75 Republicans Running for Honolulu Neighborhood Board—Voting Begins Today
HART GE Tax Receipts $9M Above Expectations
Crabbe: OHA Wants 'percentage of gross receipts' from Telescope
OHA, University to Di$cuss Telescope
To Taxi or Ride-share? Limiting Government’s Role
One Simple State Tax Code Tweak to Favor Marijuana Taxpayers over Tax Evaders
Auditor: No Special Fund Raids After AG Tightens Enforcement
Suffering Loss of Tobacco Tax Revenues, Health Department Applauds Act 19 Restrictions on E-Cigs
Contractors 7 Months Behind on Rail Construction
KHON: The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s plan to save money on the over-budget rail project is leading to even longer delays.
KHON2 has learned that a contractor hoping to get part of the work is fighting the decision to give it to another company.
HART initially wanted separate contracts to build each of the first nine rail stations on Oahu. But plans were scrapped last year when the bids came in much higher than expected.
So to save money, HART combined the jobs. Companies bid on a contract covering multiple rail stations along Farrington Highway.
“But there was a bid protest by the second lowest bidder,” said HART executive director Dan Grabauskas.
HART denied the contractor’s protest and the bidder filed an appeal with the State Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs this week.
“So the good news is that they’ve got to make a decision within 45 days, but the bad news is we’ve already lost a month of time when we wanted to award and now we’re going to lose another month and a half,” he said.
And that’s not the only delay.
KHON2 looked at the monthly report by the Federal Transit Administration consultant who’s overseeing rail, and learned the contract for part of the first segment, West Oahu/Farrington Highway, is four months behind. Part of the second segment, the Kamehameha Highway guideway, is seven months behind, and then there’s the previously mentioned delay for the three Farrington Highway stations.
Related: Coverup: HART Hiding Damaged Rail Spans Since Last June
read ... Delays
Work on Rail Tax Hike Moves Behind Closed Doors
CB: State lawmakers are divided on how best to bail out Honolulu’s (allegedly) over-budget and (allegedly) underfunded commuter rail project that, when completed, will be the nation’s first fully driverless transit system.
On Tuesday, leading members of the House and Senate finance and transportation committees met for the first time to discuss how the two sides will come to terms on a bill to extend the general excise tax surcharge for rail....
House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke offered a draft bill to cut the 0.5 percent surcharge to 0.25 percent and extend it 25 years past 2016. That’s a far cry from the latest version of House Bill 134 passed by the Senate, which would only extend the 0.5 percent surcharge for five years past 2022....
Luke said the House wanted to limit the GET surcharge so that city officials take part in finding a solution to the project’s woes....
read ... Danger
Contract Re-opener a $58M Giveaway to HSTA
SA: The Hawaii State Teachers Association has negotiated additional compensation totaling $58.1 million over the next two years for its 13,500 members. Here is what they are getting....
read ... Pot O' Gold
Instructional Time: Ige Signs Bill Allowing Schools to Fake it
SA: Public schools will no longer be required to tally the number of "instructional" minutes students receive throughout the school year under revisions made to a 2010 law that mandates minimum learning time.
Under Senate Bill 822, which Gov. David Ige signed into law Thursday, the term "instructional hours" in Act 167 has been replaced with "student hours," meaning learning time will now apply to any time that students are in school, a change supported by the teachers union, which viewed the original law as an unfunded mandate.
The instructional time requirements were imposed in the wake of Furlough Fridays, which resulted in Hawaii having the shortest school year in the country.
The challenge for schools had been in complying with minimum instructional hours without exceeding teachers' contracted seven-hour workday and other contractual requirements such as teacher planning time and "duty-free" lunch breaks.
The seemingly small change is expected to relieve schools of having to account for every minute that students are in a traditional classroom setting.
read ... Fake Fake Fake
Kaiser Suddenly Interested in Maui Memorial Partnership
KITV: Thursday afternoon Kaiser released a statement to KITV. "The bill has now progressed and evolved to the point where conditions are much more favorable than anyone could have anticipated."
It noted subsidies of up to $33 million per year and paying half the capital expenditures for 10 years....
But one Maui senator seemed exasperated at Kaiser's renewed interest at this late hour.
"I am not interested in putting anything new that would potentially muddy the waters" said Sen. Rosalyn Baker.
Kaiser is asking lawmakers change the bill's language to ensure that as a California company it can submit a bid.
Belotti isn't so sure it’s necessary.
"I believe there is language they are asking for, they also believe in the current draft that actually does not preclude them. There is a difference opinion but we certainly want the best possible bill and we are working with the governor and the Senate in good faith. We want the best public-private partnership," Belotti said.
It was just on Monday that Governor David Ige intervened in the process delaying a floor vote on the bill that would allow for Hawaii Pacific Health to take over the Maui facility....
It's not clear at this point if Kaiser's renewed interest in the deal will delay the process.
"We have to do something this year, it's imperative. We just don’t have the luxury of studying it, looking at it, futzing around with it for another year. We have to act now," said Baker.
read ... Kaiser
Will Poison Pill be Slipped into Maui Memorial Partnership Bill?
MN: The topic is the budget cut facing Maui Memorial Medical Center in fiscal year 2016. MMMC must decide what services will be slashed as it faces a $28 million shortfall.
The meeting is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Puu Kukui Elementary School in Wailuku.
Wesley Lo, chief executive officer of the Maui Region, warned that the cuts would affect every resident and visitor on Maui. Lo had earlier stated the shortfall might cause a reduction in services ranging from oncology, cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology to surgical and intensive-care units.
The situation is looking particularly dire after Gov. David Ige stepped in Tuesday and asked the House to cancel a vote on a bill already approved by the state Senate that would have allowed the Maui Region to seek out a private nonprofit partner. Ige asked the Legislature to send the measure to a conference committee to address unspecified concerns he had with the bill.
We worry that the bill might get stuck (and die) in the conference committee as it did last year. Or, just as bad, that a poison pill clause to appease unions could be inserted in the bill that would drive away potential partners.
In any event, the public and Lo have to act on the assumption that the current budget numbers will govern 2016 and plan for them. Tuesday's meeting will give the public a chance to hear the plans and give input.
Related: Governor, Legislators Come to 'Understanding' on Maui Hospital Partnership Bill
read ... Poison Pill Coming?
Telescope Case: Dangerous Expansion of Religious Rights?
ILind: In case you haven’t noticed, the intersection of religion and public policy is a dangerous one.
We’re still dealing with the conflicts over public policies on same sex marriage and reproductive rights, both of which implicate what some say are their own deeply held religious beliefs.
Luckily, we’ve evolved a legal approach to religious rights that, with time and a bit of luck, allows different religious and religious communities to exist within the same society.
So to the extent that opposition to the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea is grounded in ideas of what is considered “sacred” according to particular interpretations of Native Hawaiian religious traditions, it seems to me to be in dangerous territory.
read ... Dangerous?
UH Considers Destroying Perfectly Good Telescopes to Satisfy Protesters
WHT: Decommissioning of as many as three telescopes could be expedited as the University of Hawaii responds to protests from Native Hawaiians over the construction of the largest observatory yet on Mauna Kea.
“There’s been some internal discussion of essentially putting a more definite timetable on what’s in the current decommission plan,” said Bob McLaren, associate director of UH’s Institute for Astronomy.
That will likely involve expediting the removal of the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, already scheduled to be decommissioned between 2016 and 2018, and up to two more telescopes that are not expected to operate beyond 2033, he said.
Those include the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, Very Long Baseline Array, and at least one of the other submillimeter telescopes, McLaren said.
The mountain is home to 13 telescopes. The latest to be approved for construction, the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope, has been met with numerous protests from Hawaiians who say they are protecting a sacred mountain.
Sandra Dawson, TMT spokeswoman, said she doesn’t expect an announcement this week about when TMT will restart grubbing and grading of the project site at the 13,150-foot elevation. On April 2, 31 protesters were arrested on the mountain when construction crews last attempted to reach the site.
Jodi Leong, a spokeswoman for Gov. David Ige, said the governor and his administration have been in “continuous discussions and conversations with all stakeholders” since last week’s announcement that construction would continue to be delayed.
“Progress is being made, but it will take time to come to a comprehensive solution to this matter,” Leong said.
Meanwhile, the UH Board of Regents will be back on the Big Island Sunday to reconvene last week’s emotional meeting related to the management of Mauna Kea.
read ... Rent Money
Unaccountable State spends nearly $14 million on failed DOT Accounting system
HNN: The state spent $13.88 million on a failed effort to improve the Department of Transportation's financial accounting system, so the state terminated the contract last month, Gov. David Ige said Thursday.
In 2008, the state Department of Transportation entered into a contract to upgrade its antiquated 30-year-old highways accounting system, hoping to automate project and financial reporting on highways projects that use millions in federal funds.
Among other things, the system was supposed to allow weekly billing of the federal government for highway projects instead of monthly billing.
The administration of former Gov. Linda Lingle hired well-known global IT firm Ciber -- which is based in Colorado -- to handle the job.
During the last seven years while the state has paid the company $6.9 million. Ige said the system has never worked.
"They have failed every single intermediate step in the project," Ige said. "This is typical of how a lot of state projects have been conducted in the past."
Ige told Hawaii News Now his administration terminated the contract with Ciber last month.
"It was clear that they didn't deliver what the contract required them to deliver," Ige said.
State DOT records show in September of 2012, then-Gov. Neil Abercrombie's administration increased the value of Ciber's contract by $2.7 million, even though the system had failed key tests and was unable to "go live" or get certification from the federal government.
"As of today we still have nothing. No system. No working system," said State Senate President Donna Kim, who said she's working with the governor to prevent failures like this in the future.
"Over $13 million. What do we have to show for it? Zero. If this was the private sector, somebody's heads would roll," Kim said.
Kim and Ige are upset that the two consultants – BEI and Gartner -- who the state hired to monitor the contractor and manage the project were paid $6.9 million, the same amount that the main contractor – Ciber -- was paid by the state. (Thus giving them an incentive to keep the project going.)
Usually consultants are paid a fraction of the overall project cost.
"The state in the past has had an over reliance on consultants and this project is a perfect example of that," Ige said.
read ... Failed
House, Senate Lawmakers Debate Education Bills
CB: Rep. Isaac Choy and Sen. Brian Taniguchi are the lead negotiators on many of the higher-ed bills, including an omnibus measure that makes comprehensive changes affecting the entire University of Hawaii system.
They are reconvening for many of their bills at 1 p.m., Monday.
Rep. Roy Takumi and Sen. Michelle Kidani have the lead for bills affecting the Department of Education, ranging from proposals to combat bullying to restructuring early childhood education and creating financial incentives for teachers.
House Bill 11 would give teachers a bonus for maintaining their national board certification and teaching at a school that could use a good educator.
There’s debate over whether the Legislature should retroactively give some 54 teachers a $5,000 bonus that they should’ve gotten last year but didn’t because lawmakers accidentally didn’t renew the program in the craziness that ensues at the end of each session.
The conference committee is reconvening at 2 p.m. Friday to hear HB11 and several others.
read ... Education
HGEA cancels contract ratification voting for white-collar units
SA: Contract ratification meetings for members of two units of the Hawaii Government Employees Association have been “suspended” by the union, a development that will delay indefinitely any settlement for about 14,400 state, city and county workers....
HGEA did not publicly explain the decision to halt voting for the two units. A spokeswoman for the union would say only that “our negotiating teams are meeting tomorrow to discuss the next step.”
Sources have said the union members were being asked this week to ratify two-year agreements that would have provided for raises amounting to about 4 percent per year.
The union has been trying to wrap up negotiations in time for the state Legislature to fund the new agreements, but it is now unclear if that will be possible this year. The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn on May 7.
read ... Cancel
P-Card Holder 'may be held legally and personally responsible for Fraud'
SA: The pCard program is equipped with various elements of protection and accountability, such as the imprinting of the authorized employee name and embedded photograph on the pCard, as well as MasterCard's Zero Liability Protection Plan and First Hawaiian Bank's zero-liability policy.
Verification and questionable transactions can be easily traced to a specific employee. Also, pCard administrators have access to all cardholders' transactions and can look for unusual, unauthorized or fraudulent activity.
If there is any improper use, the cardholder may be held legally and personally responsible for that transaction....
Every single pCard issued to a government employee is protected and embedded with statewide merchant category blocks, including food, restaurant, gasoline, hotel, cash withdrawals, entertainment and personal services. Only the chief procurement officer and the department/jurisdiction pCard administrator can approve a request to unblock a merchant category.
read ... P-Card
Attorney General asked to investigate lawmakers
HNN: The state Campaign Spending Commission has asked the Attorney General's office to look into potential criminal violations by former state Rep. Richard Fale, Maui lawmaker Angus McKelvey and Kauai legislator James Tokioka, Hawaii News Now has learned.
Sources said the commission found that all three collected tens of thousands in campaign contributions last year but did not report them until the reporting discrepancies were flagged by investigators....
According to state Campaign Spending records:
-- McKelvey, who is Consumer Protection chairman in the state house, reported zero contributions for the first six months of 2014, but his amended report said he received more than $33,000;
-- Tokioka also reported no donations for the first half, but amended his filing to say that he took in $26,000;
-- Fale initially reported receiving $40,000 in contributions during the first ten months last year but later added $23,000 when he rewrote his report.
Tokioka said he and his campaign treasurer took a polygraph test.
"I know that I went through everything with the Attorney General's office. I went through a lie detector test and passed that," said Tokioka.
We're told that the Attorney General's office has assigned one of its top white-collar crime investigators, former Honolulu Police Major Dan Hanagami, to look into the matter.
He's part of the team that's investigating Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi's personal use of his county credit card and has played a major role into the investigation into illegal political donations to former Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign.
The criminal penalties for filing a false campaign report are serious. Anyone found guilty could face up to five years in jail and could be banned from seeking office for four years.
PDF: CSC Minutes March 11, 2015
read ... Criminal Investigation
HPD investigating whether supervisor bullied detective before Suicide
HNN: The suicide of a Honolulu Police Officer is dividing the department and has prompted an internal investigation.
42-year old Kyle Suemori shot himself on April 13 at his Waipahu home.
The 12-year veteran of the force had recently been promoted to detective and was assigned to the Domestic Violence unit. Fellow officers tell me, he was having issues with the new assignment, and, with one of his supervisors.
Multiple police sources say the supervisor had a style of managing that many considered old school, like a drill sergeant.
While that may have worked with some officers, for Detective Suemori, it was described by numerous witnesses, as bullying.
"Workplace bullying is usually repeated kinds of conduct whether its verbal abuse, sometimes it can workplace aggression," says Melissa Pavlicek of the Society of Human Resources Management.
"When I first got into law enforcement, it was very much paramilitary and some departments are still like that," says Hawaii News Now Law Enforcement expert Tommy Aiu....
Services for Kyle Suemori are set for Friday.
KHON: HPD opens internal investigation after officer’s death
read ... Suicide
Hawaii Needs a ‘Marsy’s Law’ to Ensure Victims Rights
CB: Lawmakers deferred a bill that would have put a constitutional amendment guaranteeing victims rights before voters in 2016.
read ... Will Espero
SB1030 Minimum Age 21 for Cigs, E-Cigs
KHON: The proposal would require people to be 21 to buy cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
The Senate agreed to a House bill Wednesday afternoon that would increase the minimum age for sale, possession, consumption, or purchase of tobacco products or electronic smoking devices from 18 to 21.
Senate Bill 1030 will go before the full Senate.
read ... Age 21
Comcast plans to drop $45B Time Warner Cable bid, reports say
NYT: Facing intense regulatory scrutiny, Comcast is planning to abandon its $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable, people briefed on the matter said Thursday, ending a bid that would have united the country’s two largest cable operators and reshaped the rapidly evolving video and broadband markets.
As Explained: U.S. Antitrust Lawyers Said Leaning Against Comcast Deal
read ... Roadrunner
Hawaii Gas chief backs bill Pretending to curb use of LNG
SA: Alicia Moy, president and CEO of Hawaii Gas, said she supports a bill sitting on Gov. David Ige's desk that would limit the use of liquefied natural gas in Hawaii, despite the utility looking to supply the resource to the state in bulk.
House Bill 1286 mandates that the use of LNG in Hawaii does not slow the development and use of renewable energy sources, reaffirms Hawaii's need to cut its dependence on imported fuels and encourages utilities to make the social and financial interests of ratepayers a priority.
read ... Meaningless Rhetoric
Hawaii's top solar companies accounted for 800 jobs, $151M in revenues in 2014
PBN: Hawaii's five largest solar-energy companies accounted for nearly 800 jobs and about $151 million in revenue in 2014, according to PBN research.
Maui’s Rising Sun Solar + Electric topped the list in terms of employees with 200 workers, followed by Waipahu’s American Electric with 186 employees, Maui’s Haleakala Solar with 150 employees, Honolulu’s REC Solar with 135 employees and Honolulu’s Alternate Energy with 78 employees.
read ... $151M
Battle Over Geothermal Contract Plays Out in Court and at PUC
CB: Critics say they will contest a new geothermal energy deal between Hawaii Electric Light Co. and Ormat, its longtime partner.
read ... Geothermal
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