Ige, Caldwell in Arizona for Rail Meetings
DoH Unveils Hawaii Opioid Action Plan
Congress May Seek to Limit Courts’ Nationwide Injunctions
Serving the law can circumvent justice
Kauai Again: This Time it's Stranded Whales--Idiot Legislators Cook up Bizarre Conspiracy Theories
Zoning, Land-Use Planning, and Housing Affordability
Child Molester: Petition Demands Kamehameha Schools Take Responsibility
Anti-GMO Council Staffer Threatens Maui Councilmembers
MN: …The issue stemmed from an Oct. 16 letter that White sent to Council Member Alika Atay regarding Atay’s executive assistant, Brian Bardellini. White said he had received “several recent, separate reports” in which Bardellini “was loud, aggressive, intimidating, confrontational and unprofessional towards a council member, the supervising legislative attorney and Office of Council Services staff.
“Mr. Bardellini’s behavior is completely unacceptable in the workplace and will not be tolerated any longer,” White wrote to Atay. “You are aware of his uncivil behavior, including being present when it has occurred, and yet have taken no action to address it.”…
In the Oct. 16 letter to Atay, White said that he “instructed Office of Council Services staff, including Supervising Legislative Attorney Greg Garneau, the legislative attorneys, analysts, secretarial and support staff to no longer communicate with Mr. Bardellini in any way.”
White said staff would interact with Atay alone and that Bardellini would be prohibited from approaching or interacting with council members and their staff without prior permission from the council member.
Because Bardellini has access to Atay’s email, White said it would be difficult to know whether emails from Atay’s office came from Bardellini, so he told Atay that directions to staff must only occur in person and that future emails from Atay’s office would be ignored.
Background: Bardelini Fights with Fire Anti-Control Workers – …“Bardellini said, the eradication teams wouldn’t stop coming. He sent them a cease-and-desist letter April 4, “notifying them not to trespass on our property,” as stated in his petition. However, he said, workers trespassed twice in April and again in May and were filmed by Atay.
“When asked to leave, they sprayed chemicals on my uncovered skin and tried to assault and fight me,” Bardellini said. “We were told they will keep coming and trespassing and that we ‘can’t stop them.'”
In asking for a restraining order, Bardellini said that he and his wife “live in near constant fear, anxiety and distress.” However, the court ruled that Bardellini did not prove “by clear and convincing evidence” that he’d been “harassed” by MISC and ant lab employees.
Video taken of the confrontation revealed that it was the employees who “tried to leave the scene, only to be confronted by (Bardellini) with belligerence.” Atay’s testimony also contradicted Bardellini’s account of employees spraying him with chemicals and trying to pick a fight.
The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that Bardellini could not bring the same charge back to court….
Bonus Bardellini Read: Musings: True Manipulation
read … More Anti-GMO Thugs
Gun Toting Robber Sponsors Maui Anti-Sunscreen Bill
MN: The bill, introduced by Council Member Elle Cochran (who used to rob tourists for drug money but is now too effete to eat GMOs), would prohibit the sale and use of sunscreen carrying oxybenzone and octinoxate, which some blame for coral reef damage. It passed out of the Cochran-chaired Infrastructure and Environmental Management Committee on Nov. 13 and was up for a first reading at the full council Friday.
Because of a large amount of public testimony, the council recessed until 9 a.m. Monday without taking action. Public testimony on agenda items is closed.
“What we fear is the unintended consequences to the health of the people of Maui, its tourists, especially given that oxybenzone is not a major reason for reef decline,” said Carlos Gutierrez, the association’s vice president for state and local government affairs. “The bottom line for us is sunscreen saves lives.”
Gutierrez said there’s “no such thing as reef-safe sunscreen” and that “no governmental body has ever awarded that designation.” …
Maui County could be the first in the country to enact such a ban. But that’s come with potential legal challenges, which is why some council members were hesitant to send the bill out of committee.
For one, it’s the state — not the county — that has jurisdiction over ocean activities, Deputy Corporation Counsel Richelle Thompson explained in a Nov. 22 memo to Cochran. Thompson also pointed out that the federal Food & Drug Administration has approved both chemicals for use in sunscreen. If Maui County tried to ban products containing the chemicals, federal law could have the final say.
A ban could also trigger the federal commerce clause, which prevents states from interfering with interstate commerce.
“There is no delegation of authority to the counties with respect to the reefs or respect to drugs,” said Margery Bronster, attorney for the Consumer Healthcare Products Association. “If you pass a bill like this, it could be subject to challenge, and we believe would not be sustainable.”
Bronster compared it to the Maui County voter initiative to put a moratorium on genetically modified organisms, which voters passed in 2014 but a federal court later ruled “unenforceable.”
(Same activists—same strategy.)
read … Testimony: There’s no ‘reef-safe’ sunscreen
Judge won’t allow Hawaii fishing group to intervene in case
AP: …Under the ruling, lawyers for the Hawaii Longline Association won’t be able to argue before Judge Joseph Cardoza. But the judge said he would allow the association to submit written arguments.
Maui resident Malama Chun is asking the judge to declare that only people lawfully admitted to the United States should receive the licenses.
A loophole in federal law enables the arrangement….
read … Judge won’t allow Hawaii fishing group to intervene in case
Residual Tweeker Camps to be Cleared from Kakaako, Nimitz
SA: …“That entire strip was full of tents and a couple of cars and animals,” said Tina Shelton, spokeswoman for the UH medical school. “Within days of the closure of Kakaako park, they began to assemble there.”
Nearby Coral Street also was cleared of encampments and abandoned vehicles Friday morning. Some homeless people began migrating into neighboring streets by the afternoon.
Seven people who were swept Friday morning went into homeless shelters, said Scott Morishige, the state’s homeless coordinator….
Sheriff’s deputies will return to the H-1 freeway viaduct area Monday to clear an estimated 70 people who moved with at least 20 dogs to a nearby bike path after being forced from underneath the viaduct Oct. 23.
The bike path, on the mauka side of the viaduct, will be closed from Middle to Ahua streets beginning at 8 a.m. until around Dec. 15 to clean up the encampments, Morishige said….
SA: Open gates, heart to museum
read … About Meth
Pension woes will affect Kauai
KGI: Kauai County taxpayers will be paying millions more every year into the state Employees’ Retirement System (ERS) because of Act 17, signed into law this year by Gov. David Ige. The law requires the state and counties to ramp up their payments into the state pension fund.
Kauai County paid $15 million into the pension fund in fiscal 2017. Now, its payments will increase, to approximately $16 million in fiscal 2018, $18 million in fiscal 2019, $20 million in fiscal 2020 and $23 million in fiscal 2021.
This amounts to a total of $17 million in extra payments by Kauai County over the next four years alone — and its contributions are set to remain just as high every year afterward.
Kauai County will feel the pinch more than other counties because pension payments are set to make up 11 percent of its operating budget annually. This compares to only 10 percent for Hawaii County, 8 percent for Honolulu County and 8 percent for Maui County.
Thom Williams, executive director of the ERS, said the extra payments are needed to help the state public pension system avert a crisis in unfunded liabilities, currently estimated at about $12.4 billion….
But a new crisis has begun — the crisis of taxpayers feeling the pain of bailing out the system….
read … Pension woes will affect Kauai
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