Applicants Sought for Ethics Commission
Hawaii Cesspools: Tax Credit, Ban
Caldwell Minions finally force City Ethics Director Out for Being too Tough on Rail Crooks?
SA: Chuck Totto, the Honolulu Ethics Commission’s longtime executive director, is on leave following an independent investigation by the commissioners into the management of the agency’s staff.
Commission Chairwoman Victoria Marks declined to answer any questions pertaining to Totto’s job status. Totto holds the dual title of commission legal counsel and executive director….
Asked who is leading day-to-day operations of the commission staff, Marks responded that assistant legal counsel Laurie Wong is in charge “in consultation with me.”
A voicemail greeting on Totto’s office desk line said he is out and would return April 4.
On Wednesday, Marks presented the commission’s annual agency presentation to the City Council Budget Committee. Totto has made the presentations in the past. Budget Committee members did not inquire about Totto’s absence….
Totto, in the last year, has increasingly been at odds with a majority of commission members.
In June, the commission voted 5-1 to implement a strict media policy that severely curtailed what Totto, other commission staff and even commissioners themselves could say to reporters. The policy required Totto to consult with at least the chairman of the commission before speaking to the media.
In response to outcry from the media, good government advocates and the public, who described the policy as a muzzle on Totto, the commission voted 4-3 to rescind it and then voted 7-0 to approve a bit more freedom tied to permissible public comment for Totto, staff and the commissioners.
Critics pointed out that the stricter policy was adopted one month after Totto was chastised by city Corporation Counsel Donna Leong for comments he made on a case involving former Councilman Nestor Garcia. Totto told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, and other media, that his staff raised questions about the validity of Garcia’s votes on the city’s $6.57 billion rail project and other major land-use decisions after the commission staff found that he improperly accepted gifts from lobbyists and other parties that would benefit from those land use approvals.
CB: Chairwoman Victoria Marks said the commission received an internal complaint regarding Totto’s management of staff and hired an outside investigator to evaluate the situation.
Meanwhile: Revolving Door: Politician Nestor Garcia Pays Largest Ethics Fine in History, Gets Hired by KHON
read … City ethics director on leave after inquiry
OHA Mauna Kea Cash Grab: Judge Remands Telescope Sublease back to BLNR
HTH: …State officials will have more than the Thirty Meter Telescope’s land use permit to reconsider after a Hilo Circuit Court judge remanded the $1.4 billion project’s sublease Friday.
After hearing from plaintiff E. Kalani Flores, who was representing himself, and attorneys for the state and University of Hawaii, Judge Greg Nakamura ordered the state Board of Land and Natural Resources to revisit its approval of the giant proposed telescope’s land lease on Mauna Kea and the issues raised by opponents who consider the mountain sacred.
The ruling, which appears to leave the sublease with UH intact, isn’t as bruising for the project as the state Supreme Court’s ruling overturning its Conservation District use permit last December, but it nonetheless gave the mostly Native Hawaiian opponents of the next-generation observatory another reason to cheer.
Applause filled the gallery following the decision, and Flores, who was greeted by more than two dozen supporters outside the courtroom, held his fist in the air in a show of triumph.
Still, he acknowledged there’s more work for them to do.
“(Nakamura’s) saying that the Mauna Kea Anaina Hou case, the Supreme Court ruling … (reaffirms) certain things, and now the board has got to take those into consideration,” Flores, a Hawaii Community College professor and Hawaiian cultural practitioner, told supporters. “… But beyond that, it’s kind of vague. It didn’t say whether it was invalidated or not. It doesn’t say. It just says it is being remanded back to the board.” ….
TMT is currently paying $300,000 a year for its sublease. That will increase to $1.08 million in a decade.
The telescope, expected to see more than 13 billion light years away….
Reality for those who can handle it: Telescope: For OHA, it’s all About the Rent Money
read … Sacred Rent Money
House Set to Approve $16B Budget, $300M in Red
AP: Representatives will decide Wednesday how much money they want to spend….
House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke says she reduced Gov. David Ige's operating budget proposal by about $47 million.
Even so, the House version of the budget includes plans to spend at least $300 million more than the state expects to reel in.
Luke says she supports Ige's $30 million school cooling plan. But lawmakers haven't yet decided how to fund the proposal.
The House budget plan doesn't include $160 million to rebuild Hawaii State Hospital.
read … Hawaii House to vote on state's $16 billion spending plan
Hawaii could be only state that taxes Girl Scout cookies if Idaho bill passes
PBN: A box of Girl Scout Cookies sold with a smile by an 8-year-old will set you back $5, but you can argue it’s for a good cause. However, Hawaii taxes each box of these sugary treats and could become the only state to do so if Idaho lawmakers succeed in passing legislation to remove their state's sales tax on the nonprofit's cookie sales.
In Hawaii the general excise tax is 4.5 percent on Oahu and 4 percent throughout most of Hawaii. So that means for every box of cookies sold in Honolulu, the state collects 22.5 cents….
Feb 17, 2016: Hawaii Only State Taxing Girl Scout Cookies?
read … Cookie Tax
Hawaii's general fund tax deposits up 7.4%
PBN: General excise and use taxes, together the largest single category of tax collections, increased by 6.6 percent so far this year to $2.2 billion. In February alone, the collection was $154.7 million.
Meanwhile transient accommodation tax, or hotel tax, collections also jumped 7.5 percent in the first eight months of the fiscal year to $293.9 million….
read … But They Still Want More
Homeless are Big Part of Hawaii’s $1.2B Medicaid Bill
SA: About 3.6 percent of the Medicaid population in Hawaii uses 61 percent of the Medicaid budget annually. That’s right, 14,000 people — including those covered under Quest and AlohaCare — utilize $1.2 billion of Hawaii’s Medicaid.
The population comprises the aged, blind and disabled, plus others who meet criteria based on limited income. Because so many of the major drivers of health-related costs are beyond the scope of health care alone, individualized, multifaceted solutions are both essential and justified.
Many of the 7,620 homeless people in the islands are among the high-utilizing Medicaid group. Compared with the general population, the homeless require more emergency room visits and hospital readmissions, which are paid for by the Department of Human Services.
In addition to physical problems, their health care needs often include the dual diagnoses of mental illness and drug addiction.
They also require substantial resources from the Department of Public Safety, particularly the law enforcement and corrections divisions, as well as the state Judiciary….
As Explained: Mental Health: Can Reform Solve Hawaii’s Homeless, Prison and Unfunded Liability Problems?
read … Medicaid Bill
Hawaii deals with dramatic shortage of doctors
KHON: A shortage of doctors can affect anyone in need of medical care.
The state needs hundreds more right now, and the problems could get even worse.
It’s been going on for years and has the biggest impact on the neighbor islands. KHON2 learned it’s become so bad that some people are going to the emergency room for minor issues….
“People wait six to eight weeks to get a visit….”
So what’s causing the problem that’s left a shortage of more than 700 doctors?
“There is a shortage of physicians nationwide, so every other state is competing for the limited number of medical school graduates that come out every year,” said Dr. Christopher Flanders, executive director of the Hawaii Medical Association.
There are other factors as well. “We have said this for years is that the reimbursement rate in Hawaii is not what we feel it should be and not what doctors could make if they were to go to the mainland,” Flanders said….
If nothing is done, will this shortage continue?
“It absolutely will, and it will continue getting worse,” said Flanders. “The population is older, the draw to the mainland is becoming more increased than it has been.”
“If we invested $5 million a year, which would be matched by $5 million from the feds, we could pay off every doctor’s loans that is in primary care with scholarships, and we would have more than a surplus here in Hawaii,” Green said. “That is the kind of program that would make a profound difference right away.”
read … Hawaii deals with dramatic shortage of doctors
Like Tourism, State’s #2 Industry ‘In Slow Decline’
PBN: The military is second only to tourism in terms of impact on Hawaii’s economy, accounting for 8 percent of the state's gross domestic product, while tourism is at about 18 percent. But that impact is facing a slow decline….
“Hawaii is gradually becoming a place where the military used to be more important, like Alameda, California, or Fort Laramie, Wyoming,” Brewbaker, principal of TZ Economis, told PBN in an email. “It doesn’t require an economics degree to understand what that means for the Hawaii economy, but one needn’t get all nostalgic about an economic reality that we all helped create.”
Remember This? Reality Check: Hawaii Tourism on a 30 Year Decline
read … Decline
Hawaii tech industry ranks 45th in the nation
PBN: The Aloha State was ranked 45th in the nation for technology employment, according to a recent report from CompTIA, a non-profit technology association….
the number of tech firms in the state declined from 2014, according to the report. There were 16 fewer establishments, meaning only 1,934 companies in 2015. The state also saw a decline in tech workers, with 11 fewer people employed by the industry.
While the wage is high for the state, it is still lower then it was 2014, when the salary was $80,087….
The state boasts the fourth highest percent of self-employed tech workers in the nation, with 20 percent. (Translation. There aren’t many real companies to hire them.)
Hawaii has been intent on growing a Startup Paradise, but some experts have said the state needs to get real about its capability….
read … Because we waste our money on Phonies
Civil Beat Hypes Latest Gaggle of Phony Taxpayer-Funded Tech Companies
CB: If you’re even peripherally involved with Hawaii’s growing tech scene, it’s hard not to run into Sultan Ventures these days. The firm, led by Omar and Tarik Sultan, is “a boutique venture firm” that helps early-stage startups and investors navigate the road from business idea to business success. (Yep. A fake tech company which produces other fake tech companies.)
Earlier this week, Sultan Ventures announced that, based on its application, Hawaii was selected as a “pioneer VilCap community” by Village Capital and its partners the Kaufmann Foundation, Sorenson Impact Center, and Steve Case’s Rise of the Rest.
But let’s back up a bit. Last week, Tarik Sultan, managing director at Sultan Ventures, spoke at the Booz Allen Ideas Festival and Sultan Venture’s venture associate, Luke Tucker, had his own company featured in Modern Luxury Magazine.
Last month, XLR8UH, a startup accelerator jointly run by Sultan Ventures and the University of Hawaii to turn UH-developed technology into viable businesses, was awarded $1 million, half from the federal Economic Development Administration and half from UH.
Earlier this year, Meli James, Sultan Venture’s head of new ventures and also president of Hawaii Venture Capital Association, was named a “woman to watch” by Entrepreneur magazine.
That’s all in addition to Sultan Ventures taking a leading role in getting tech-friendly bills through the Legislature….
But when asked about startup success and using venture capital as a yardstick, Omar Sultan says that puts the focus on the wrong things, at least for now. (LOLROTF)
“This is a question we receive a lot and believe that it’s not the right question to ask, at least not yet,” explained Omar. (Translation: Don’t expect me to do anything except burn your tax dollars.) “Keep in mind that XLR8UH is not even 2 years old. When thinking about the cycle of most venture activities, it takes five to seven years on average for later stage venture funds to start to see returns from their activities (the taxpayers to get really pissed and shut us down). We invest our time and (your) capital in ventures that are even earlier than these, and as a result, are not only higher risk (to you suckers), but also have a longer time (ca-ching!) until a potential exit (laughing all the way to the bank).”
read … Sultan Ventures Is Everywhere In Hawaii’s Tech Scene
Anti-GMO Activists Just Keep on Lying
KE: …the report from the Joint Fact Finding Group on pesticides has shown their litany of claims about poisoning and birth defects and cancer clusters and dead soil and contaminated streams to be fake.
As Scott Enright, director of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture so astutely observed:
“The heated rhetoric of the testimony of Bill 2491 [the GMO-pesticide regulatory bill approved by the Council but overturned by a judge] made a case that the west side of Kauai was drenched in pesticides and that there were these amazing environmental and public health concerns that could have easily been substantiated. A group that took a real critical look at it decided that none of that could be substantiated.”
Yet Gary and the red shirts have been telling that fabricated story for some time now, and they're still sticking to it.
Take this quote from Fern Rosenstiel: "We waited years, the report from the JFFG has only further reinforced our concerns, they are real. Pay attention."
Gary's HAPA: "After years of waiting, the Joint Fact Finding Group (JFFG), a group convened by the State and Kaua‘i County, has validated community concerns about the biotech industry impacts on Kaua'i."
And Gary himself: "It is a tough road to go down but we must say no to industrial dairies and to large scale pesticide intensive research crops that provide zero food for local consumption while polluting our environment and damaging our health."
So how, exactly, do you deal with a group of demagogues who have caused so much trouble and heartache in our community?
Especially when they refuse to admit they were wrong, or even acknowledge this JFFG statement: “The information we assembled does not show that current pesticide use by seed companies and Kauai Coffee plays a role in adverse health on Kauai.” …
how do you deal with folks who have demonstrated they value deception over honesty, fear over reassurance, chaos over order, a tyranny of the minority over true representational democracy?
l think you just have to recognize them for what they are and make decisions based on the greater good, rather than the demands of people who have shown they will stop at nothing to advance their own narrow agenda….
read … Musings: Fakers
2 former GOP Hawaii chairs face complaint over their criticism of Trump
HNN: Brett Kulbis wants former Congresswoman Pat Saiki and State Rep. Beth Fukumoto (R-Mililani, Mililani Mauka) to be punished for allegedly breaking a party loyalty rule, an example of the turmoil and conflict that Trump’s campaign is causing among Republicans in Hawaii and across the country.
"Donald Trump has made a mockery of the presidency of the United States," said Saiki in an HNN interview March 3. "I think he's torn us apart."
In the same HNN story, Fukumoto Chang called Trump “a problem. And that his remarks were racist and offensive against women and all sorts of other groups.” …
On Friday, Fukumoto Chang reacted to the complaint by saying, "When any candidate runs for office, they are asking the public to tell them what they think. And I have the right to free speech, like anybody else."
Fukumoto Chang – whose husband David Chang is also a former chair of the Hawaii Republican Party -- said the complaint against her and Saiki doesn't make sense.
"People make personal attacks against me all the time. I'm regularly bombarded with people saying I'm not conservative enough or other things. But you know, at the end of the day, that's part of running for public office," Fukumoto Chang said.
Friday night, Saiki called the charge against her “ridiculous.”
“I don’t think he (Kulbis) has a leg to stand on,” Saiki said.
Fritz Rohlfing, who just took over as party chair from Saiki in January, said "I don't see anything wrong with forceful statements and people speaking out."….
read … Free Speech
Can Tulsi Gabbard Swing Hawaii Voters to Sanders?
NY: It was 5:30 A.M. Honolulu time, on February 28th, when the somnolent campaign was jolted awake by the thirty-four-year-old Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who announced on “Meet the Press” that she had resigned as a vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee to endorse Bernie Sanders. A veteran of two deployments in Iraq and Kuwait, Gabbard said she wanted a Commander-in-Chief “who will not waste precious lives and money on interventionist wars of regime change.”
Gabbard had been warned that her action would have political consequences, but, she told me on Sunday, “it was not a hard decision. . . . It was deeply personal to me, as a soldier and veteran.” Before Gabbard resigned from her post in the D.N.C., she had tried to draw attention to what she sees as “the core issue of this Presidential election: war and peace. But that message was not being heard,” she said. “The tough questions were not being asked. I needed to resign and endorse Senator Sanders to communicate to voters that there was a clear choice—a clear difference of position—between Sanders and Clinton.”
The congresswoman fears that, if elected, Clinton “will escalate the civil war in Syria.” She pointed out that Clinton “was the head cheerleader and architect of the war to overthrow the Libyan government of Qaddafi, which has resulted in chaos, a failed state, and a stronghold for ISIS and Al Qaeda.” She said that the domestic programs the candidates are advocating—“education, infrastructure, growing our economy—are not possible if we continue throwing trillions of American taxpayer dollars . . . on these wars.”
read … The New Yorker
New state BOE policy embraces language diversity in classrooms
MN: The state Board of Education is promoting a policy it hopes will help schools incorporate the host of cultures and languages encountered in many of Hawaii's classrooms.
Last month, the board passed "Multilingualism for Equitable Education," a policy two years in the making that puts into writing what many teachers say they already believe - that cultural diversity should be valued and used in the classroom.
Speaking to teachers, principals and parents gathered at Maui High School for the board's community meeting Tuesday night, board member Patricia Halagao said the policy emerged out of concerns from teachers who wanted to better address language barriers in schools and parents who said they "wanted school environments that . . . looked at languages as assets."
Hawaii was one of two states that did not have any type of education policy regarding English language learning.
read … Language?
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