Ethics Complaint Exposes Ties Between Maui Councilmembers, Lahaina Charity Fraud, and Lobbyists
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The Lahaina Fire is Proof that ‘Performance Based Regulation’ of HECO is a Failure
IM: ... The Senate Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection held a nearly three-hour informational briefing on the Hawaii Ratepayer Protection Act of 2018, codified as HRS §269-16.1.
“The public utilities commission shall establish performance incentives and penalty mechanisms that directly tie an electric [utility's] revenues to that utility's achievement on performance metrics and break the direct link between allowed revenues and investment levels.”
Over 100 years of Cost of Service (COS) regulation was replaced with Performance-Based Regulation (PBR) in 2021 for the Hawaiian Electric Companies. PBR relies on alternative regulatory mechanisms to align utility incentives with performance and policy goals….
(CLUE: Three years later, we got the Lahaina Fire which started because MECO did not ‘invest’ sufficient funds in maintaining power poles above Lahaina Town. See how that works?)
The Commission`s PBR contested case proceeding involves multiple parties with due process rights including the right to appeal.
(CLUE: Abolish PBR. Return to COS.)
The parties in the Commission proceeding are the HECO Companies, the Consumer Advocate, Ulupono Initiative, Blue Planet Foundation, Life of the Land, the County of Hawaii, the City and County of Honolulu, the Hawaii PV Coalition, and the Hawaii Solar Energy Association.
(TRANSLATION: The usual insiders.)
A few Senators proposed eliminating seven years of regulatory work, ending PBR 1.0 after four years, and having the Commission replace existing incentive mechanisms with Senate inspired incentive mechanisms focused heavily on penalties….
(CLUE: Abolish PBR. Return to COS.)
The PBR goal is to incentivize utilities to improve service, integrate (intermittent) ‘renewable’ energy, and prioritize customer affordability and satisfaction….
(CLUE: The Lahaina Fire is a high price to pay to satisfy the solar lobby.)
The PUC Chair reacted to an apparent position of a few Senators, that the PUC Chair should make unilateral decisions for the other Commissioners, the PUC should engage in illegal ex parte communication with only some parties present in the Senate room, and that seven years of intense work designing incentive mechanisms by a broad swath of energy stakeholders should be thrown out the window and replaced by the current whims of one or two Senators who would lie to penalize the utility for causing the wildfire and/or for having high electric rates….
(CLUE: Abolish PBR. Return to COS.)
Read … Public Utilities Commission Chair Defends Democracy | Ililani Media
Questions during Senate hearing deftly sidestepped PUC whistleblower’s allegations
ILind: … Most of the hearing focused on the PUC’s performance-based regulation system, but Civil Beat’s Stewart Yerton reported on the brief discussion of the whistleblower allegations (“State Utility Official Under Investigation For Bullying Staff, Toxic Environment”).
“Discussion of the whistleblower complaint came and went in minutes,” Yerton noted.
His story recounts a short, scripted exchange between Sen. Keohokalole and Chair Asuncion. But the senator’s questions appeared address only a few sentences of the 6-page, single-spaced complaint, and they narrowly avoided the actual content even of this small piece….
During the hearing, Keohokalole asked whether Asuncion had, as PUC chair, attended events hosted by HECO executives, been to their homes, or accepted food or drink from them. Asuncion denied each….
But the complaint doesn’t allege any of those things. It doesn’t say the barbecues were “hosted” by HECO, or that they occurred while Asuncion was chair, or that executives paid for anything. The senator’s questions reframe the allegations, then steer around them.
A simple tweak to one question could have gotten closer to the heart of the issue:
“I want to provide you the opportunity to be asked and answer whether during your tenure as PUC chair you have ever attended social functions hosted also attended by executives or employees of Hawaiian Electric.”
That version tracks the actual allegation more directly — and might have produced a different answer.
Other relevant questions weren’t asked at all. For instance:
* Did you attend the PUC’s annual holiday party in December 2024?
* Did you announce Randy Baldemor as the new chief of policy and research?
* Did you describe him as a friend?
* Did you mention that you both live in Hawaii Kai?
* Did you say that you “barbeque together with HECO executives”?
Asuncion previously worked at HECO as a senior regulatory and planning analyst for six years before joining state government and ultimately the PUC in 2019. It’s entirely plausible that he formed lasting personal and professional relationships. But that’s precisely why clear, unambiguous questions — and answers — are essential….
Read … Questions during Senate hearing deftly sidestepped PUC whistleblower’s allegations
After 20 Years of Bumbling--Kauaʻi's Embattled Drug Addiction Treatment Center For Youth Is No Longer Empty
CB: … A new treatment option for drug-dependent youth on Kauaʻi is breathing life into the island’s troubled $7 million adolescent treatment center, a taxpayer-funded facility that fell into disrepair over the four years that it stood vacant.
Ka Ulu I Ka Pono Academy, or KIPA, was built in 2019 on land donated for the purpose of establishing Kauaʻi’s first youth inpatient addiction service center since the Serenity House closed its doors after Hurricane ʻIniki ripped through the island in 1992. But the 16-bed facility could never attract an inpatient service provider.
The search for a residential program operator continues. In the meantime, the YMCA of Honolulu has transformed the facility into a counseling hub for Kauaʻi youth grappling with substance abuse or at risk of misusing drugs and alcohol.
The program debuted on Kauaʻi in October 2023 and has since provided care to 43 middle school and high school-aged youth….
First proposed in 2003, a facility to house an inpatient drug treatment program for youth on Kauai had been a long time coming. Kauaʻi County built the facility on donated land in Kapaia with millions in state and county funds and, after a few false starts, hired an Oʻahu-based service provider to run the center. But the county swiftly cancelled its contract with that provider, citing problems with the company’s “performance and responsiveness.”
After years of funding shortfalls, lawsuits and controversial proposals to repurpose the eight-bedroom facility for other uses, Grove Farm, a development company, filed a legal challenge to take back control of the drug treatment center. The county reverted the deed back to the land donor after inertia set ambitions to open the treatment center on an uncertain course.
Frustrated over the vacant facility, Hawaii Health Systems Corp. in 2022 formed a nonprofit with the goal of taking over the building. That effort quickly fell apart. The nonprofit KIPA formed a year later and secured a 30-year lease to operate the treatment facility from Grove Farm ….
2007: Office of Hawaiian Affairs Blocks Kauai Drug Treatment Facility
Read … Kauaʻi's Embattled Drug Addiction Treatment Center For Youth Is No Longer Empty
Kai Kahele’s OHA Spending Plan Filled With Bizarre Cuts, Changes
CB: … The proposed budget came from board chairman Kai Kahele, to the surprise of many of the staff and even some of the trustees. Kahele could not be reached for comment….
what came out of that process on June 18 baffled administrators and even some of the trustees who only learned about the new budget when it was posted publicly for the first time….
The new draft jettisoned many of the office’s original requests and made sweeping cuts to programs while allocating millions of dollars in grants to new projects and nonprofit organizations that appear to sidestep OHA’s competitive grants process….
The proposed changes include:
- Cuts in funding to certain Hawaiian charter schools
- The elimination of about $2 million in competitive grant funds
- More than $1 million in new allocations to marketing and media campaigns
- Huge pay raises for OHA staff
- The elimination of a Native Hawaiian specialty court
- The removal of new positions for which hiring was already underway
OHA’s CEO, Stacey Ferreira, said during a board meeting Wednesday that the administration wasn’t consulted on this most recent draft of the budget.
“The path that has been taking has significant implications, operationally and ethically,” Ferreira said.
OHA’s chief operating officer, Kēhaulani Puʻu, said that the line items for the new marketing campaigns are coming at the cost of workforce programs, wihch have been cut from the current budget.
Pay Raises: The new budget adds $1.6 million in personnel costs at OHA, which employs at least 116 people. While some positions would be moved to other departments and others could be eliminated, overall the office would have more employees earning higher wages.
Read … OHA Staff Baffled By Spending Plan Filled With Dramatic Cuts, Changes - Honolulu Civil Beat
Fish Farm Sues State for Crippling its Business
CB: … The state’s aquaculture industry is expected to boom from a $90 million a year industry to $600 million a year in the next decade — according to the Department of Agriculture — and researchers say it will soon face a dearth of workers, which needs to be addressed if the industry is going to reach its full potential.
But it’s something of a Catch-22: despite predictions of workforce shortages and future growth, few of the students who have gone through the Waiʻanae center have found jobs in the field.
Part of the challenge is that many of the existing jobs require college degrees, something that less than one-third of Waiʻanae students pursue following graduation. A bigger issue is that jobs at any level of experience are limited at the moment.
“The big bottleneck is not that we can’t do workforce training,” said Maria Haws, an aquaculture professor at the University of Hawaiʻi Hilo. “It’s that we need to grow the industry.”
But the state has done little to invest in the industry in recent years and lawmakers have yet to heed calls from local industry leaders and researchers to encourage growth through regulatory reform or investments in infrastructure.
Now, as a major aquaculture producer shutters on the Big Island and another sues the state for crippling its business, concerns are growing over whether Hawaiʻi can actually achieve its potential. …
Hawaiʻi, they said, has a key role to play in the U.S. and global aquaculture industries — but the state has to address multiple obstacles for that to happen, according to a 2024 state report.
In addition to building a workforce pipeline, the state needs to simplify the regulatory landscape, to attract entrepreneurs and encourage more private and public investments in the sector….
CB: Hawaii has one of the “the most exhaustive regulatory frameworks in the world,” which has crippled the growth of the industry, the plan said. The slow and prohibitive permitting process can take years to complete.
Read … Students Learn To Farm Fish, Seaweed. But Where Are The Jobs? - Honolulu Civil Beat
Usual Fruitcakes Freak out over Proposed Big Island Plastic Recycling Plant
CB: … Mālama One executives have briefed (former Sen Laura) Acasio (aka Little Miss Impeachment), the Environmental Management Commission and even county Mayor Kimo Alameda, but the company still faces questions from county officials as well as concerns raised by alarmed members of the public.
Honokaʻa resident David Hunt told members of the commission Wednesday it is unacceptable for the state to consider any regulatory exemption for Mālama One. He predicted sludge from the facility would pose “a very significant threat to our land, air, water and safety, and to public health.”
(911 Trooother) Kristine Kubat, executive director of Recycle Hawaiʻi, (and formerly Acasio’s Office manager) said the Mālama One project is “the wrong thing,” and should not advance until the state approves new rules to regulate micro- and nanoplastic pollution….
Read … Plan For Plastic Recycling Plant Alarms Big Island Officials, Residents - Honolulu Civil Beat
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