Missing Meth Money a Conflict of Interest for Bissen Appointee?
House Passes South Pacific Tuna Treaty Act
14 Years Later--City Settles Wrongful Prosecution Suit for $2.1M
After 100 days, Trump already done with Tulsi?
SA: … Gabbard’s decision comes as President Donald Trump has openly mused to aides over time about whether the office she leads — which was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to improve interagency coordination — should continue to exist, according to two people with knowledge of his remarks. Gabbard has discussed Trump’s concerns with him directly and has considered how to overhaul the office, according to one official….
(TRANSLATION: After 100 days, Trump already done with Tulsi?)
The decision was announced internally on Tuesday. CIA staff members were told in a memo from the agency’s directorate of analysis that such a move had been considered several times over the years.
The memo, which was described to The New York Times, said there was “much to be worked out about transition timelines and our own processes.” The infrastructure to create the briefing is sizable and owned by the CIA and could be difficult to move or replicate at Gabbard’s office.
Moving the production of the daily brief was one of two decisions Gabbard made on Tuesday. She also ordered the National Intelligence Council to relocate to her headquarters.
The moves are part of an effort by Gabbard to shore up the role of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and ensure that she has oversight and control over two of the most important functions of her post. Critics of her agency argue that its work should be folded back into the CIA, whose current director is John Ratcliffe….
In a statement, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, did not address Gabbard’s move of the daily brief to her headquarters, instead saying that she is “clearly doing an excellent job keeping the president constantly informed of national security developments around the world” and adding that Trump has “full confidence in her.”
Former intelligence officials raised questions about the move. Beth Sanner, who oversaw the president’s intelligence brief in the first Trump administration, said it would be “a huge mistake.”
“Ultimately and ironically, it would probably reduce the ODNI role because it would separate their oversight from the CIA teams doing most of the work,” Sanner said. She added, “It would create inefficiencies and risk miscommunication and mistakes. Ironically, over time, this probably will lessen ODNI’s oversight role and give CIA more control — out of sight, out of mind.”
The CIA memo said that while the directorate of analysis role in supporting the daily brief would evolve, “we will remain laser-focused on the president’s and Director Ratcliffe’s priorities and our core mission — generating and delivering insight with impact, free from political or personal bias.” …
(Personal Bias? If Tulsi could convince Trump to let India nuke Pakistan, Chris Butler’s name would be inscribed on the Taj Mahal.)
read … Gabbard moves production of President’s Daily Brief from CIA to her own Cult Complex
Decrease in visitor tax rate sought as fear of recession looms
MN: … Maui County Council chair Alice Lee said she hopes to roll back the council’s proposed property tax rate hikes for the visitor industry because there’s sufficient funding for future projects and a likelihood of a recession.
“The economy is so uncertain with the rash of federal policies people wilI likely not travel much,” Lee said. “It will affect our visitor industry.”
The Maui County Council will hold a public hearing Friday to review the 2025-26 fiscal budget. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. at the Kalana O Maui Building.
Lee said she’s proposing rolling back the rates for visitor-related properties to Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen’s proposed budget because she feels there’s more than enough money with the county facing more than 600 job vacancies.
The proposed reduction would reduce the estimated real property tax revenues for the visitor industry by $14.5 million.
“What we need is to fill our 600 vacancies to implement projects,” Lee said.
She said because of a staffing shortage, the county has been unable to implement already approved projects, including her Ohana grant assistance program to encourage homeowners to build accessory dwellings.
The program began in July, and of the 114 applications for the grant, 53 were complete, including 18 with building permits. But no funds have been released to qualified recipients, and the project is being reviewed by the Department of the Corporation Counsel.
Lee said the visitor industry generates some $377 million of the more than $650 million in property taxes, not including its contribution of transient accommodation taxes and general excise taxes.
She said assessments of properties have gone up and the county will be receiving more property tax revenue as a result of higher property values….
NHK: Hawaii seeks new ideas amid lack of Japanese tourists | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News
read … Decrease in visitor tax rate sought as fear of recession looms
Bill 43: Honolulu city council looks to use hotel tax to help lower projected sewer fee increase
KHON: … Sewer fees on Oahu are set to rise starting July 1, and while the Honolulu City Council is seeking ways to lessen the financial impact on residents, not everyone agrees on the best approach.
“We now have the second-highest rent in the country. Food is expensive. Electricity is expensive,” said Council Chair Tommy Waters. “Now our sewer bill is going to go up by 115%? We’ve got to do something.”
The original rate structure proposed a 50-50 split between fixed charges and charges based on water usage, with a 9% annual increase over the first six years, followed by decreases to 8%, 7%, 6%, and 5% in the remaining years.
A revised proposal introduces a more gradual rate hike, beginning at 6% and peaking at 9% before tapering down to 7% by year 10. It would also shift the cost structure to 40% fixed and 60% variable, aiming to better align sewer charges with actual household water use and promote conservation….
To help offset the fee increases, the City Council is advancing Bill 43, which proposes diverting revenue from Oʻahu’s transient accommodations tax — a hotel tax — from the general fund to a sewer fund. Supporters say the move could reduce the burden on residents….
Bill 43 passed its first reading Tuesday but must still go through committee and pass two more full council votes before becoming law…..
BH: Hawaii Visitors May Soon Pay For Sewers: What It Means For Your Trip - Beat of Hawaii
SA: Honolulu Council advances bill to offset sewer fee hike | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
read … Honolulu city council looks to use hotel tax to help lower projected sewer fee increase | KHON2
Honolulu Council Approves $41M for HGEA COVID Hazard Pay
CB: … After years of delays, the City Council signed off on a $41 million deal with the state’s largest union after previously reaching agreements with two other unions….
Formby said the deal gives a flat rate of $15,000 each to some HGEA members and $7,500 each to others. That’s because employees were given 10 business days after the emergency order ended to file a claim specifying their hours worked and their levels of exposure. Employees who did not file a claim will get the lower amount of money.
Lifeguards, however, will receive 15% of their pay based on hours worked to be in line with what the police union received. An arbiter last summer ordered the city to pay UPW workers 15% of their pay, and afterward other unions settled for the same amount….
read … Honolulu Approves Last Big Covid Hazard Payments For City Workers
DOE Plan: More Top-Level Bureaucrats
CB: … State education leaders say creating a new assistant superintendent position could improve operations, but the department is close to doubling the number of top leadership posts since 2012….
It’s been a hard two years for the state office responsible for school facilities and operations.
In 2023 alone, the office failed to use $650,000 in federal funds for school meals, canceled bus services for 14 campuses and proposed giving up nearly half a billion in unused school construction money. This school year, the office suspended bus routes for nearly 2,900 students and fell dramatically short of reaching local sustainability goals for school meals.
Now the Department of Education is proposing a solution: add a new leader to its ranks and divvy up responsibilities.
The department currently has a single assistant superintendent managing an office that oversees the safety, transportation, meals programs and facilities of more than 250 campuses across the state. The proposal would shift responsibility for school meals, transportation and campus security to a newly created assistant superintendent position. …
(TRANSLATION: We are highly-paid failures. We need more failures like us.)
read … DOE Looks To Expand Leadership Team Amid Bus Shortages And Facility Woes - Honolulu Civil Beat
Hawaii to Update Decades-Old Financial MisManagement System
GT: … Modernizing the state system will require more than just new technology. The undertaking will include a careful “change management” process to receive input and feedback from Hawaii staffers….
(TRANSLATION: If HGEA members are inconvenienced in the slightest, they will sabotage the project and it will fail as so many others have failed before.)
“When it comes to the big modernization projects that we’ve been talking about, success is based upon adoption and usability of the people, of the workforce, of the end users, in service to the public,” Christine Maii Sakuda, Hawaii state CIO and administrator of the Office of Enterprise Technology Services, said….
(TRANSLATION: If HGEA members are inconvenienced in the slightest, they will sabotage the project and it will fail as so many others have failed before.)
To help this effort, the state has identified “change management advocates” across the various departments to provide input on how they are using the system today, and — perhaps more importantly— how the system should work for them in the future. That feedback has become part of the RFP, the CIO said.
(TRANSLATION: If HGEA members are inconvenienced in the slightest, they will sabotage the project and it will fail as so many others have failed before.)
State leadership has been transparent with the workforce, telling them the change will be initially disruptive, she added.
(CLUE: Being told is not the same as agreeing. The new program must have an old-style DOS-type interface in order to ensure that HGEA members are not inconvenienced in the slightest.)
read … Hawaii to Update Decades-Old Financial Management System
Robots to issue 47 Million Speeding tickets per year from 177 Hawaii Speed Cams
SA: … The Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) wants to add 160 additional automated cameras that spot and ticket speeders and red light-runners, throughout the islands — a gesture of confidence in the cameras as a tool to enhance safety. The Legislature came close to endorsing HDOT’s plan during this session, but ran into a procedural deadline. Now HDOT plans to scale up anyway…
So far, HDOT operates 17 enforcement cameras, all at busy Honolulu intersections, and they have proven their value and accuracy, capturing images of vehicles and their license plates as evidence of infractions and to identify cars’ registered owners. Citations based on cam data began going out to red-light-running cars’ owners in November 2022 — and since then, major crashes at these intersections have dropped by 69%....
(CLUE: The robots have already taken over.)
On March 1, the Honolulu cameras began monitoring for speeders, and the results were daunting. Even when calibrated to issue warnings only for cars traveling 11 miles an hour or more above the speed limit, the cams documented, on average, more than 740 speeding cars each day between March 14 and April 30….
(DO THE MATH: 740 x 177 = 130,980 tickets per day x 365 = 47,807,770 tickets per year. $47M x $100 per ticket = $4.7 Billion.)
read … Editorial: DOT’s speed cam expansion revs up | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
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