Former Cuba Police Chief Jason Griego and Officer James Sanchez say they were working private security in Hawaii when they were cuffed and taken to a holding cell.
They say they were released without being charged and have filed a federal lawsuit against the police department claiming they were arrested for no reason.
But on Friday night, Maui County told News 13 things played out differently. They say they responded to a burglary at a home and arrested the two on burglary and gun charges.
The county says the two didn’t comply with Hawaii law when they brought guns into the state.
read ... Burglary?
Report Claims Illegals Pay $31M in Hawaii Taxes
ITEP: Undocumented Immigrants’ State & Local Tax Contributions....
read ... Illegals
After Months of Waiting, Disabled License Applications Slowly being processed Again
SA: For 11 months, Case McKinley — a Pupukea 16-year-old with cerebral palsy — was refused his learner's permit because his application to drive could not be reviewed by a state-mandated board of doctors that lacks enough members for a quorum.
But the city stepped in to approve McKinley's application to the Honolulu Division of Motor Vehicle, Licensing and Permits on Wednesday. And the state Department of Transportation has assembled a group to begin clearing the backlog of more than 100 other applications from disabled and elderly drivers around the state who had been stuck at the state DOT's Medical Advisory Board.
read ... City begins to clear disabled drivers' requests
Study: High school smoking fell as e-cigarette use boomed
HNN: Teen smoking hit a new low last year while the popularity of electronic cigarettes and water pipes boomed, a government report shows.
The number of high school students who tried e-cigarettes tripled in one year - to more than 13 percent. Water pipes or hookahs were used by 9.4 percent.
But smoking of traditional cigarettes plummeted to 9.2 percent from more than 13 percent. That means smoking in high school is now less common than e-cigarette or hookah use.
read ... Study: High school smoking fell as e-cigarette use boomed
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