Hawaii Chamber of Commerce Introduces Legislative Package
TOTE pulls plug: What will Hawaii DOT, Philly Shipyard, Pasha and Matson do next?
List: 66 Structurally Deficient Bridges in Hawaii
Lahaina Injection Wells: 9th Circuit Rules Against Maui County
American Samoa ID to be Rejected at Airports Starting Feb 5
HGEA Member behind false missile alert to file lawsuit against the state
KHON: The emergency worker fired by the state for sending a false missile alert has hired an attorney, and plans to sue the state for defamation.
The state has not identified the worker, but his attorney, Michael Green, says many people already know who he is, because the worker has received numerous death threats…..
Green says his client has been made a scapegoat in all this. The worker has been living in fear because of the death threats, and Green says it’s because the state lied about what happened.
Once the panic died down on Jan. 13, state officials, including the governor, announced that the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency worker who issued the missile alert had mistakenly pressed the wrong button.
On Tuesday, Jan. 30, the FCC and the state added that the worker didn’t know it was a drill, and actually thought there was a missile attack.
“He never pressed the wrong button. He pressed the button he wanted to press, because the way it came out, he thinks we’re in imminent danger. Within 20 minutes, we might not be here anymore,” Green said….
KHON2 reached out to David Major, a constitutional law attorney for the firm Bays Lung Rose Holma, who also handles defamation lawsuits. He says the state has a wide range of immunity against defamation lawsuits.
“It provides for protections for the state, because if every time somebody disagreed with what the state said, they could sue them, it would lead to a huge problem in the court system,” Major said.
Major says the worker would have to prove that what the state said about him and the incident was false.
Green says he might also sue the state for slander and libel.
“Because they’re saying that he made a mistake?” KHON2 asked.
“No, because they lied about what happened. It’s got to be untrue what they said about him. It’s got to be false,” Green said.
It’s not clear yet if the worker wants his job back…..
SA: State agency disputes ‘button pusher’s’ account
SA: ‘Button pusher’ says state delayed in getting his story
HNN: Interview -- 'Button pusher' says he was '100% sure' missile threat was real
WaPo: ‘I’m really not to blame’: Fired Hawaii worker says false missile threat was ‘system failure’
read … HGEA Member
The missile employee messed up because Hawaii rewards incompetence
WaPo: I lived and worked there. I love it. But officials don't care about reforms or accountability…..
This week, we learned the man responsible for the bogus Hawaii missile alert kept his job for a decade even though he had a history of performance problems and has been a “source of concern,” according to an Federal Communications Commission report. His co-workers had expressed discomfort about his leadership, and the FCC said he has been “unable to comprehend the situation at hand and has confused real life events and drills on at least two separate occasions.” Although the emergency management supervisor, who remains unnamed, was a union member, he could have been fired at will. Instead, he was promoted to a leadership role. “Why,” Gizmodo understandably wondered, “was the employee in a position to send a false missile alarm to a couple million people?”
As we say in the islands, e komo mai (welcome) to Hawaii.
I worked as a Hawaii state employee for a short time, serving as spokesman for a division of the Hawaii Commerce Department, and then spent more than seven years dealing with the government as a journalist. Anyone who knows how Honolulu functions cannot have been surprised by this week’s revelations. The sad part is the worker’s incompetence and the chaos he caused have exposed to the world ugly, old tropes about Hawaiian accountability and competence about the state residents would love nothing more than to shake off. “How many more noneffective employees are on the job here in Hawaii?” asked a local on Hawaii News Now’s Facebook page….
There is a strong assumption in the islands that once you enter the state government system, you are set for life. There are great retirement benefits, union protections and the ability to move up, and laterally, across departments. (According to figures drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hawaii has the second-highest rate of union membership — more than 20 percent — after New York.) The prevailing assumption is: You do not have to work that hard.
And there is no cost for messing up. Vern Miyagi, the emergency management chief who resigned in the wake of the FCC report Tuesday, made his reluctance to fire the alert author clear: “You gotta know this guy feels bad right? I mean he’s not doing this on purpose.” I also recall a Honolulu police officer who was fired in 2012 for falsifying reports and lying to investigators, then was hired by the state of Hawaii as a law enforcement officer, only to be convicted last year of raping a teenage girl while in uniform. Even the police chief in Honolulu held onto his job for a year while the feds investigated him for using police resources to frame someone for a personal vendetta….
KGI: Missile alert highlights government’s hiring practices
IHS: Hawaii Sent Out A False Missile Alert. Here's How Other States Avoid The Same Mistake.
read … The Washington Post
Chin to Take Lt Gov Sinecure While Running for Congress
HNN: Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin will take over as lieutenant governor after Shan Tsutsui abruptly resigned from the post on Wednesday.
Chin made the official announcement Friday morning on Hawaii News Now Sunrise, saying, “I’ve always considered public service to be a privilege, and this is a call to serve, and it’s the right thing to do.”
Meanwhile, Chin said will continue to campaign for Congress. He’s vying to replace U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who’s stepping down to run for governor.
Chin had already planned to step down from the Attorney General’s office in March to for Congress….
Now that Chin will become lieutenant governor, First Deputy Attorney General Russell Suzuki has been appointed to serve as acting attorney general. …
Cataluna: Lt. Gov. Tsutsui has left the building for obvious reasons
read … Lt Governor
Tsutsui Lobbying Firm ‘Not in Good Standing’
IM: …Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui resigned to join the communications and government relations firm of Strategies 360, a foreign for profit firm not in good standing with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Business Registration Division. …
read … Chilling Aloha
Legislators Latest Plan to Screw Small Business
PBN: …House Bill 1629 would require employers to provide an employee with a work schedule in writing at least 14 days in advance, and provide overtime compensation if they fail to comply. A Senate version of the bill, Senate Bill 2288, would require employers to pay workers an amount equal to two times the regular rate of pay if the employee was not given 10 calendar days written notice….
House Bill 1727 aims to improve the economic security and stability of workers and lower public and private health care costs in Hawaii by mandating paid sick leave for Hawaii minimum wage employees. The bill, which is sponsored by Reps. Aaron Johanson, Daniel Holt, Linda Ichiyama and Kyle Yamashita, would allot one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked, with a cap of 40 hours per year. This would be required for all minimum wage employees who work more than 680 hours per year, or 13 hours per week….
read … Morons Who Have Never Run a Business
Chain Migration -- Mazie Hirono
WE: …In fact, Durbin himself confidently name-dropped chain migration when speaking at a Senate Judiciary Hearing last October. At that same hearing, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, – herself a naturalized U.S. citizen who immigrated from Japan – said the words “chain migration” while discussing her own family’s immigration experience….
read … Chain
HB2273: Mandatory Electric Cars in Rental Fleets
CB: …House Bill 2273 would require rental car companies to include zero-emission vehicles in their fleets.
HB 2273 acknowledges that meeting its clean-energy goals requires “rapid transition” to vehicles that utilize local, renewable energy sources. The bill explains that rental cars represent the largest passenger vehicle fleet in the state “and are responsible for a significant amount of carbon emissions.”
read … Elon Musk Needs More Money
Kauai Fuel Tax cuts stall in committee
KGI …Two bills aimed at reducing the county fuel and vehicle weight taxes were killed at the county committee this week.
The bills, first introduced by Councilmember Derek Kawakami, late last year, would have reduced the fuel tax from 17 cents per gallon to 13 cents per gallon, and the vehicle weight tax to 1 cent per pound….
If the bills, aimed to provide some relief to local residents who rely on vehicles to get to and from work, had passed, they would have come into effect beginning in Jan. 2019, when the half percent increase of the General Excise Tax will be enacted. (These fake tax cut proposals were unveiled just to make the GE Tax hike easier.)
All members present at the meeting, voted to kill bills 2679 and 2680, including Kawakami.
Council Chair Mel Rapozo said as people get away from gas vehicles, it’s going to generate less money for the county, so the county’s going to have to make a decision to make sure that the revenue stays neutral.
That means, he said, unfortunately, the county may have to look at increasing vehicle weight taxes or fuel tax. (See how this works?)
read …Tax cuts stall in committee
QUICK HITS: