Hawaii’s public offices are not so public After MMA Guys Become Conspiracy Theorists
SA: … a public reference room for researching real estate records at the Bureau of Conveyances is in a building with locked ground-floor doors.
At the State Office Tower, which houses numerous agencies, a security guard in the building’s lobby recently advised that a prior appointment was necessary to visit the Land Use Commission despite the LUC not having any such requirement….
The Capitol, where the Legislature was in session from Jan. 19 to May 5, reopened to the public March 7 with a coronavirus vaccination or negative test requirement enforced at new security checkpoints. Public parking in the building, however, didn’t reopen on March 7 and remains closed. Other nearby public parking lots — at the Vineyard Garage, Kalanimoku Building and Kinau Hale — are open.
Health screening for entry to the Capitol was discontinued in late March, though procedures remained for security guards requiring ID verification from visitors who are issued stickers or wristbands to display while in the building….
At the Kalanimoku Building, which houses divisions of DAGS and the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the main entry doors have been locked for some time….
The security guard also said no advance appointment was required to visit the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development, but was unsure what the policy was for the state Energy Office or whether that agency was even in the building. It is.
Similar security stations also exist at buildings housing the Department of Transportation Highways Division, Department of Education and administrative offices for the Department of Human Resources. At the latter two agencies, advance appointments are required, and visitors are required to check in with security and wear visitor passes….
This year, however, has been one laden with exceptional vitriol toward many Hawaii government officials….
At a May 5 Board of Education meeting in the Queen Liliuokalani Building on Miller Street, which also houses DOE and has a security checkpoint in the lobby where visitors must show identification and have an appointment, then-candidate for governor BJ Penn promised to replace all board members if he got elected.
“All you guys gone,” the retired mixed martial arts champion said at the meeting. Penn, who was testifying in opposition to continued mask requirements in public schools, also directed his ire to DOE Superintendent Keith Hayashi, who was sitting behind Penn when Penn got up to speak.
“Where’s Hayashi?” Penn asked. “You gone, brah,” he said after turning around. “You don’t care about our kids.”
At a Sept. 16 meeting of the state Elections Commission in a State Office of Elections building in Pearl City, people who wanted to testify in person had to do so from another room via video relay.
Cory “Da Pittbull” Asuncion, who wore a BJ Penn campaign headband, scolded commissioners for the arrangement and suggested that they would be going to prison for their role in the recent election.
“It’s very simple,” he told the commission and Scott Nago, the state’s chief election officer. “If there is honesty, you would stand and shake our hand and say, ‘How you guys doing?’ But when you hide behind closed doors, it only shows you guilty.”
Asuncion continued, “You guys know what you guys did in this election. What happened to the vote? What’s going on? It’s in your head. Is it really worth it? … If I was you, throw in the towel. This election was rigged and we know it.”…
Big Q: Have you had difficulty accessing government offices or services in the past few months, even as COVID-19 has eased?
SA Editorial: Improve access to public offices
read … Hawaii’s public offices are not so public
Private Security Will Handle Patrols Along Honolulu’s Future Rail Line
CB: … Allied Security, a private firm contracted by the city, will handle those transit patrols, according to Honolulu Department of Transportation Services Director Roger Morton.
Some 10 personnel from Allied will patrol the first 10 miles and nine stations once that portion of the system opens, according to DTS. The plan, Morton said, is to add more security personnel as more stations open….
Overseeing the private patrol operations on behalf of the city will be Thomas Aiu, a former special agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, a former security head for Hawaiian Airlines who in a lawsuit later accused that company of widespread wrongdoing, and a finalist in both 2009 and 2017 to become Honolulu’s police chief….
2017: Aiu's truthfulness on the stand was a concern and got him barred from testifying in other cases.
read … Private Security Will Handle Patrols Along Honolulu’s Future Rail Line
Report: 28% of Beachfront homes within 20’ of Water -- More if we use hyped up Sea Level Rise Projections
SA: … Already, about 28% of beachfront homes along the North Shore, comprising 2.5 miles, are within 20 feet or less of the shoreline, putting them at risk of being damaged by ocean waves and increased flooding, according to a report released this week by the North Shore Coastal Resilience Working Group, which includes more than 30 top scientists, environmentalists, attorneys, coastal engineers, lawmakers, government officials and homeowners. In the coming decades, with 2.4 feet of sea level rise, that figure is projected to rise to 40%.
Hawaii is expected to face 1 foot of sea level rise by 2050 and 3 to 4 feet of sea level rise by the end of the century, according a midrange scenario….
Take a look at the North Shore Coastal Resilience Working Group’s report at: 808ne.ws/3SRaK1W
(IDEA: The Global Warmers are Trying to Abolish Surfing. If big north shore swells causing erosion are actually 'sea level rise' and the warmers want to 'stop sea level rise' then they are actually trying to eliminate the north shore swells. Thus we have empirical proof that the enviros want to abolish surfing.)
CB: North Shore Group Confronts Growing Threats Of Erosion, Sea Level Rise
KHON: Oahu’s North Shore: Solution for coastal erosion needed
read … Report details strategies for receding beaches and the threat of sea level rise
Pacific Islands Need More Climate Change Funding. They Also Need Help Spending It Faster (LOL!)
CB: … Maybe we should give them funding to help pay out the funding we’ve given them ….
read … Pacific Islands Need More Climate Change Funding. They Also Need Help Spending It Faster
Report: Free Money from the Sky Keeps Deadbeat Tenants in Place
HTH: … Of the 1,378 mediation cases initiated between August 2021 and August 2022, 87% reached a settlement, compared to a 47% settlement rate prior to the pandemic.
Julie Mitchell, executive director of the Ku‘ikahi Mediation Center, said both mediation centers on Hawaii Island — Ku‘ikahi and West Hawaii Mediation Center — received 285 mediation cases through Act 57, 150 of which actually initiated proceedings. Of those 150, 119 were resolved.
Meanwhile, 97 of the 135 cases that did not begin mediation proceedings did so because they were settled before mediation could begin.
Mitchell said 76% of all 285 Act 57 cases on the Big Island were successfully resolved without the need for eviction proceedings.
“It’s been very successful,” Mitchell said. “Overall, our success rates were very high compared to normal. … It’s just a different way to approach things. Eviction can be very expensive for landlords. They need lawyers, and it can take months before it even starts. Mediation can resolve things quicker.”
Both Mitchell and the Appleseed report agreed that the existence of pandemic relief programs — particularly rent relief — was a major factor in getting parties to settle….
Report: Hawaiʻi's tenant-landlord mediation program kept hundreds housed amid pandemic fallout
read … COVID Money Pays the rent
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