VIDEO: Finalist for UH President pushes 'Critical Race Theory'
City Now Accepting Grants in Aid Applications
Digital States Survey: Hawaii Grade A-
UH earns strong bond rating, saving millions of dollars
Territorial Bank Postpones Merger Vote
Insurance Companies Ask Federal Court to Shut Down State Judiciary’s Sham ‘Settlement’ Hearings
CB: … “We are only intervening to ensure that we get our day in court,” Adam Romney, a lawyer for the insurers, said in a text message.
In a motion filed last week in federal court, Romney and the insurance lawyers accuse attorneys for the victims and the defendants of trying to shut out the insurance industry.
“Those ‘global resolution settlement proceedings’ are a mere euphemism for a process that seeks to destroy the Subrogation Plaintiffs’ legal rights,” the brief says….
It’s routine for insurers to file subrogation lawsuits against alleged wrongdoers. And the allegations by insurers that HECO and Kamehameha Schools were to blame for the fires gained more credence on Wednesday, when a report by Maui County and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reached the same conclusion.
The issue is whether the insurers’ right to subrogation is affected by the proposed settlement. The Hawaii Supreme Court could rule on the question by the end of the year. In the meantime, the insurers are seeking a friendlier and perhaps less politicized ear in the federal court, specifically from Otake. …
PACER: CV 24-00259 JAO-WRP “NOTICE of Hearing on Motion 21 Subrogation Plaintiffs' Motion to Intervene is SET for 10/29/2024 at 9:00 AM in Aha Kanawai before JUDGE JILL A. OTAKE. Opposition is due 10/10/2024, Reply is due 10/17/2024.”
PDF: Memo in Support of Motion to Intervene
read … Insurance Companies Are Still Trying To Block The $4 Billion Maui Fire Settlement -
Lahaina Wildfire Liability Issues Not Resolved
IM: … The morning fire was started by Hawaiian Electric Company equipment. The afternoon fire was a continuation of the morning fire. The afternoon fire started in the bottom of a gully that could not be seen from the road. The afternoon fire initially received massive amounts of dead vegetative fuel located on Kamehameha School property.
The ATF report laid out in detail all the heroic efforts by the Maui Fire Department to put out the fires.
Some people have equated who started the fire with who is liable for the fire. Hawaiian Electric and Kamehameha Schools certainly share in the liability. But so do others.
Focusing only on HECO and Kamehameha School minimizes what could have been done to prevent the disaster in the first place….
Lahaina had a devastating fire in 2018. What was learned? What mitigation efforts were deployed? The simple answer is that nothing was learned nor done.
Mitigation was missing even after the 2023 Lahaina fire. Only one of the five West Maui emergency sirens worked for a year or more. Dead vegetative grasses still exist on the edge of West Maui communities.
The County of Maui is responsible for the sirens. The County of Maui can require landowners to cut grasses that threaten communities. If the landowners do not address the problem, the county can tackle the problem and bill the landowner.
The California Public Utilities Commission has extensive regulation addressing de-energization and re-energization of transmission lines during periods of high fire risk. The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission has not addressed these issues, even after the two devastating West Maui fires….
read … Editorial: Lahaina Wildfire Liability Issues Not Resolved | Ililani Media
Hawaii’s tourism goals unlikely to keep up with inflation
SA: … The Hawai‘i Tourism Authority board on Thursday approved a goal for Hawai‘i Tourism USA, the global marketing team responsible for driving travel demand to Hawaii from its core U.S. market, to grow visitor spending by just 1.4%.
The new goal, which was part of HTA’s 2025 Brand Marketing Strategy adopted by the board, would equate to about $15.8 billion of the $21.7 billion that the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism recently forecast for 2025’s total nominal visitor spending.
Nominal spending means that the number has not been adjusted for inflation, and that’s the rub for economist Paul Brewbaker and Hawaii visitor industry leaders Keith Vieira and Jerry Gibson — especially given that the spending key performance indicator is one of the few measures that isn’t subjective.
“So down is the new up?” Brewbaker said, adding that inflation is running about 2.5% in the urban Hawaii consumer price index.
“Inflation, if I’m to believe the political polls, is on everybody’s mind — maybe not so much for the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority,” he said. “If prices are going up 2.5% on average, but your revenue is only rising at 1.4% after inflation, your revenues have fallen by about 1%. That seems like a pretty low bar to set for an agency overseeing destination marketing and destination management (for about 80% of Hawaii’s visitors) in an economy that continues to struggle with sustaining recovery after the biggest shock that tourism has had since the World War.”
At the same time, Brewbaker thought HTA’s goal for Hawai‘i Tourism USA left a heavy lift for the other 20% or so of the market, “which is foreign and dominated (by Japan), a market segment for which the exchange rate has been worse than at any time in the last 40 years in terms of its deterrence of foreign travel to Hawaii.”
He said HTA’s goal for Hawai’i Tourism Japan to grow nominal spending by 43.5% to $1.62 billion seems “implausibly large.”…
BACKGROUND: 35 Years of Stagnation: Tourism Income Flat Since 1988
read … Hawaii’s tourism goals unlikely to keep up with inflation
HART requests $1 billion appropriation from state
SA: … The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation is seeking a $1 billion appropriation from state funds for the city’s rail project.
The rail agency has petitioned the state Department of Budget and Finance to appropriate that sizable sum for the agency’s next two budget cycles.
The $1 billion would come from the mass transit special fund, created under a 2017 state law known as Act 1….
During a recent HART board of directors special meeting, the panel approved a formal letter signed by board Chair Colleen Hanabusa to petition the state Department of Budget and Finance for the appropriation.
At the Sept. 25 meeting, board member Robert Yu summed up HART’s written request.
“Really, this letter is to increase the appropriation out of the mass transit special fund for fiscal year 2026 and fiscal year 2027,” he said. “And the purpose is to ensure that HART will receive all the (general excise tax) and (transient accommodations tax) collected on behalf of HART by the Department of Taxation, (and) that we receive all of that money that we are eligible to receive.”
Yu added “the appropriation will be actually $1 billion.”
Hanabusa said the reason for calling the special meeting, and drafting a letter to the state, was because “technically, we’re already late.”
“It should have gone into the request of the (budget and finance) to the governor,” she added. “We have to now kind of catch up, but they were willing to do this for us, so we have to get this to them as soon as possible.”
According to the board’s Sept. 25 letter, the amount of GET and TAT surcharges “HART is eligible to receive is limited to the amount deposited in the (mass transit special fund) subject to the audit and certification provisions of Act 1.”
“This appropriation request eliminates the need for emergency appropriation requests for fiscal years 2026 and 2027,” the letter states. “(Emergency appropriations) were necessary in fiscal year 2024 and again in fiscal year 2025 because GET and TAT surcharge collections were higher than the amount appropriated out of the (mass transit special fund).”
According to Yu, the board’s adopted letter to the state was to be delivered immediately….
SA: Letter: HART request is simply a fix for payment issue
read … HART requests $1 billion appropriation from state
DPP Stonewalls: Did Corrupt Building Inspectors Block Marconi Developers?
EH: … On September 25, plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit against the City & County of Honolulu that alleges corrupt Department of Planning and Permitting employees stymied development at Marconi Point filed a motion to compel the production of documents.
The parties have been fighting in U.S. District Court over whether the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting rightfully determined that a Special Management Area permit needed to be obtained, or at least applied for, before more development could continue within the roughly 100-acre project known as the Marconi Point Condominiums.
Attorneys representing the project’s developer Makai Ranch, LLC — as well as related entities Marconi Farms, LLC; MP Unit 21, LLC and RCA Trade Center Inc. — stated in a memorandum that their requests for production related to 1) documents related to the FBI’s investigation of corruption within DPP, and 2) electronically stored information (ESI) and e-mail correspondence. (Within the last few years, five DPP employees have been sentenced to federal prison for bribery.)
The plaintiffs’ original lawsuit alleged that the DPP had violated the Uniform Information Practices Act when it denied their requests for similar records. They sent their renewed request, as part of the lawsuit, on February 24….
read … Marconi Developers Press City to Produce DPP Documents
Hawai'i Gas holds public hearings on proposed 17.6% rate increase across islands
KITV: … Hawaii Gas will hold the first in a series of public hearings across the state about proposed rate changes….
read … Hawai'i Gas holds public hearings on proposed 17.6% rate increase across islands
Increased Hawaii park surveillance without public approval
KHON: … Several cameras have been in operation for years, but officials plan to install dozens more.
A total of 23 surveillance cameras are already rolling in Ala Moana Regional Park. City officials said they are always recording, but footage is only reviewed by authorities after a crime is reported. Home security experts said that is not unusual ….
read … Increased Hawaii park surveillance without public approval
Homeless kauhale units still without power, city says
SA: … “The electrification of the kauhale is still in progress,” Scott Humber, the mayor’s communications director, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser this week. “Electricians are currently working on the wiring, and a transformer needs to be ordered, which will need to be shipped from the mainland before installation can proceed.”
At a Sept. 16 news conference where Mayor Rick Blangiardi and Gov. Josh Green officially unveiled the new facility, Miscovich told the Star-Advertiser the Aala Respite offers beds for up to 62 patients, but then housed 45 people.
“And we’d be full by now, but we don’t have power (available) yet to all of the kauhale,” Miscovich said, noting the former bank branch itself is fully powered, air-conditioned and used to perform medical- related treatments and on-site care for the seriously ill. “That was a little hiccup, because the power that came in from the street needs another generator and needs another transformer, and that will be done” by the end of September for the kauhale.
For those residing in the unpowered, one-person kauhale units, hand-held battery-operated equipment is used, especially at night, he said….
read … Homeless kauhale units still without power, city says
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