Letters to the Editor
State, HSTA should work out a compromise
Negotiating a labor agreement is a very detailed and arduous process. We all recall watching those late-night negotiations that went into the early hours of the morning when the state recently negotiated with the HSTA.
It seems to me that if HSTA members have the opportunity days later after the negotiators met to sign off and "ratify" the contract, so too should the governor. After all, he is the one who was elected and is held accountable by taxpayers.
HSTA's own two documents handed out at ratification were in conflict with one another. One stated that those with master's degrees would be sharing in a $6 million bonus award. The other document stated the bonus would be paid "each" year, something that would cost more like $20 million.
The state and HSTA should find a compromise. Taxpayers deserve it.
Henry Kim
State incompetence shown in school dispute
In the July 29 news, the story "Teachers call latest state offer 'cynical' " clearly shows all the enmity toward the governor's office from the teachers and the incompetence in the governor's office.
The following paragraph unmistakably elucidates the problem: "State negotiator Davis Yogi said he had intended the bonus be granted for only one year, and had overlooked the last two words of that sentence when he reviewed the contract, drafted by the teachers union, on April 23."
Last week it was stated by the governor's office that the 3 percent differential pay "was a matter of interpretation" as it was not clear that the differential pay was intended for the term of the contract. Now it is clear why there is so much rhetoric and propaganda coming out of the governor's office. Yogi admits to not doing his job. Now Gov. Cayetano and Yogi are trying to redeem themselves by changing the wording in the contract.
Consider the implications on future contracts settled by the governor's office: Contracts not read in their entirety is a valid justification for renegotiation.
The voters need to send a message that ineptitude, existing methodology and deficient ethics of elected officials will not be tolerated.
Herb Kolbe
Boat harbor overseer is fiscally incompetent
An open letter to Gilbert Coloma-Agaran, chairman of the Board of Land and Natural Resources: Give us back our money, Mr. Coloma-Agaran.
Your July 24 letter suggests the boating program doesn't have the money to make needed repairs ($18 million for Ala Wai Boat Harbor) and that is why you have to triple our rates and sell us off to the private sector.
The Ala Wai was last rebuilt in 1974. Since then, the boating program has taken $500,000 to $1million per year from Ala Wai revenues, after paying expenses, overhead and debt service. Boaters are required by the provisions of the Boating Special Fund to pay their full costs. We at Ala Wai have done that, including enough to rebuild the place.
Why did you give our money to others instead of keeping the place up, Mr. Coloma-Agaran? The plain language of the boating program legislation says the Boating Special Fund is to be used to maintain the harbors, which the appropriate agencies failed to do. It also says that boaters are to pay full cost of the facilities provided to them. You have no right to interpret that as some pay and some don't.
You assert that the airport and commercial harbors are funded like this. If that were really the case, Honolulu International Airport would have been condemned and Honolulu Harbor wouldn't be able to handle container ships. Your three- (or is it four)-tiered fee system is a model of fiscal incompetence.
Lon Polk
Hotel worker layoffs weren't economic
Russell Yamashita, in his July 5 letter, "Hotel worker layoffs sign of economic times," amazingly spun the plight of the 274 terminated workers at Hawaiian Waikiki Beach Hotel as equivalent to the "plight of business owners." Was it economic times, or simple greed, that led to the layoffs of these workers?
But the hotel never actually closed — only reopened — with a new name and, oh yeah, a new workforce. How does the termination of 274 workers improve the "business climate"?
Aston Hotels and Resorts was selected to manage the former Hawaiian Waikiki Beach Hotel in early May. On May 22-23, Aston held a job fair to recruit replacement workers. Meanwhile, the original workers faithfully worked to their last day, June 30, making the hotel over $6 million in just nine months.
On July 1, Aston began throwing out all that was old. And like old furniture, the old workforce was thrown out too. Aston rehired less than 10 percent of the former workers.
What happened to these workers (union and non-union alike) is outrageous. We applaud Councilman Duke Bainum's courage to speak out on behalf of these workers and their families against Aston's poor corporate citizenship.
Aston has proven it is not the "kama'aina-friendly" company it says it is. Next time you see an Aston commercial, think of our picket sign that reads, "Aston, no aloha."
Raymond Camacho
ILWU O'ahu division director
Where's the planning for water conservation?
Your newspaper tells us that our wells are drying up fast. And at least one politician, one from the Leeward Coast, says that we've got plenty of water, enough to cover his district with houses, bathtubs and flushing toilets — without desalination.
In 1973, during an urban planning course, students were taken to the Halawa Aquiver to see how deep the water table had already sunk.
Is there no coordination between planning, the water department and the visitor industry? Will we keep on bringing more and more visitors here? How many millions of tubs can we fill and how many flushes until our taps run dry?
Urbanization does change air flow and micro-climates.
Bermuda catches rainwater on roofs. Curacao has a desalination plant to accommodate tourist needs. We live on optimism expressed by a Hawaiian activist: "Our Hawaiian gods have always given us plenty of water."
And so we wash spotless clothes and shiny cars. Conservation isn't our style.
Our neighborhood school may be one exception. Perhaps by pessimism or to save themselves the labor, they do not water portions of their area. Three small palms are but brown stumps. The grass is grey and gravelly and the neighbors are carrying water from home to save three flowering bushes.
Is there any coordinated planning?
Rosemarie Tucker
Give us reality about our drought situation
The Board of Water Supply's mellow commercials do not communicate the message of urgency necessary to motivate people to conserve water in our fifth year of drought conditions. We are more preoccupied with washing our shiny new SUVs and keeping our golf courses pleasingly green than to think that this precious resource could dry up.
Instead of promoting scare tactics that there exists a dental crisis that demands fluoridation with toxic waste chemicals through our water supply, local celebrities should enlighten us with specific steps we can take to survive an imminent depletion of this pure gift of life that makes our Islands unique and fertile.
Melissa L. Yee
O'ahu Citizens for Safe Drinking Water
There's a growing force on the political horizon
After reading various political commentaries regarding the 2002 state elections, many would-be political pundits seem unaware of a growing local political force: the 6 percent of Hawai'i registered voters who, during the 2000 presidential election, said, "We can do better than this."
While often incorrectly labeled "Naderites," we are in truth discouraged Hawai'i Democrats and Republicans, Greens, Independents and others of diverse ethnicity and backgrounds with the strong unifying commonality of being motivated by specific issues. It will be candidates' positions on these issues that will determine who gets our votes in the 2000 election.
Delivering a modest 2.65 percent for Ralph Nader in the 1996 election, we polled as high as 10 percent in Hawai'i in 2000 — until it actually looked as if Al Gore might lose. Few ever imagined Nader being elected president, and that was not the goal in Hawai'i. Here, the goal was to organize people around issues being ignored or thwarted by the political status quo — issues important enough to break with friends and organizations, including unions and the two "dominant" political parties.
These issues include: the predatory corporate control now being routinely exercised over the most basic aspects of our lives, access to affordable health and dental care, long-term care, personal privacy, reforming our fouled system of campaign finance, the environment and renewable energy, to name but a few.
So while the political pundits and candidates may ignore us now, we continue to organize for 2002. Any bets on our numbers 18 months hence?
George Fox
The Hawai'i Coalition for Good Government
Fish auction firm should have been preserved
The Suisan Fish Auction Co. in Hilo, which served Big Island fishermen for almost a century, went out of business on July 21. Besides being a successful commercial operation, Suisan was also a top tourist attraction, located along the waterfront at the mouth of the Wailoa River and within easy walking distance from the hotels along Banyan Drive.
Whether Suisan's demise was a result of over-regulation by the federal government or the company's unwillingness to change is unclear. Based on newspaper articles, it is clear that Suisan closed rather than comply with what Suisan officials believed were onerous Food and Drug Administration reporting requirements. I believe Suisan was a cultural and historical icon on the Big Isle worth preserving.
Isn't it ironic that a historical institution such as Suisan can be put out of business at least in part by federal regulations, and state and federal historic preservation regulations seem to be powerless to prevent it? Could it be that federal historic preservation regulations protect only things (buildings) and not people or institutions?
Dave Kern
More rules, impact fees won't open up market
In a July 23 Island Voices commentary, Richard Weigel proposed that the city impose more government regulation and housing impact fees as a means to promote and produce more affordable housing. This idea ignores recent history, Honolulu's economic context and, most importantly, the fact that the city has helped create a largely free-market solution to Honolulu's persistent need for affordable housing.
In Leeward O'ahu, private developers often build more affordable housing than required by city zoning. Why? Because developers build to the market, and the Honolulu housing market for new homes is in the affordable- and moderate-income ranges.
How did this happen? It is a combination of good planning, an adequate supply of zoned, developable land, effective and efficient homebuilders, reasonable government regulation and the forces of competition.
Leeward O'ahu developers, especially in 'Ewa, are producing a wide range of housing types, with prices beginning at around $160,000. Single-family-home prices start at around $200,000. The Honolulu median income for a family of four is $62,400. Using city calculations, this family can afford a home priced at around $254,000.
Clearly, the Leeward developers are meeting the affordable- and moderate-income housing market. Despite this, Weigel apparently seeks a return to Hawai'i's housing policies of the 1980s that sought affordable housing through large housing exactions and other forms of punitive regulation on private developers. These policies failed and instead distorted the housing market and contributed to an under-supply of residential housing at all price levels.
Of course there is a role for government. The provision of rental housing for low-income families and special-needs groups is a societal obligation that falls on all of us. This is where state and city housing strategies should focus. And the city continues to require private developers to provide affordably priced housing, but wisely it has eliminated the counterproductive restrictions and requirements that actually were hindering housing production.
Dan Davidson
Executive Director, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawai'i
