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How Miske Allegedly Bribed DPP Employees
ILind: … Paoa testified that Kamaaina Solar used a “permit expeditor” to guide their permit applications through the city’s Department of Planning and Permitting.
Shs said he would give planning department staff gift cards or leave boxes of manapua to get their permits to the top of the pile.
She said Brian, the permit expeditor, would openly talk about how he was able to move their projects forward.
It was effective, she said, because he got their permits issued and closed.
While working on the application for one large project in Kona, she recalled that he spoke of giving $500 Hawaiian Airlines gift cards to several county planning employees handling the permit applications, spending between $1,000 and $2,000, using money from Kamaaina Solar.
Paoa said that when she was working as an administrative assistant, the office manager taught her to forge the signatures of Kamaaina Solar’s responsible managing employee, or RME, which were required on permit applications and other documents. A qualified RME was necessary in order to retain the company’s license. Other witnesses said Miske’s companies had difficulty finding qualified replacements when an RME left for other employment and was no longer active on Miske’s jobs….
Paoa was asked about a Kamaaina Solar employee who worked installing photovoltaic systems. Although he was not a licensed electrician, he wanted to start his own company and asked her for assistance filling out the forms.
Paoa said she was busy, but Mike Miske asked her to keep the employee happy for a specific reason. The employee had a family member who worked for HPD and had access to the names of people investigators were planning to contact as witnesses in the ongoing criminal investigation of Miske and his companies. This information was being passed along to Miske.
Miske told her the information was valuable because he could “lawyer them up” before they met with investigators. Although she was busy, Paoa said she did provide assistance as Miske requested.
The employee did register a new company in October 2016, state business registration records confirm. And the employee’s name is on the list of potential witnesses filed by the government prior to trial. Also on the potential witness list is a Honolulu police officer with the same last name, consistent with Paoa’s testimony. However, neither appeared as prosecution witnesses before the government rested its case ….
read … Bits and pieces from trial testimony
Censorship: House Republicans Forbidden to Quote Democrats
CB: … The state House has a new social media policy that appears to have been inspired in part by online threats and hate speech that followed a dispute earlier this year between Rep. Jeanne Kapela and Rep. Elijah Pierick over her House invocation. Long story short: She said some things he didn’t like and he riled up his social media followers who then took out after her on their social media (posted her comments verbatim online) ….
“Members shall not use their official accounts to disparage other members or individuals, and shall not encourage, support or invite disparagement or threats by commenters,” the policy states. “This includes posts on a member’s own official account page as well as posts on other social media pages using the member’s official account.”
(TRANSLATION: Reps may not quote other Reps.)
GOP Rep. Gene Ward has problems with parts of the new policy, which he equates to a blanket “placed over the mouths and cameras of legislators in the name of fairness.” He takes issue with a section that prohibits altering or editing content from its original form: “For brevity and most effective messaging the majority of your videos have been edited to some degree.”
Ward also doesn’t care for this section: “Content critical of policy may not be personalized or politicized, and may not be used to disparage other members, other individuals or political parties.”
He argues that it restricts a legislator’s ability to inform the public of what is happening “by making them liable for how people respond to the information.” …
read … Chad Blair: A Speech On Leadership Sparks A Social Media Backlash - Honolulu Civil CB: …Beat
Tokuda, Case Demand DoD pay for Sex-Change Surgery for the Troops
CB: … But our two reps — Ed Case and Jill Tokuda — voted against it. So did most other Democrats.
That’s because Republicans, who narrowly control the chamber, stuffed the NDAA with all sorts of un-Democrat amendments relating to abortion, DEI programs, medical treatment of transgender troops “and other Republican-backed culture war issues,” as Axios and other news outlets reported.
“Once again, House Republicans have derailed a bipartisan process for this year’s National Defense Authorization Act by adding harmful poison-pill policy riders that attack reproductive rights and health care for our service members and undermine a more diverse and inclusive military for women, LGBTQ+ individuals and people of color,” Tokuda said in a press release….
read … Chad Blair: A Speech On Leadership Sparks A Social Media Backlash - Honolulu Civil Beat
Lahaina: 215 households still living in the emergency hotel program
CB: … FEMA and the state are building 619 homes for fire survivors, but there are now fewer than 215 households still living in the emergency hotel program….
Blasting of hard blue rock has been underway since May to prepare 34 empty acres for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s temporary complex of 169 modular homes, dubbed Kilohana.
The project is “a little ahead of schedule” and expected to be completed by Oct. 28, according to the Corps.
But despite the housing crisis on Maui, it is not clear if four months from now there will be enough FEMA-eligible households still needing a place to live to occupy all 169 units of the $100 million-plus project….
As of last week, there are only 114 more households that need to be moved out of FEMA’s pricey emergency hotel program and into more stable housing. And all of those remaining households have been matched with a direct lease property, FEMA Deputy Federal Coordinating Officer Curtis Brown said Wednesday.
FEMA’s goal is to get all 114 households moved into direct leases by June 30, the ever-extending deadline for the federal agency to reimburse the state for fire survivors housed in resorts and condotels.
But the reality, Brown said, is that some of the remaining households — primarily those with pets or that have people with accessibility — may not be able to move into a direct lease. There are also about 58 people with “checkered backgrounds.”
“So we have Kilohana,” he said….
Right next door, work is underway on the state’s temporary housing complex called Ka Lai Ola, with a base budget of $115 million. It will have 450 units to house fire survivors who are not eligible for FEMA assistance….
only about 100 households that aren’t eligible for FEMA housing — either its direct-lease program or its Kilohana project — are still living in hotels. That leaves about 350 units to fill.
“We do anticipate that the 450 (homes) will be occupied,” Campos said.
People who have expressed interest in the state’s group housing site include fire survivors who moved to other islands or the mainland and want to move back to Maui, according to Campos.
He also said other candidates for the state housing include households that turned down FEMA’s rental assistance to stay in West Maui and people who didn’t apply for FEMA assistance for reasons like “not wanting to give the federal government all of their information.”…
read … New Taxpayer-Funded Housing Going Up In Lahaina May No Longer Be Needed
Hawaii Spends More on Pre-K, Just Cannibalizing Private Preschools
CB: … When the new school year begins in August, more than 800 Hawaii children will gain access to free public preschool.
In its largest push yet to expand public preschool, the Executive Office on Early Learning plans to open 44 new classes serving 3- and 4-year-olds, bringing the number of state-operated classrooms to just over 90….
(KEY PHRASE: “State-operated.”)
According to the National Institute for Early Education Research, Hawaii was among the top 10 states for investing in public preschool but was 44th in the nation when it came to providing access for 4-year-olds in 2023.
The state has doubled down on its efforts to expand families’ access to both free and tuition-based preschool options in recent years. In addition to a $200 million investment in public preschool facilities, the state has recently expanded a subsidy program helping families cover the tuition costs of private preschools….
Despite ongoing efforts to expand access to early learning, the state is breaking even when it comes to preschool capacity, Urosevich said. Private preschools are losing about 100 seats per month, largely due to staffing shortages, she added.
The Department of Human Services has previously said approximately 30 licensed child care providers closed from 2020 to 2022. …
Yanagi said she wishes the state had invested in existing preschools instead of opening more classrooms in the community. …
read … Staffing Shortages Persist As Hawaii's Effort To Expand Preschool Moves Forward - Honolulu Civil Beat
Hawaii 2nd-Worst State for fast Food Operators
OCR: … California ranked dead last on my fast food business climate scorecard. Next worst were Hawaii, Alaska, Connecticut and Maryland….
Pricing: Tops was Hawaii at 19.5% above average, and after California came Alaska at 16%. The cheapest fast food was found in Mississippi, 6.3% below average, Alabama, 5.6% below and Nebraska, 4% below….
The priciest ingredients were found in Alaska, where they’re 24% above average, then Hawaii, 17% higher. Cheapest? North Dakota and Oklahoma, 6% below average, and Louisiana, 5% under….
Utility bills: Costliest was Hawaii, 46% above average, Georgia, 23% above, and Alaska, 21% above. Utility bargains were New Mexico, 20% below the norm, Wisconsin, 18% below, and Michigan, 14% below….
California ranked fourth-highest on overall business expenses, according to recent rankings from Forbes magazine. The only pricier states were Hawaii, New Jersey and Massachusetts….
Californians spent $9,362 per capita on food, beverages and hotels in 2022, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s the third-largest consumer outlay among the states and 19% above the $7,893 nationally.
The top spot was Hawaii at $10,147, then Colorado at $9,620. Arkansans spent the least at $6,079, then Oklahoma at $6,361, and Idaho at $6,512.
read … Is California the worst state for fast food operators?
Independent Monitor Warns $11 Million State IT Project Is In Jeopardy And Could Fail
CB: … The DOT project is running about two years behind schedule, and Ohanasoft said in its most recent assessment that contractor InvenioLSI has still failed to provide the state with an acceptable project plan. The consultant describes that plan as a “foundational” document for the project.
That report by Ohanasoft warns “the persistent issues are casting an increasingly grim shadow over the project’s status, strongly suggesting that achieving successful completion may be unattainable.”
But InvenioLSI and state Department of Transportation Director Ed Sniffen disagree with that assessment. They acknowledge there have been problems, but predict the new system will go live sometime this year or next.
The DOT project is known at “H4,” and involves moving DOT’s antiquated existing financial management system off the state mainframe computer and modernizing the system. The new system must meet the requirements of the Federal Highway Administration, which provides much of the funding for major Hawaii roadways.
The state contracted with LSI Consulting for $10.95 million in 2021 to develop the DOT system. LSI later merged with Invenio Business Solutions to become InvenioLSI, which continues to work on the project.
LSI was involved in a separate controversy last year when the state scrapped a separate computer project known as the Enterprise Financial System after spending $7.8 million on that effort. LSI was the vendor for that project….
RELATED: SB2516: HGEA Power Grab forced State CIO to Resign
read … Independent Monitor Warns $11 Million State IT Project Is In Jeopardy And Could Fail
Transfer of former Navy land in Kalaeloa falls through
SA: … A state agency has backed out of a long-anticipated acquisition of land from the Navy at the former Barbers Point Naval Air Station in Kalaeloa.
The Hawaii Community Development Authority recently decided not to accept 213 acres largely due to cost concerns for conservation and environmental cleanup of the property, which includes a pond contaminated by ordnance disposal and two mostly remediated trap and skeet shooting ranges.
HCDA’s move, approved in a unanimous June 5 vote by the agency’s board, scuttles a more than 15-year-old plan by the agency to lease out part of the property for commercial solar farm use that would generate revenue to fund conservation and preservation work on the land that also includes historic and cultural resources….
The Navy has had a tough time finding anyone to accept ownership of the three parcels over the past 25 years.
At one time the state Department of Land and Natural Resources was expected to take the smaller 58-acre former shooting range site for use as a cultural park while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was envisioned to acquire the neighboring 146-acre former range that is home to the endangered Hawaiian akoko shrub.
After those two transfers were abandoned, HCDA stepped up to take the two former ranges and the pond along with a nearby 77-acre parcel containing many cultural artifacts.
The agency already had been directed by the Legislature to oversee redevelopment of the former military base, which included developing zoning rules and a master plan. But for HCDA to receive land from the Navy, a new federal law was enacted in 2009 and requires that such lands be used for public benefit.
In 2010, HCDA acquired the 77-acre parcel that became Kalaeloa Heritage Park under a lease with a nonprofit organization, and the other three parcels were anticipated to be conveyed “soon” afterward….
FLASHBACK: Fireworks, dirt, and stolen trucks: Colleen Hanabusa and the Honolulu Raceway Deal
read … Transfer of former Navy land in Kalaeloa falls through
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