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Monday, April 11, 2016
April 11, 2016 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 5:57 PM :: 2940 Views

Rail Chaos in Honolulu

Hawaii: Five Anti-Gun Bills Scheduled for Floor Votes This Week

Legislative Deadlines: Second Decking, Third Reading

Institutionalized Fear: ‘Climate Change Office’ to be Written into Honolulu County Charter?

CB:  …The city Charter Commission, which convenes once every 10 years, is crafting a proposal that would ask voters in November to create an Office of Climate Change and Sustainability with a five-person advisory commission.

A draft proposal would establish the new office underneath the Managing Director’s Office. It would track the potential impacts of climate change on city facilities; coordinate city policies to increase community preparedness and protect the city’s beaches, infrastructure and economy; and integrate sustainability into city programs, among other responsibilities.

The idea, which is still under review, is based on proposals submitted this year by former permitting director and current Charter Commission member Cheryl Soon, and University of Hawaii Law School Professor Maxine Burkett….

read … Unchanging Climate of Fear

First Head Rolls—Horner Resigns as HART Chair

SA: …Horner submitted his resignation to Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell after an approximately 20-minute meeting today at Honolulu Hale.

“Too often in politics, the focus becomes shooting the messenger of unpleasant news rather than collaboratively working on solutions,” Horner wrote in his resignation letter to Caldwell.

The move comes several days after Honolulu City Council Chairman Ernie Martin, Caldwell’s top political rival and a potential mayoral candidate, called for Horner and Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Executive Dan Grabauskas to resign amid concerns of project mismanagement.

PDF: Full Text Horner Resignation Letters to Caldwell, Council

PDF: Full Text, HECO Letter to HART, Martin Letter to Caldwell

read … One Down, One to Go

Rail Audit to be Released Friday

CB: …The mayoral contest may gain new urgency this Friday, when the city auditor’s office is tentatively scheduled to release its report on the finances and contingency plans of the rail project. The audit was requested by the Council as HART announced a $910 million shortfall in late 2014.

HART’s management of rail was very much top of mind when Martin spoke at the April 5 talk story in Moanalua, where he made his disdain over how the project is going even clearer than he had expressed in the letter to Caldwell.

Martin pointed to “more bad news” about budget shortfalls and said residents keep hearing “the same answers over and over. … That kind of attitude I find very distressing, and if this continues to occur, if we do not get the answers we demand, this is no joking matter. If they are not willing to make tough decisions, we will make them for them. Some people may have to step aside, and I am not afraid to do that.” ….

read … The End is Near

Sand Island Homeless Center Moves Only 25 to Permanent Housing 

SA: …it was the City Council that allocated $64 million for affordable and homeless housing initiatives over the past two years. The administration says a necessary step is to hire experts to push forward those initiatives.

Only a portion of the $64 million has been expended on projects that include the development of the Hale Mauliola transitional housing facility at Sand Island and the $5.5 million purchase of a property on Hassinger Street in Makiki to be used for Housing First and low-income units.

It’s unclear what the Council would accomplish by cutting off funding to Hale Mauliola. The center is already functional — although it’s gotten off to a slower start than anticipated. Manahan called the project a failure, noting there continues to be a large homeless presence in his district.

The answer, however, is not to close shop. About 25 people served there have been put into permanent housing — not Earth-shattering, but measurable progress. And, ramp-up is underway at Hale Mauliola, which is soon expected to house 80 to 90 people at a time.

Much more could be done, and quicker, if the Council and administration moved past the politics and grandstanding. Coordination, not inane roadblocks, would get the city closer to reducing homelessness and creating more affordable rentals — for the sake of all of Oahu’s communities….

read … Bickering over housing policy is wasting time

‘A Bum Job:’ Trust In Honolulu’s Police Commission Crumbles

CB: Amid ongoing Police Department scandals, Mayor Kirk Caldwell must decide whether to reappoint three police commissioners whose terms are up….

read … Bums

Handy bill digest for Senate-side bills in Hawaii state legislature

DN: Below is a handy table of the status of bills that will go to 3rd reading in the Legislature. If you download it from the link, you can do a keyword search to help track the bills you are following….

PDF: Download Hawaii Legislative Bill Digest 4.12.16 from Disappeared News

Money and Honorifics: Ige Gives Enviros What they Want

CB:  …signs that Ige is taking a stronger interest in and showing more leadership on the environment:

  • His budget for fiscal year 2017 requests $138.3 million for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, a proposed increase of nearly $15 million over FY2016 for the chronically underfunded agency. Among the beneficiaries: State recreational and natural resources ($3 million), sustainability projects in the Aloha+Challenge ($2 million), six new full-time staff lines for the state Historic Preservation Division and increased acquisition funding for the Legacy Land Conservation Program ($1.7 million).
  • Ige nominated seven new members to the state Environmental Council early this year, ensuring the body’s ability to meet quorum and to fulfill its responsibility to help the state make sound environmental policy. Earlier in Ige’s term, the group had so few members it had to cancel meetings for an embarrassing lack of quorum. All seven new nominees were confirmed unanimously by the Senate on March 14. Ige will have more vacancies to fill when three more members’ terms expire at the end of June.
  • Last October, Ige named former Sierra Club Hawaii Chairman Scott Glenn to head the Office of Environmental Quality Control. Responsible for implementing laws and rules relating to environmental impact statements, the office has major authority over the environmental, social, economic and cultural impacts of construction projects on lands within conservation districts, shoreline areas and historic sites. Ige personally vetted Glenn for the position, earning points by those familiar with the process as much for the depth of his questions as for his selection of Glenn.
  • Ige’s DLNR budget request included $4 million to host the huge World Conservation Congress this September in Honolulu. Held every four years, this massive gathering of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s 1,300 member organizations had 10,000 participants from 157 countries when it was last held in Jeju, Korea. Its Hawaii meetings are expected to draw even more people and shine a global spotlight on conservation issues in the Aloha State.
  • By hosting the Western Governors’ Association’s conservation conference, Ige put Hawaii environmental perspectives and concerns in front of the representatives of 19 Western states and three U.S. territories: Fourteen Hawaii speakers, including Ige, took part in roundtable discussions and overviews on issues such as marine protected areas and integrating climate change considerations into the Endangered Species Act framework. The association’s report, based in part on the conference, will guide its lobbying work in Washington, D.C.

read … Money and Honorifics

Lawsuit: OSHA Office Overseeing Hawaii Buried Whistleblowers

CW: …Whitman, in a whistleblower claim filed last week with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, charges that the San Francisco regional office of OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program routinely dumped legitimate complaints. What’s more, Whitman’s complaint says his disclosures to senior OSHA and Labor Department officials -– all the way up to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez — “did not spark good faith corrective action. Rather, they led to investigations of Mr. Whitman that eventually formed the basis for his termination” last May. He claims that three other investigators who protested the office’s practices also were fired or pushed out….

read  … Whistle

Lawsuit takes aim at HCC student fees

HTH: …A lawsuit to recover what three former Hawaii Community College students say is hundreds of thousands of dollars of wrongfully collected student fees is slated to be heard in May.

The plaintiffs, David Canning, Marieta Carino and Eric Aranug, all former HCC student government leaders, made headlines around the state in 2014 when they alleged the school had been charging students for services no longer available to them.

HCC and the University of Hawaii at Hilo historically shared services including a radio station, recreation facilities, a campus center and subscriptions to the student news magazine until January 2013, when the two schools’ student organizations parted ways.

As a result, plaintiffs say HCC students were without access to certain services and in some cases had to pay higher per-use fees on top of the student fees they had already paid. Meanwhile, HCC continued charging students the same fee rate — $67 per semester….

read … Fees

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