Open Carry of Guns: 9th Circuit Strikes Down Hawaii Restrictions
Kelii Akina and Gene Ward: Opening the Bottleneck at Hawaiian Homelands
HDOT Touts Public-Private Partnership at Airport
Audit the DoE?
Hawaii AG Joins Effort to Save DACA
Gov. Ige: “I don’t exchange favors…”
ILind: … David Ige’s refusal to “exchange favors” is perhaps both his greatest strength and his greatest liability. Legislators have consistently criticized Ige for failing to act like a politician. He hasn’t engaged the legislature in traditional ways. Despite his years in the legislature, he has stayed aloof from the insider politics and back room maneuvering and deal-making.
Instead, he staked out his own policy positions, and then sat back to wait and see how the legislature would respond. His refusal to engage in the wheeling and dealing that is the nuts and bolts of traditional political decision-making has left legislative leaders at a loss on how to deal with the administration. That’s been a key factor in the current backlash.
Dayton wrote: “Saiki said Ige was “absent” last year when lawmakers debated the controversial proposal to extend the excise tax surcharge for the second time as a financial bailout of rail, and “this is why I was so disappointed to read that Gov. Ige is now ‘open’ to a permanent rail tax.”
Ige’s “absence” appears to refer to his refusal to get drawn into the traditional insider bargaining, where often “good” decisions are made for “bad” reasons. …
www.TheRealHanabusa.com
read … Gov. Ige: “I don’t exchange favors…”
Fundraising prowess? More like generous supporters
CB: Congratulations to Sam King II for submitting a Campaign Corner piece highlighting his fundraising prowess as a way to argue that he is most qualified to be elected to OHA (“Campaign Corner: Reports Show Who’s Serious In OHA Races,” July 19). His argument is, of course, a non-sequitur.
To say that Esther Kiaaina is fiscally irresponsible for loaning money to her campaign ignores the level of personal commitment such a loan requires. It also obfuscates the fact that Mr. King’s campaign spending report indicates he has received more than $4,000 in contributions from his immediate family. With, another $6,000 from a hardware store executive, and another $4,000 from a major Hawaii contractor, that’s an easy $14,000.
When your fundraising can exceed that of your opponents by large contributions from only a few people, it doesn’t mean you are a serious candidate. It means you have generous and loving friends and family with serious money.
KITV: Candidates for Office of Hawaiian Affairs speak in Town Hall
read … Sam King for OHA!
With Kenoi Gone, Hawaii County P-Cards Suddenly Honest
WHT: …Hawaii County government has cleaned up its act regarding its pCard use, according to a report to be discussed today by the County Council Finance Committee.
The report by Legislative Auditor Bonnie Nims is a follow up to a 2015 audit that found numerous violations of purchasing card use in two county departments: the Mayor’s Office and the Department of Liquor Control. That audit found 164 transactions totaling $29,961 that did not follow county policy, had a questionable public purpose and may have violated state law….
The latest audit reviewed all pCard transactions from August 2015 to December 2017.
“We selected 67 transactions totaling $24,086 for further review and found that these transactions followed county policy and state law,” Nims said in the audit. “We commend county management and the Department of Finance for their continued efforts to improve pCard program efficiency and oversight.” ….
read … Kenoi Gone
Hawaii County Water Rate Hike Proposed -- Due to High Electricity Costs
WHT: …Today at its monthly meeting in Hilo, the county’s Water Board will vote on a DWS proposal to increase the power cost charge from $1.88 to $1.94 per 1,000 gallons. The department has cited the increased cost of electricity from Hawaii Electric Light Company (HELCO) as the basis for asking the public to pay more….
LWC produces and offers enough energy to run all eight wells, which are some of the deepest on the island and service several resorts on the Kohala Coast — meaning the amount of electricity required to run them is significant.
The fixed clean energy rate Lalamilo offers is 27 cents per kilowatt, while HELCO currently charges a non-fixed rate of 41 cents per kilowatt.
Yet in the seven months since LWC went to full-time operations, DWS has left nearly 2 million kilowatts of clean energy unused, instead paying a considerably higher rate to the utility for that electricity.
“Last month, 240,141 kilowatts went (unutilized),” Richard Hardin, member/manager at LWC, wrote in an email. “Our price for that energy is $64,838.00. The HELCO price is $98,457.”
DWS is HELCO’s biggest customer, representing roughly 5 percent of the utility’s energy sales islandwide. The department operates in the neighborhood of 70 water sources across Hawaii County, but Rolston said these eight wells account for approximately 25 percent of DWS energy costs….
read … DWS requests power cost charge increase despite renewable energy to spare
Transparency: State IT Projects go Public
KITV: …Hawaii's digital dashboard is award winning for its innovation.
"No other state is doing this: displaying information in such a transparent way," said Hawaii's Chief Information Officer Todd Nacapuy.
With a click of the mouse, you can check on the more than 400 IT projects underway in various state departments. …
"During the first year of the dashboard, we were able to save the state $11 million. We're on track to save $40 million this year."…
But not every project is getting the green light on the dashboard. Some are in the red, because they've fallen behind.
Like the $25 million modernization of the Department of Human Services IT system, which slowed because of a vendor protest over the procurement process.
"It is not the project will extend the date or miss the date. Every project has a life cycle and
for whatever reason those milestones aren't met. We want to display that."
Instead of being discouraged by the more than a half dozen projects in the red, Nacapuy is encouraged because the very visible reminders will allow more people to help get a project going….
read … Several state IT projects fall behind
The Bus: Homeless Steal Seats from Elderly, Disabled
SA: …At a stop on Punchbowl, a homeless woman boarded the bus, pushing a wheelchair loaded with boxes, clothing and other items piled into the wheelchair. The driver flippantly told those elderly folks they needed to vacate the seats, including the 80-year-old woman with the cane, who could barely walk, so this homeless woman could secure her wheelchair and belongings. The wheelchair took up four spaces, and she had the audacity to take a seat across the other side of her secured wheelchair. The 80-year-old woman was very unstable, and another passenger gave her her seat. The other elderly passengers walked toward the center of the bus so they could hold onto the bars.
I am stunned that TheBus would allow homeless folks to board the bus, pushing wheelchairs loaded with personal belongings/boxes/junk and force elderly people to stand so the wheelchair can “have a place to sit.” There is also a homeless woman in Nanakuli who occasionally rides the Route 93 in the morning, pushing a wheelchair with her two dogs occupying the wheelchair. Four riders have to stand so this woman’s dogs can sit….
Answer: Your complaints are the tip of the iceberg at Kokua Line, which hears frequently from elderly riders who rely on TheBus to maintain their independence and say they feel less safe or welcome doing so….
SA: Homeless ‘Man’ arrested after minivan hit with rock in front of Honolulu police headquarters
read … Wheelchair used as carryall displaces bus-riding seniors
New bill could set up future bikeshares to come to Honolulu
KHON: The new City Council proposal sets up a permit process with rules to follow, which could open the door for more bikeshare companies to do business in Honolulu.
There were 35 million trips taken with bike shares last year according to the National Association of . City Transportation Officials. With bikeshare popularity skyrocketing across the U.S., a new bill could give the green light for more of these companies to come to the Honolulu market.
City Council Bill 57 sets up a rule book on how bike share companies can obtain a permit to operate, how much their fees will cost and what rules they have to follow to keep operations running….
Bill 57: Text, Status
read … New bill could set up future bikeshares to come to Honolulu
One Protester Shuts Down Hanalei Bridge Repairs
KGI: A protest of one stopped the state’s preliminary work on a North Shore bridge Monday morning.
A man showed up at the Waioli Bridge about 6 a.m., where crews were doing some staging of equipment for the bridge’s repairs. The man left the bridge to let the first convoy through.
(Did they call the police? Nope.) Larry Dill, Hawaii Department of Transportation engineer, was called and arrived to talk with the man, who agreed to continue the discussion in Hanalei while work stopped. About 30 people showed up at the courthouse to join the discussion.
Dill said they talked about a number of things, including concerns with changing the character of the one-lane bridge, and accommodating residents using the convoy coming and going from the North Shore area severely damaged by April’s flooding.
More preliminary bridge work was scheduled this week, but HDOT agreed to suspend that until after a community meeting set for 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Camp Naue….
KGI: MOU could also delay work on historic bridge
read … Protest delays bridge work
Ban on mining of sand advances
MN: …A Maui County Council committee voted Monday to recommend extending a moratorium on sand mining in Central Maui through Dec. 31, allowing the county time to complete a study on sand availability and possibly pass new laws regulating sand mining….
The extension must now pass two readings at the full council.
Originally passed by the council on Jan. 5 and signed by the mayor on Jan. 19, the moratorium expired Thursday…
The study was expected to be finished by June 29, but by then only the first draft had been completed, Public Works Director David Goode said at a July 2 committee meeting. Goode would not release the study, saying the department still had comments and concerns. He said staff wanted to extend the study’s deadline through the end of the year.
A pair of bills related to sand mining, meanwhile, are still in the council Land Use Committee. One would clarify the definition of resource extraction in the Maui County Code to allow the county to better regulate it. Another would allow certain county and state officials to enter a property to ensure compliance with permits….
read … Ban on mining of sand advances
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