Rising Costs on the Horizon: How Increased Tariffs on China Will Impact Hawaiʻi
City announces two more town hall meetings on proposed sewer fee increases
Abolish Salary Commissions?
Coruption: First test of AG’s “Special Investigation and Prosecution Division” – How will she throw JL Capital case?
SA: … There’s much to unpack from the stunning news that a wealthy developer with a notable presence in Hawaii has been indicted for alleged illegal campaign donations. The criminal case against JL Capital CEO Timothy Lee, 48, on nine felony counts of false-name contributions to two mayoral campaigns in 2020, stands to reveal an insidious “pay to play” culture on how business gets done in these islands. …
he’s released on $250,000 bail, with arraignment and plea scheduled for today. An Oahu grand jury indicted him on Feb. 7 for intentionally or knowingly making $13,000 in contributions in another person’s name to the 2020 campaigns of mayoral candidates Keith Amemiya and Kymberly Pine….
… It was only in 2022 that a new anti-corruption unit in the Attorney General’s Office was created — the Special Investigation and Prosecution Division (SIPD) — after the bribery scandals of legislators J. Kalani English and Ty Cullen put a hot spotlight on political corruption. Today’s criminal case against Lee was turned over to SIPD after the state Campaign Spending Commission had investigated and fined Lee in 2021 for violating campaign laws: falsely using others’ names to circumvent campaign-contribution bundling laws to exceed the $4,000 limit in mayoral races.
(TRANSLATION: This is SIPD’s chance to show that it is just a toothless extension of the State’s inability to prosecute local corruption. Time to show that you can play ball, boys.)
SIPD’s inception was among the good-government reforms successfully enacted since 2022, championed by the blue-ribbon Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct….
The false-name contribution charge is a Class C felony, punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. This is a rare instance that could involve prison time; over the past decade, campaign finance violators have rarely been criminally charged — and even then, defendants’ plea deals have resulted in fines only.
(TRANSLATION: If SIPD wants a future for itself, Lee must not see prison. Legislators are watching.)
>> CEO Lee runs the prominent Honolulu-based investment firm, JL Capital, which has invested millions of dollars in Ala Moana-area properties. Its affiliate, JL Ala Moana LLC, developed the $500 million Sky Ala Moana condominium project, owned by Joon-ho Lee, who is among South Korea’s richest two dozen billionaires….
HNN: Oahu grand jury indicts CEO for campaign contributions
RELATED: Indictment: Developer Behind False-Name Contributions to Amemiya, Pine
FORBES: Lee Joon-ho
read … Editorial: Keep wary eye on political corruption
The Hawaiʻi State Capitol Could Be Closed For Years As Contractors Milk $100M Allocated To Fix Aging Systems
CB: … A major upgrade of the Hawaiʻi State Capitol to refurbish core functions of the historic structure could cost as much as $100 million and keep the building closed for a prolonged period of time.
State Comptroller Keith Regan said basic building infrastructure such as the electrical, water and wastewater systems in the Capitol are outdated and aging, and components of the air conditioning system also need to be replaced.
“The internal guts of the building, the mechanical and the electrical systems, are beyond their life and need to be replaced so that we prevent any sort of potential major building failure and shut down,” he said.
Regan said estimates of the total cost range from $50 million to $100 million, but it is not yet clear when construction will start or how long the work will take. The project will require the Legislature and the offices of the governor and lieutenant governor to temporarily relocate. (Milk it!)
Gov. Josh Green’s proposed budget for the next two years includes $2 million for preliminary planning for the project, including identifying alternate sites where lawmakers, the top executive branch leadership and their staffs could operate during construction….
(IDEA: OCCC. Rename House as ‘Uso’ and Senate as ‘La Familia’. Conference Committees in octagon. Could be monetized on YouTube.)
The building underwent major renovations in the 1990s that cost more than $69 million, and included costly work to remove asbestos from inside the structure. But Regan said important electrical and other infrastructure was not replaced as part of that project (because that would have been efficient)….
In the last two decades the state has spent more than $56 million on an array of smaller repair projects such as replacing roofing and ceiling components, renovating the elevators and refurbishing cooling systems. (Milk it!)
The Capitol’s reflecting pools, a major architectural feature of the building, are now being replaced as part of yet another $63.1 million project to resolve longstanding problems with leaks into the offices and parking facility below…. (Milk it!)
read … The Hawaiʻi State Capitol Could Be Closed For Years To Fix Aging Systems - Honolulu Civil Beat
Coconut Rhinoceros Beetles Arrive in Waikiki, City will soon be stripped of all Coconut Palms
CB: … Melzer and his laboratory’s Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle Response team last week found old and new wounds on freshly planted and established palms in and around the Victoria Place condominium complex near Ala Moana Beach Park. The location poses a threat to Waikīkī Beach, less than two miles away and within the beetles’ daily range of flight…
Officials have long dreaded the idea of the beetle breaching the urban core for fear the palm-studded cityscape would be irreversibly transformed, potentially affecting tourism.
The state and counties have invested millions of dollars to control the pest, though invasive species specialists have suggested it was too little, too late, especially to contend with a pest dealing catastrophic damage to palm populations across the Pacific….
Both Weiser and Melzer recommend landowners or the city apply a fly spray-like pyrethroid pesticide to the palms’ crowns to get rid of the problem early. The treatments, Weiser said, would pose minimal public health risk….
The UH CRB Response team will not be responding to the potential infestation on Oʻahu due to (blablabla) ….
read … Ravenous Beetles Go Urban, Preying On Honolulu's Iconic Coconut Palms - Honolulu Civil Beat
Transsexual files Lawsuit filed over 2020 COVID mask incident
SA: … Tolentino went to the 7-Eleven store at 655 California Ave. to buy food with his (her) son and a friend. A store employee asked him (her) to wear a mask before entering the store. The store employee also called the police.
Officers Brent Sylvester and Sgt. Jeffrey Tallion responded to the call. Sylvester has 22 years on the job, and Tallion retired in 2024. Sylvester remains on active duty.
While Tolentino waited in the checkout line, Sylvester, who was not wearing a mask according to the complaint, stuck his head in the door and asked the cashier “if everything was okay.”
The cashier allegedly told Sylvester she “did not know whether everything was okay” and said that she had to ask Tolentino to “wear a mask before entering the store” but that he (she) “ultimately complied.”
Tallion allegedly “forcibly escorted” Tolentino out of the store. Sylvester and Tallion told Tolentino to go home with no explanation.
The officers asked for his identification, and Tolentino allegedly refused.
In body-worn camera footage released to Tolentino’s attorneys, Sylvester is seen standing chest to chest with Tolentino. Tolentino is yelling at Sylvester and getting in his face.
Sylvester’s and Tolentino’s chests collide during Tolentino’s verbal onslaught, and Sylvester whips Tolentino onto the ground with one hand. Both officers move in to handcuff Tolentino, and Sylvester is heard calmly admonishing Tolentino for pushing him.
Tolentino was taken to Wahiawa General Hospital for treatment before being booked and arrested. He filed a formal complaint with the Honolulu Police Commission on Jan. 27, 2021.
On April 30, 2021, the charges filed against Tolentino for harassment and for violating the city’s COVID-19 emergency order “were dismissed without prejudice,” according to the complaint….
HNN: Bodycam video in lawsuit shows alleged assault by police officers during pandemic
read … Lawsuit filed over 2020 COVID mask incident | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Kauai, Island of Retaliation: Sex Harassment Claim Against Judge Could Cost Taxpayers $90K
CB: … Leanne Rosa had worked for Kauaʻi Judge Randal Valenciano for about 18 years when, she says, he began conducting himself in a “sexually suggestive” way, subjecting her to “sexualized hugs” and “unwanted and unwelcome touching” in the courthouse.
The alleged unwanted behavior began in 2015 and came to an end in 2023 when she filed a federal employment claim and then a federal lawsuit against him.
Valenciano denied the accusations in federal court filings. The case had been scheduled to go to trial in August.
Instead, Rosa and Valenciano have now agreed to dismiss the claims and state taxpayers are poised to pay Rosa $90,000 to settle the case. House and Senate committees have approved the settlement at the request of the Attorney General’s Office, one of 17 claims against the state totaling $5.9 million the office recommended paying out. The settlement is headed to votes in the Legislature’s money committees….
According to the federal lawsuit, Rosa’s working relationship with Valenciano began in 1997 when he hired her to help out in his law office in Līhuʻe. At the time he was also a Kauaʻi County Council member, a position he held from 1990 until 2002.
When he was appointed chief judge of the Kauaʻi Fifth Circuit Court in 2007, he took Rosa with him as his assistant.
Rosa had previously filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before bringing the federal lawsuit. The EEOC concluded its investigation “without findings” and gave Rosa a “Notice of Right to Sue.”
In a 2023 Civil Beat story about the case, Honolulu lawyer Eric Seitz, who represents Rosa, said he couldn’t answer why Rosa stayed on the job with Valenciano so long if he was making her uncomfortable. At the time, he declined to make her available for an interview…
Rosa previously sued former Kauaʻi Deputy Chief Court Administrator Ernest Barreira for alleged sexual harassment and retaliation in 2010. Barreira also denied the allegations, and that case was settled in 2011….
read … It's Your Money: Sex Harassment Claim Against Judge Could Cost Taxpayers $90K - Honolulu Civil Beat
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