Report: Rep Fukumoto Will Quit Republican Party
DoH Announces Political Insiders Chosen to Review Marijuana Dispensary Licenses
Hawaii Congressional Delegation How They Voted March 21, 2016
The hidden hand of the state is reaching for your car keys
NYT: Hawaii Struggles to Keep Rail Project From Becoming a Boondoggle
NYT: From the start — when Honolulu officials began talking about building a 20-mile elevated train line near the southern coast of Oahu — there were concerns. How much would it cost? What would it do to the character of a state that has long celebrated its natural beauty and isolation? Can an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean handle the kind of ambitious public works project one would associate with urban centers like Boston and New York?
Eight years after voters in Hawaii approved a referendum clearing the way for construction of the rail line, many of the concerns that have been voiced during a 40-year debate over the project have turned out to have merit.
The project was initially projected to cost $4.6 billion, but that number now is $6.7 billion, forcing the city in January to approve a five-year extension of a general excise tax surcharge to help cover the overrun.
City officials are awaiting the opening of two sets of bids, covering the final 10 miles of the project, to see if even that is enough. At this rate, city officials said, it could have the distinction of being, on a per-capita basis, the most expensive transit project in the country’s history — in a state that also has the highest per capita cost of living in the nation….
“It’s a disaster. In my view, we are worse than how we expected,” said Panos D. Prevedouros, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Hawaii, who has twice run for mayor opposing the project. “We were saying at the beginning we would be lucky if it could be done for $6.4 billion, and people thought we were close to lunacy. We are sitting here today, and we are now computing about $7.1 billion cost.”
“We have become numb to these numbers,” Mr. Prevedouros said. “But it’s very dear for a small place like us, with only like 400,000 taxpayers.”
Yet at this point, even its most ardent opponents are resigned to its completion. Close to seven miles of concrete railway are already arching up to 40 feet over farmland and crowded streets, and pillars are in place for the first of 21 stations. Federal transportation authorities have contributed $1.5 billion to the project, which Honolulu would probably have to return if it were cut back or abandoned….
read … Struggles
Big Dig, Rail: Grabauskas lands in familiar territory
CM: …Grabauskas is the executive director of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit, an indication of a rather cushy position since the island doesn’t really have rapid transit – yet. Grabauskas was hired in 2012 to manage the construction of a 20-mile rail line that will connect the two ends of the main island of Oahu. The original budget for the project was just over $5 billion, a hefty cost that is being borne largely by an excise tax surcharge with about $1.5 billion coming from the federal government.
But, shades of the Big Dig, that price tag has ballooned to more than $6.5 billion without the final phase of contracts being opened yet. Some say the cost is rapidly heading to more than $9 billion and has pushed back the opening to 2021, at least two years behind schedule.
Residents and tourists are angry about the construction cranes littering the roads, the elevated concrete tracks over once-pristine farmlands and vistas, the spiraling costs and delayed timelines, and the hours of backed-up traffic on the already-congested highways. Except for the farmlands, sound familiar?
The rising costs put the Hawaii rail project on track to be the most expensive per-capita public works project in the country. At the time, the Big Dig was the costliest public works project in the world and still stands as the most expensive in the country, depending on the cost calculations. Graubauskas did not have control of the Big Dig when he was transportation secretary — that still belonged to the Turnpike Authority at the time — but the choking debt could give Grabauskas a case of déjà vu, reminiscent of his days as the head of the cash-strapped T and the inability to keep the system in a state of good repair.
Like the Central Artery project, the groundwork for the Hawaii rail increases was laid well before Grabauskas came aboard but he still had to deal with the fallout when he went to the T. Grabauskas’ hands were tied at the MBTA because of debt the agency was forced to take on related to Big Dig mitigation. The Honolulu rail project will be brand new, but if anything goes wrong they will be hard-pressed to find the money to make things right because of the IOUs.
As of now, even though an overwhelming number of residents and officials think the rail project is more boondoggle than boon, the feeling is that so much money has already been spent that it makes no sense to turn back.
“People are very angry about it,” Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell told the New York Times. “But we are now heading toward eight miles completed. It’s like we are pregnant — we can’t just stop and tear it down.”….
read … Commonwealth Magazine
Chang thinks he can beat popular Slom; we’ll see
SA: If he were to succeed as a Democrat, he would replace incumbent Sam Slom, the Senate’s lone member of the GOP. Assuming no other Republican snags one of the 25 Senate seats, the minority caucus would drop to zero….
read … Popular
Caldwell, Martin Still Playing Political games
SA: …With the primary election now a scant five months away, acrimony between Mayor Kirk Caldwell and City Council Chairman Ernie Martin’s leadership team amped up last week, with accusations flying both ways.
Martin has said he intends to run for mayor, although perhaps not this year. But he and his backers have become vehement Caldwell critics.
On Monday members of the Council Budget Committee grilled Caldwell lieutenants about a controversial $1.25 million contract tied to a New York-based consulting firm that will guide redevelopment of Ala Moana Beach Park. Councilman Trevor Ozawa suggested it was cronyism, a claim the administration vehemently denied.
On Tuesday, Caldwell held a news conference atop the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill to question why Council members were poised to override his veto of a metal recycling discount bill he likened to “corporate welfare.” …
read … Political Games
What really happened at the ʻAha, part III
HI: Two days before the end of the ʻAha, pressure from the federal recognition side was mounting to finish the constitution. The various committees had submitted their input to the drafting committee and now awaited the result. Those in the preamble committee were edgy. Twice now, the input the preamble committee had sent to drafting had come back altered to remove provisions for full sovereignty and independence they had written in. By this point in the process, disillusionment had become a familiar feeling….
throughout the entire process, ʻAha officials disallowed outside observers, including media. While protesters petitioning for admittance were ignored or arrested outside the locked gates of the Royal Hawaiian Golf Club, the ʻAha communications committee was disseminating bulletins to media outlets and the general public that were meant to give an impression that all was going smoothly….
73% Say ‘Waste of Money’ -- What do you think about participants in the recent aha convention raising money to hold a ratification vote for the constitution they produced?
read … Aha III
Agricultural future for Hawaii rests on removing many barriers to entry
SA: …Proposed agricultural projects face a daunting array of challenges from government regulation, bureaucratic red tape and the protests of special interests that steer these projects into the courts, turning the Judiciary into a virtual second Department of Agriculture.
The steep legal fees now associated with launching agricultural projects have created a barrier to entry for many would-be entrepreneurs.
The cost, the time and the legal process are often the final nails in the coffin of projects that otherwise could bring great benefit to our economy and our island landscape.
We’ve seen the same forces at work in other defeated ventures across the state, from the Superferry to the Thirty Meter Telescope and Maui’s last sugarcane plantation.
Additionally, new proposed regulations and tax hikes threaten the property rights of farmers, potentially pushing them off of lands which, in many cases, have been in their families for generations.
Opponents of agriculture have taken the wheel and driven our state toward a future with thousands of acres of fallow fields.
Increasingly, the only survival option for farmers is to offer their fallow fields to high-end real estate developers able to afford the cost and time of battling state bureaucracy, protesters and the court system.
It is a terrible irony that the Hawaii so many are protesting against is the inevitable product of the policies they promote….
Best Comment: “Good article. This stands in stark contrast to another ag column today from an Earth Justice attorney calling for more regulation, even though no problem that would justify it can be found. One side wants to remove barriers to farming to increase crop yields and food self-sufficiency, while the other would like to regulate out of existence all types of agriculture that aren’t organic gardening.”
read … Ag Future
Throwing Bad Renewable Energy Projects Off the Bridge
IM: …Murray Clay, managing partner at Ulupono Initiative, spoke at the Maui Energy Conference.
Clay highlighted four projects that have been “pushed off the bridge.”
They were SunEdison solar projects (112 megawatts), Ormat/PGV geothermal (25 megawatts), Hu Honua (21.5 megawatts) and Hawaii BioEnergy BioRefinery (10 million gallons of biofuels).
Life of the Land asserted that the majority of the proposals deserved to be pushed off the bridge.
In 2011 Hawaii BioEnergy came to the Public Utilities Commission with a half-baked idea.
They proposed using public and private money to convert unknown crops into biofuel at a future but distant unknown date and at a confidential price, to be sold to HECO.
Life of the Land intervened in Docket No. 2011-0369, but the power on the other side was too strong.
Ulupono Initiative teamed up with Kamehameha Schools, Grove Farm, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Pierre and Pam Omidyar, Finistere Ventures and Khosla Ventures.
In 2013 the Public Utilities Commission approved the largely speculative agreement.
The deal has since collapsed….
read … Throwing Bad Renewable Energy Projects Off the Bridge
Hawaii Superferry Going to Maine-Nova Scotia Route
PH: Citing anonymous sources, The Chronicle Herald of Halifax reports that the Nova Star ferry's replacement for 2016 will be the USNS Puerto Rico….
TV: Trucking industry concerned about size of vessel for ferry service
read … Bye Bye Superferry
Wahiawa General Hospital in danger of closing
KHON: …The hospital has lost $9 million over the last three years. A spokeswoman says declining in-patient admissions and reductions in government funding are partly to blame.
Built in 1944, Wahiawa General Hospital has served the people of Central Oahu and the North Shore for 72 years, the only one with emergency services to areas extending from Mililani to Wahiawa, Waialua, Sunset and Kahuku — one-third of the entire island.
But financial troubles could spell doom for the nonprofit hospital and could close within months.
State Rep. Marcus Oshiro (D/Wahiawa, Whitmore Village) says “When the board of directors comes to me and says, ‘Marcus, if we don’t get help this session, within next 6 to 9 months, we’ll have to make some hard choices.’ ….
The representative is asking Governor Ige and the legislature for about $6 million to save Wahiawa General….
read … Wahiawa General
HPD officer resigns to help Wahiawa's homeless full-time
HNN: "As a police officer there was only so much I could do for these people," he said.
Now he's doing more. The 38-year-old recently resigned from HPD, giving up a 16-year career to work full-time with his homeless outreach organization called ALEA Bridge.
"Our main goal is to get these people back on their feet, give them a sense of purpose in life, and then shoot for success," he said.
Acosta has helped some of the homelesss get state ID cards, Social Security cards and birth certificates.
"From there we can sign them up for medical, take them to the MedQuest office," he said.
He brings them food and blankets and drives them to appointments. He's trying to find some of them jobs. He wants to get many of them into housing….
To ease the transition, he simplified his own life so he can survive off his VA benefits. But he needs funding for ALEA Bridge, volunteers and a vehicle to take the homeless to and from appointments in the city.
He wants to work to get more of Wahiawa's at-risk youths into the Youth Challenge Academy to prevent them from becoming homeless. He also hopes to help homeless adults earn their GED's….
read … HPD Officer Resigns
Maui Council boosts transparency
ILind: …Maui County announced that streaming video and County Council documents will now be available via the council’s website.
Streaming video and legislative files of Maui County Council meetings conducted in the Council Chamber will now be made available on the council’s website at MauiCounty.us, Council Chair Mike White announced today.
“This council is committed to transparency and improving access to government for all residents of Lanai, Maui and Molokai,” White said in a press release. “The videos and documents made available on Maui County Council’s website will make it easier for constituents to know what’s happening in county government and to provide well-informed testimony.”
From the council website, there’s a quick link to the archive of past meetings, as well as to agendas of upcoming meetings and minutes of prior ones.
There’s bound to be a bit of confusion. The county council website, MauiCounty.us, is different from the Maui County website, MauiCounty.gov.
When I checked this morning, the county website doesn’t mention the council’s online initiative, although both the county and the council sites are pretty rich with access to information and documents.
I was quickly able to find the annual financial disclosure forms of elected and appointed county officials, as well as of candidates for county offices, via the county ethics commission page….
read … Maui Council boosts transparency
Anti-GMO Hawaii County Council Candidate Exposed as Paid Lobbyist
KE: I went to Jen Ruggles’ campaign website, which features a banner photo of the Bill 2491 victory crowd. I was quite interested to find she had listed this job as part of her experience:
Pesticide Action Network North America Community Organizer (2013 KAUAI, HI)
Built coalition, core team, facilitated meetings, recruited 60 endorsers, engaged over 50 volunteers into action teams, worked with and lobbied council members and organized largest march in Kauai history. Coordinated campaign that successfully passed a bill to protect community from irresponsible GMO pesticide spray.
Ah, so the woman of “highest personal integrity” and "clear morals" finally admits she was working as a paid lobbyist when she and Gary orchestrated their little charade. But Jen never, ever identified herself as such at the time, even in a 2013 letter to The Garden Island:
I live in Kauai and recently participated in the democratic process for the first time. I sat through over 65 hours of testimony and deliberation. For all you elected officials out there, I hope that one day you will remember what it’s like to be a citizen engaged in the democratic process for the first time. Do you remember thinking the public’s testimony actually affected your representative’s decision? Uphold the people’s faith in the democratic process.
Only now are we able to confirm — through her own admission — that this virgin of the democratic process was actually a paid lobbyist who had worked on Sen. Ruderman's campaign and a number of other Big Island initiatives when she penned her phony letter.
And only now are we able to confirm that PAN, a mainland-based advocacy group, was building the coalition, running meetings, recruiting volunteers, lobbying politicians, even organizing the big march on Rice Street — in short, orchestrating every move and tactic of a movement that was being passed off as grassroots, Kauai-based, a spontaneous uprising of the island's truly concerned citizenry.
What a crock!
As Jen herself admits, while working for PAN she:
Coordinated campaign that successfully passed a bill to protect community from irresponsible GMO pesticide spray.
Yet even as Jen was actively engaged in political advocacy work, neither she nor PAN had registered in Hawaii as lobbyists. Instead, they maintained the charade that they were involved in 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational work….
Oh, and Jen is also featured prominently — along with Fern Rosensteil, Malia Chun, Andrea Brower and others — in this disturbing video of the screaming-crying theatrics that accompanied the mayor's veto.
It's worth another look, just in case you forgot the ugly insanity of that time — and the folks behind it…..
Totally Irrelevant info: Papa Ruggles’ Criminal Transcript
read … Paid
1,566 Hawaii Same Sex Marriages Since 2013
SA: …Preliminary data from Dec. 2, 2013 (the day same-sex marriage became legal in Hawaii), through Dec. 31, 2015, shows that 4,897 of 50,019 marriages involved same-sex couples, or just under 10 percent of the total.
Of the 45,122 opposite-sex marriages, 29,295, or 64.9 percent, included at least one person not from Hawaii (the bride, groom or both). Of the same-sex couples, 3,331, or 68 percent, included at least one nonresident. (4897 – 3331 = 1566)
The 533 same-sex marriages in December 2013 likely reflected pent-up demand, as the statewide monthly totals have fluctuated between 110 and 288 since then….
read … SSM
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