Djou: Why I'm Voting for Biden
Honolulu Ethics: Parks Supervisor Watches Football on the Clock
Veto of the “Revolving Door” Bill
Hawaii Congressional Delegation How they Voted September 26, 2020
COVID Count 98 new cases out of 1,905 tests
Blangiardi, Amemiya struck mute when the question is, “What will you do about rail?”
Borreca: … the $9.2 billion project does not have enough money to drive it to completion, plus Blangiardi and Amemiya have no clear statement on how they would get the needed extra funds.
If there is no more money, there will be no more pile drivers and no more glowing predictions.
As to the subject of no more funding, early in the mayor’s race, Blangiardi said, “I would absolutely want to examine stopping it,” if there is no promised funding.
Amemiya said “everything needs to be done to try to finish rail including modifications to the product to reduce costs, but if we exhaust all alternatives then of course we need to put in a pause.”
Both men, however, issued a caution that they were not in favor of raising property taxes (Honolulu’s only significant taxing power) to bail out rail.
So clearly, we have strong support for rail, no support for “raise taxes to bring home the train.”
If a confident ability to lead defines leaders, we still have more questions than promises and more dilemmas than plans.
Instead, we have two politicians with a demonstrated ability to talk and and talk, struck mute when the question is, “What will you do about rail?”
read … Blangiardi, Amemiya will need to talk more about rail funding, given dismal scenario
Furloughs? State’s Only Plan is to get another Federal Bailout
SA Editorial: … Back in May, the state’s largest public employee union, the Hawaii Government Employees Association (HGEA), responded to murmurs about furloughs by pointing out that such a move could result in financial hardship for many workers and their families, and further hurt the already flailing economy. Among HGEA’s current alternative suggestions: possible incentives to retire for workers already eligible.
As unions prepare for the likelihood of negotiations, they should be brainstorming cost-cutting strategies — and brace for shared sacrifice. The goal must be to avoid a bitter fight at a time when everyone throughout the islands needs to work together toward economic recovery; all involved should be offering up options for leaner-yet-efficient government operations.
On Monday, new DHS Director Cathy Betts told her staff in an email that she had been informed that a “likely 10% furlough will potentially be taking effect” Dec. 1. “The State’s financial situation remains dire. Should Congress act and pass the HEROES bill, then this may be avoided. However, given the current state, we must plan for the furloughs,” she said….
Ige: Hawaii will not return to “normal” as we knew it before the pandemic.
read … State budget cuts must be surgical
Councilmember Caught Trying to Use CARES Money to Campaign
HTH: … Almost $1 million in federal coronavirus relief funds the County Council gave itself to hand out to businesses and community groups has caused some consternation with the county administration, which is striving to ensure donations follow federal laws and don’t look like political campaigning.
Council members shortly before the Aug. 8 primary election voted unanimously on a fast-tracked resolution to give each of the nine members $100,000 to direct to specific projects in their council district. The money comes from the $80 million the county is receiving as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and must be spent by Dec. 30.
Council Chairman Aaron Chung, who had sponsored the resolution, said at the time that he waited until the primary election was wrapping up, so there would be no appearance of campaigning. But one council member, Puna Councilman Matt Kanealii-Kleinfelder, didn’t win enough votes to secure his seat outright and now faces a Nov. 3 runoff with challenger Ikaika Rodenhurst.
Kanealii-Kleinfelder was blocked from personally handing out $60,000 worth of masks and other personal protective equipment at farmers markets, schools, nonprofits and churches as he had planned, after the county Finance Department and Corporation Council Joe Kamelamela said it could appear to violate federal laws about using CARES money to lobby or influence elections.
“It could be easy to perceive that he’s handing out masks, like he’s using in-kind contributions to influence the election,” Deputy Finance Director Steve Hunt said Thursday. “We didn’t want to jeopardize our funding.”
Kanealii-Kleinfelder, who ultimately designated the nonprofit Malama O Puna to hand out the PPE on his behalf, said he didn’t think it was fair…
Meanwhile: OHA Illegally Using State Resources to Campaign Against Akina, others
read … No CARES campaigning: Council members directed to distance themselves from coronavirus relief funds
20,000 Join Hawaii Facebook support group--unable to claim unemployment benefits
KITV: … With more than 20,000 in the group, members discuss their success and frustrations in applying for unemployment.
Many people don't understand why their status is pending….
"We have a lot of people that come on to the group and ask. They say 'this is what I had to do,'” said Peter Yee, one of the group’s moderators. “What do you, what do you expect? My child is in distance learning, I have no choice.”
Yee says some may have a choice. Funds provided by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act requires certain employers to offer paid leave for parents who have child care issues due to the pandemic. The funds are available until the end of the year.
Otherwise, according to the Department of Labor, refusing work is a red flag in the system that delays payments until an examiner can review the case. The agency is working through the backlog of pending claims….
read … Facebook support group says many working parents unable to claim unemployment benefits
WARN notices paint grim picture: Larger BI employers furloughed or laid off nearly 6,000 workers
HTH: … WARN notices — are required when a business terminates all employees, when a business lays off 500 or more employees, and when a business lays off between 50 and 499 employees if that number constitutes one-third or more of the employer’s full workforce.
Since mid-March, 207 such notices have been submitted to the Department of Labor, approximately 30 of which involved businesses operating on the Big Island. By comparison, 28 WARN notices were filed throughout the entirety of 2019….
Of the Big Island-related notices, the vast majority involve businesses in the hospitality industry.
The largest single group of layoffs was announced in August by the Hilton Waikoloa Village, which announced its intention to indefinitely furlough 740 employees.
Most employers categorized the layoffs as temporary furloughs — of the nearly 6,000 Big Island jobs impacted by the WARN notices, less than 200 were permanently terminated.
However, most employers acknowledged that they had no timeframe for when the furloughs may end, and pointed out that some or all of their temporary layoffs could become permanent in the future depending on changes to the pandemic situation….
read … WARN notices paint grim picture: Larger BI employers furloughed or laid off nearly 6,000 workers
Spying on You: Officials scramble to fix bugs in Safe Travels before visitors return to Hawaii
SA: … Kim and Victorino said they still aren’t getting as much real-time visitor information as they want to contact trace and enforce emergency orders. They said the application still can’t verify addresses, and they aren’t sure how it’s going to verify negative COVID-19 tests.
Nor does the new system deliver on all the features state officials had said it would in the early days of its development. For instance, it isn’t set up to allow GPS tracking to “ping” a visitor’s phone or computer for a location….
“It’s a real bugaboo in terms of time and energy,” Kim said. “We can’t have a system that depends on civil defense to go to the airport. You’d be surprised how many times phone numbers don’t work, addresses are bogus, and it’s a difficult thing to check on a person’s exemption status. There are still a lot of questions about the pre-test too.”…
“I’m not totally comfortable with everything; however, I am working through the bugs. Our people have been working though some of these challenges,” Victorino said. “Hopefully over the next few weeks, we’ll get ourselves up and running as far as the local quarantine and travel between the islands and hopefully be ready by Oct. 15 for trans-Pacific flights and those passengers.”
The state’s been trying to get Safe Travels right since it debuted in May as a website, which wasn’t all that successful because it was optional. Then, the state used CARES Act funds to award a contract to Esri, a California software company that had already developed a Safe Travels application for interisland use.
That contract would have been worth $1.7 million had it been completed, but it wasn’t, as the state decided it couldn’t scale up Esri for trans-Pacific travel. On July 27, the state awarded a new $638,000 CARES Act-funded contract to Google and its partner, SpringML.
Chief Information Officer Douglas Murdock at the state’s Office of Enterprise Technology Services said in an email that the Safe Travels system “works properly and the data is available to several agencies in each county.”
“We’ve been providing the counties with access to the Google and (Esri) dashboard and data in a second format. The dashboards show real-time data on every traveler, when they arrived, when they are leaving, where they are staying, contact information, and quarantine and daily check-in status,” Murdock said. “Nearly 100 users from law enforcement to emergency management officials have been granted access.”
Murdock said the application “was built and brought online very quickly to prepare for the opening of trans-Pacific travel.”
“We are continuously working to improve the system and to assist the counties. We have scheduled more trainings to provide the counties with additional information,” he said. “Updates to the platform are being made weekly to add features or improve the user interface.”
Murdock said only a traveler’s phone and email are currently pre-verified, but that “address verification is in the current list of development tasks.”…
Murdock said fixes and planned features are included in the state’s initial contract with Google and SpringML. However, he said it’s going to cost an extra $97,000 to add additional dashboard capability and will take $300,000 more to add features to improve communications with travelers with text and voice messaging.
From its Aug. 28 launch through Wednesday, Safe Travels screened over 58,000 passengers at Hawaii airports. On a typical day, Murdock said, 2,000 to 3,000 travelers are screened using the system. But thousands more are expected to come once Hawaii provides a way for them to bypass the quarantine….
HNN: Trans-Pacific travel set to resume soon, but inter-island travel plans still unclear
read … Officials scramble to fix bugs in Safe Travels before visitors return to Hawaii
Hilo Medical Center puts COVID Patients in Same Room with Non-COVID Patients
KITV: … devastating news in late August that Billy was positive for COVID-19 and was admitted to Hilo Medical.
“They had him in there for three days from the 25th until the 28th, on the 28th I picked him up from the hospital. The very next night (we) called 911 and got him back to the emergency room,” said Erika.
Billy was immediately intubated in Hilo and medevacked to Kaiser Moanalua. The family says based on his condition and underlying health issues, the Department of Health nurse assigned to their case was shocked he had been released at all. Especially, back into a household where all family members had tested negative.
“We just don’t understand why they released him that night. He couldn't walk, he couldn’t even talk to us on the phone,” said Brooke.
Their mother had been tested for COVID-19 after her husband was diagnosed, and was negative. But two weeks later she fell ill after two more COVID-19 tests. When she was admitted to the ER, she took yet another.
“They’re all coming back negative,” said Brooke.
In total, to date, more than a dozen negative tests.
“She called me and she told me, I’m in a room with a COVID positive, and she’s freaking out and the nurse tells me well they are six feet apart,” said Brooke.
“She didn’t want to go to the hospital because of what had happened with my dad. To hear them tell us that she’s negative but they put her in a room with somebody positive...," Erika explained through tears….
SHN: HHS Sending Second Wave of Covid-19 Rapid Tests to Assisted Living Providers
SA Column: Veterans home took proper precautions
Cataluna: Don't Blame Politics For Management's Failure At The Hilo Veterans Home
read … Hilo family confused by Hilo Medical Center COVID-19 procedures
Pondering Hu Honua vs Honua Ola
ILind: … It was during this same turbulent period in early 2018 that Hu Honua announced it was changing the company name to Honua Ola Bioenergy, LLC.
But that didn’t actually happen.
A name change is typically a simple process. The company’s owners or governing board vote to approve the change, and a simple form is submitted to state regulators notifying them of the new name. It’s done all the time.
But Ho Honua didn’t change its name. Instead, more than a year after the name-change announcement, it created a whole new company, Honua Ola Bioenergy, LLC, but also kept Hu Honua Bioenergy as a separate entity, with both companies, along with Island Bioenergy, LLC, all registered with the state.
According to online records of the Delaware Division of Corporations, Honua Ola Bioenergy was formed as a limited liability company on February 21, 2019. It wasn’t registered to do business in Hawaii until September 13, 2019, when it applied to operate in Hawaii as a “foreign” LLC, that is, one formed outside of Hawaii….
There’s one interesting wrinkle with Honua Ola worth mentioning.
The company was formed in Delaware last year, and had to apply to here as a “foreign” corporation. It its application, filed in September 2019, it reported being managed by Hu Honua Bioenergy. The application was signed by Warren Lee as Hu Honua’s manager and president.
But the 2020 annual update for Honua Ola lists only Warren Lee and Jon Miyata, Hu Honua’s finance manager, as managers of the newer company. Hu Honua is no longer listed among its managing entities. Whether that absence is significant or not remains to be seen. It could be a simple oversight, or it could be taken literally as indicating Honua Ola has been “cut loose” from Hu Honua.
So despite lots of digging, the purpose and meaning of the name-change-that-wasn’t remains obscure. Although news releases are still being issued in the name of Honua Ola, the latter isn’t anywhere to be found in the shuffling of Grandis Venture’s former assets, or any of the filings in various legal proceedings, including its recent appeals to the Hawaii Supreme Court, which continue to be made in the name of Hu Honua….
IM: Hu Honua`s Ongoing California and Hawai`i Lawsuits Are Intertwined
read … Pondering Hu Honua vs Honua Ola
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