Statewide Vax for Age 16+ Begins
Hawaii State-Funded Preschools Score 10 of 10
Hawaii Highest Electric Rates in USA
Reign of Terror: Crazy Saiki Clobbers Critics with Alarming Machinations
CB: … Saiki, 56, has sometimes alarmed colleagues and members of the public by pushing hard to move his agenda forward, and by politically clobbering people who displease him….
And not all of Saiki’s machinations have been well received.
This year he launched a multi-pronged attack on State Auditor Les Kondo, and also took the rare step of appointing a House special committee to hold public hearings on the drunken driving arrest of House dissident Rep. Sharon Har.
Saiki hand picked the working group tasked with assessing Kondo’s performance, and the committee concluded Kondo has failed to meet his obligations under the provision of the state constitution that created the auditor’s office. Kondo vehemently disputes those findings.
Saiki also introduced bills that seemed designed to punish Kondo, including one to cut the budget of the auditor’s office by more than 50%, and another to give lawmakers control of the auditor’s pay.
Both bills died, and it is unclear what that spat has accomplished….
Saiki also oversaw some decisions in the House this year that critics see as too accommodating to Hawaii’s business and tourism interests….
Former Gov. John Waihee says that “taking something that obviously benefits the least fortunate of those that have been affected by the pandemic and not doing something about it is, to me, incomprehensible.”
“If you’re afraid of a hearing, you’re afraid that you might not be doing something correctly. That’s the way I look at it,” Waihee said. “If you’re not willing to put it out in the open, the question is, why not?”
Saiki’s style of leadership has also proved to be unpopular with some of his colleagues. One lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity said that dissidents who oppose the House leadership are essentially banished to outsider status, known as “Siberia.”
“They’ll move your office, they’ll move your parking, they’re way more restrictive in approving your allotment of your legislative allowance, especially for trips” to conferences and other events, the lawmaker said….
In one memorable moment on the House floor in 2018, then-Rep. Isaac Choy described Saiki’s leadership as a “reign of terror” after Saiki removed Rep. Ken Ito as chairman of the House committee dealing with veterans and military affairs.
Ito’s offense was that he admitted signing a resolution that would have removed Saiki as speaker during a failed attempt to reorganize the House. Saiki declared Choy’s comments to be a violation of House rules, and had them stricken from the House journal….
Kauai Rep. Jimmy Tokioka, who was an ally of Say and has challenged Saiki’s leadership, said he is convinced Saiki appointed a committee to hold public hearings on Har’s drunken driving arrest this year because she was also a Say supporter nearly a decade ago….
Saiki this year called for removing the University of Hawaii from management of Mauna Kea as part of a revamp of oversight of the mountain. The House then passed a resolution to assemble a committee to consider the issue, but Hooser called that initiative “crazy.”
“It has no power, it’s just a committee he formed, and it doesn’t have a consensus among the stakeholders, and it’s a waste of time,” Hooser said….
Hooser, who represented Kauai in the Senate, also took issue with Saiki’s push this year to force Kauai County to drop its extra requirement for a brief quarantine and a second COVID-19 test for arriving passengers from the mainland.
Saiki and tourism industry officials argued Hawaii needed a uniform, statewide travel policy to re-start the local economy, but Saiki’s proposal was fiercely opposed by many Kauai residents. Maui Rep. Tina Wildberger described it as an example of “State of Oahu overreach.”…
read … Hawaii House Speaker Scott Saiki’s High-Profile Agenda Is Raising Questions
SB1409: OHA Plan to Purge Members of State Boards who Do Not Attend Reeducation Camp
SA: … Hawaii lawmakers are poised to pass legislation that would mandate the removal of members of some of the state’s most powerful boards and commissions if they fail to complete a training course in Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights and public-trust responsibilities required by law.
In 2015, Gov. David Ige signed Act 169 requiring such training. The measure was introduced at the behest of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs amid concerns that the lack of knowledge among board and commission members was contributing to a “sense of disenfranchisement felt by many in the Native Hawaiian community,” as well as a plethora of lawsuits against the state.
But since passage of the law, not everyone has complied, according to OHA and the Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law, which have partnered for the training course. They hope that the Legislature will pass Senate Bill 1409 this month to help enforce the law….
As of January 2021, 15 out of about 81 appointees who are subject to Act 169 had not attended the training course within one year of being appointed, as the statute requires, according to records maintained by the Ka Huli Ao Center….
In testimony opposing the bill, Case said that five of the seven boards and commissions subject to Act 169 are housed within the Department of Land and Natural Resources. She said all members of those five boards and commissions had fulfilled the training requirement as of December….
“The department questions the need for this punitive bill, especially as board and commission members are volunteers,” wrote Case.
In addition to the Land Board, the training requirement applies to the Land Use Commission, Environmental Council, Hawaii Historic Places Review Board, Legacy Land Conservation Commission, Natural Area Reserves System Commission and Commission on Water Resource Management….
SB1409: Text, Status
read … State board members violating law, Office of Hawaiian Affairs says
Behind Closed Doors: Police commissioners to hire local consultant to pick new HPD chief ‘from within’
HNN: … The police commission will discuss this further at the upcoming meeting this Wednesday….
(Each of these articles has a sliver of the whole story. Here they are stiched together so you can see what the real deal is.)
read … Police commissioners lay groundwork for lengthy process of finding new HPD chief
Hawaii Plans Vaccine Passports For Interisland Travelers First
CB: … Hawaii residents traveling interisland may be the first users in the state of a so-called vaccine passport program that is expected to rollout in the next several weeks.
State officials planned to announce more details on what the program will look like and how it will work on Tuesday, Gov. David Ige said Monday during an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight” program.
Interisland travelers to Kauai, Maui and Hawaii counties must receive a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of departure or undergo a 10-day quarantine. Under the vaccine passport being proposed, inoculated residents would be able to skip the test and the quarantine.
However, it was not clear when vaccinated visitors from the mainland may also bypass the state’s quarantine rules.
“It gets a lot more complicated trying to verify vaccinations done in other states,” Ige said. “That’s a bigger challenge, but we’re going to start with people vaccinated in the state of Hawaii first.” ….
Daily passenger arrivals to Hawaii have hovered around 20,000 in the past week, and Ige said trying to monitor everyone boarding flights and moving between islands also poses a logistical challenge for state officials.
Ige said that CommonPass and Clear, two companies contracted to develop the passport program, were working on integrating vaccination records with the state’s Safe Travels program.
“If we can do it electronically, that could really speed (up) a lot of things,” Ige said.
The state also needs to work out a system for tourists from the mainland who want to travel between islands….
Ige didn’t say specifically if that would be allowed or if those types of travelers would have to use a system separate from Hawaii residents. But the governor did say that allowing residents to travel between islands should give the state time to link its systems with national networks that CommonPass and Clear can access.
Ige’s most recent emergency proclamation detailed plans for Hawaii’s vaccine passport. The program must still be approved by the director of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, Kenneth Hara.
Lt. Gov. Josh Green has previously said that the interisland passport should start May 1….
read … Hawaii Plans Vaccine Passports For Interisland Travelers First
TMT construction still on hold, but production of telescope’s components move ahead
HNN: … Engineers recently completed work on two large circular discs for the scope’s primary mirror. Altogether, there will be about 490 of them, and each piece weighs 550 pounds.
TMT officials had hoped to resume work on Mauna Kea this Spring, however they say pandemic-related travel and safety challenges are stalling work.
“We continue to assess a number of factors impacting TMT’s timeline and schedule. Because of the ongoing pandemic, there are travel restrictions and health and safety measures in place, as well as varying challenges posed by the pandemic across the partnership. We continue to make progress in most areas of the project, doing the work we can safely do in the partner countries by advancing the different components of the telescope, including the telescope mirrors,” TMT Vice President of External Relations Gordon Squires said.
He added that they are also waiting recommendations from the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, which will determine how the project’s funding will be prioritized. That is expected later this year.
The development of the discs however are seen by engineers as a milestone in the project.
“This milestone has been nearly three years in the making,” said production project manager Greg Feller. “We know that this project is important and is being closely monitored by our customer community as well as our own internal team.” …
read … TMT construction still on hold, but production of telescope’s components move ahead
Input sought for development around Aloha Stadium
SA: … The state Department of Accounting and General Services is announcing today that it plans to host a May 4 videoconference briefing for development industry professionals to help determine how DAGS draws up a request for proposals to have private developers build a residential and commercial neighborhood around a new stadium on 20 acres of the 98-acre stadium site owned by the state.
The outreach plan follows a move DAGS announced in February to seek separate proposals to replace Aloha Stadium and to develop surrounding land now largely occupied by parking.….
read … Input sought for development around Aloha Stadium
Frustrated Businesses Say It's Time For Action In Chinatown
CB: … The column you are going to read here is not the one I started out to write.
Initially I intended to criticize a website called chinatownwatch.com for its nasty and hateful comments about the most vulnerable homeless people living on the streets in Chinatown.
But after spending time in Chinatown this weekend, including a walk with the website’s co-founder, I decided to amplify my scope and write about the larger issue of Chinatown’s dystopian decline during the pandemic.
I see this small historic area as the perfect place for Mayor Rick Blangiardi to use as a visible symbol that he means business when he promises to improve life in Honolulu.
With fewer people going to Chinatown during the pandemic to dine out and visit the bars, the graffiti, drug dealing, filth on the streets and anguish of the homeless community are in-your-face more than before when there was the distraction of crowds of visitors….
SA: Homeless dude arrested for 2nd attack on Asians
read … Frustrated Businesses Say It's Time For Action In Chinatown
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