Letters to the Editor
Car booster seat bill should be approved
I can't believe the excuses for vetoing the car booster seat bill. Too costly for large families? Too difficult to fit three booster in the back seat?
Excuse me, it takes money to raise kids. These couples hopefully considered this before having a "large family."
The price to pay for a booster seat is nothing to the price of losing a child. Not that the booster will keep the child safe in every accident situation, but the odds considerably improve in the child's favor.
Studies and tests are conducted to ensure the safety of all people in motor vehicles. We should take these results and use them the best way we can to protect our children and ourselves. If it takes passing bills that require (force) us to do it, so be it.
Gov. Cayetano should rethink his reasons for the veto. Safety of the children and people should be the primary goal for our leaders.
Can we put a price on precious life? I think not. Pass the bill.
Cindy Tamura
Pearl City
Inadequate funding is biggest UH problem
Jennifer Hiller's June 26 article on the graying of UH faculty helps publicize some very serious problems, particularly the state government's enduring ignorance, incompetence and irresponsibility in adequately funding the only public institution of higher education in the entire state.
However, encouraging or waiting for older faculty to retire in order to hire new faculty is as wasteful of money and talent as it is absurd. The real problem is inadequate funding, not graying faculty. Incompetence at any age, young or old, and whether in faculty, administration or government, is another problem.
Regular assessment of job performance, including post-tenure review for faculty and development programs for all staff, is the remedy for incompetence unless firing is appropriate. Older staff have more experience, and normally that should result in greater competence.
With advances in health care, people are living healthier and longer lives, and for many that results in more creativity and productivity in older years.
Another problem is salary inequity: new faculty being hired at higher pay than older faculty, something not conducive to high morale or high performance. Here again inadequate funding is the problem.
Yet another problem is adequate classroom facilities — at UH, most classrooms aren't even equipped with something as basic as a world map, let alone a video projector, PowerPoint and the like.
Finally, another real problem is the uninformed and anachronistic thinking exhibited in Hiller's article — ageism is just as disgusting and dangerous as sexism, racism or ethnocentrism.
Les Sponsel
Professor, University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Safety is paramount when operating boat
I agree with Robert Becker in his June 24 letter that "Operating a boat without proper safety equipment is stupid." I offer three additional points:
• The Coast Guard does not charge for rescues because search and rescue is one of our many funded missions. Also, we do not want people to delay or fail to report when they are in trouble just because they are concerned about costs. Delay or failure to report may make any rescue effort much more difficult or unsuccessful.
• Boaters should ensure that they are properly equipped by, among other ways, taking advantage of free vessel safety checks provided by the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the Power Squadron. They can also take safe-boating courses.
• Immediately seizing a boat for failure to carry proper equipment may be a bit draconian, but the state could certainly set up a ticketing program based on the market cost of the required equipment. The boater would be given perhaps two weeks to prove that the missing equipment had been purchased and was in the boat. For every month thereafter that the equipment is not in the boat, the ticket fee would increase by the purchase cost of the equipment.
The choice is obvious: Make yourself and your passengers safer or pay the state. Given most people's inclination to procrastinate, the state could probably make enough money to manage the program.
J.J. McClelland
Kaka'ako selected for several reasons
Regarding Barbara Nakamura's June 26 letter about why Kaka'ako was selected as the site for the new University of Hawai'i John A. Burns School of Medicine Biomedical Science Campus: The university undertook a search for an ideal site at the request of the 2000 Legislature and deemed Kaka'ako the best for the following reasons:
• It's a central and neutral location in close proximity to O'ahu's major medical centers.
• The available land area can accommodate the projected building space.
• Infrastructure is in place, which will potentially shorten the construction time.
• The Biomedical Science Campus, with its planned bioscience research facility and incubation center for biotechnology start-up companies, has the potential to serve as the catalyst for economic redevelopment in the area. This project could attract other high-tech companies to invest in and relocate to the area, giving a boost to all of Kaka'ako. This is important to the state, as well, because by creating a critical mass of high-tech and biotech activity in Kaka'ako, we can develop new industries to diversify and strengthen our state economy.
Also, the proposed site is already on state-owned lands, saving taxpayers the added cost of acquiring lands.
Finally, the proposed site is not on the waterfront. It is near the former Gold Bond Building. Therefore, much of the Kaka'ako waterfront will still be set aside for recreational facilities for the community.
Kim Murakawa
Press secretary, Office of the Governor
Hawai'i must avoid California's mistakes
Rep. Hermina Morita berates HECO and HELCO for wanting large, self-generating customers such as big hotels to pay a standby charge to the utility. She believes that such standby charges would prevent these large businesses from realizing substantial savings in their power costs.
These savings would occur because, without standby charges, these self-generators would no longer have to help pay for the generation, transmission and distribution facilities that were installed by the utility to serve them in the first place. In addition, if they remain connected to the utility grid, the utility would have to maintain generation and transmission capacity to serve these businesses when their self-generation facilities fail, as they inevitably will.
However, these businesses would not have to pay for this standby capacity. No wonder they can save money since the rest of the utility's customers would have to pay these costs for them.
The disastrous electrical mess that California now finds itself in was brought about by overeager legislators meddling in an area about which they knew very little. Hawai'i's legislators should learn a lesson from the California debacle and resist any impulses that could duplicate it here.
Dick O'Connell
Hotel worker layoffs sign of economic times
In your June 27 issue, the story on Aston hotels and Resorts taking over the management of the Hawaiian Waikiki Beach stated that only 20 out of 274 current employees would be rehired after the renovation of the hotel is completed. The fact that a number of long-time employees will not be rehired is unfortunate, but is indicative of the economic times we all face in Hawai'i.
It is ironic that the ILWU's position on the hiring of only a few current employees is termed "outrageous" when you consider the union's recent attempt in the last legislative session to foist additional taxes on the hotel industry, and employees in general, that force any business to be more efficient and operate in the leanest possible manner.
The reality is that many businesses cannot survive even with the best efforts of management and employees. The union and the current employees should not be surprised with the resulting situation.
As for Councilman Duke Bainum's efforts, his resolution supporting the ILWU smacks of political pandering in the worst way, as he seeks to succeed Jeremy Harris as mayor.
Bainum attacks the new owners and operators of the hotel as not being "good corporate citizens." If he really wanted to help the workers in this case, Bainum should try to ease the plight of the business owners by equalizing the commercial and residential property tax rates (currently about 10 to 1) and quit rubber-stamping the bloated city budgets.
Russel H. Yamashita
Hilton did wonders with Kalia Tower
Waikiki owes a great debt to the Hilton Hawaiian Village for creating a beautiful Ala Moana entry to Waikiki with the addition of its new Kalia Tower.
The attractive park-like grounds are exquisite both in design and foliage. The grass looks like an elegant emerald green carpet, and I don't think I have ever seen a dead leaf or wilted flower on the grounds. No other property in the area comes close in quality and aesthetics.
I look forward to the next project by Senior Vice President Peter Schall and his competent design team. Shame on the critics who want to stop Hilton from expanding its property with the new proposed tower on the land formally housing the Waikikian Hotel.
What is so beautiful about the old ramshackle building and unkept access road that occupy the land now? Anything would be an improvement, and I am sure Hilton will create another architecturally pleasing masterpiece.
Wake up, Waikiki, and send accolades and not criticism to those who are improving your value and visual appeal.
Judith Holden
Profiling problems
I think it's great that the HPD has been given the resources to crack down on speeding and reckless motorists.I only hope they do not resort to "targeting" certain makes or models of cars and their drivers. This kind of profiling will allow hundreds of speeding Camrys and Caravans to slip by.
Mike Uyehara
DOE mistake doesn't invalidate the contract
I am a teacher at Kea'au High School on the Big Island. I recently spent some time on the picket line, along with thousands of my colleagues, in an effort to help the State of Hawai'i see that it needs to raise compensation to attract and retain qualified teachers.
One of the key results of that strike was an agreement by the state to pay 3 percent extra for teachers with a master's degree, 6 percent for those with doctorates and an additional $5,000 per year for those who complete a rigorous national certification process.
Now we are being told that the state negotiators relied on HSTA information about the cost of the extra pay, rather than using the existing records on file with the Department of Education personnel department.
In nearly 20 years of teaching in Hawai'i, I have never once been formally asked to provide my academic information to the HSTA, but I, and every other teacher, have been required to provide that information to our personnel department for payroll purposes.
I agree that it was probably a bad idea for the superintendent to offer to pay the differential with existingDOE funds, especially without knowing the total cost of the agreement. However, that does not invalidate the agreement, itself.
I suggest that some of the money can be taken from the personnel department, which should be privatized, since it apparently cannot provide essential information in a timely manner.For years, teachers have been told that personnel cannot process our paperwork in a timely manner. Its recruiting practices are directly responsible for the dissatisfaction of many new teachers recruited from the Mainland and local universities.
Now let's see what happens when they cannot process administration requests, either.Davis Yogi says it would be improper for the state to pay the teachers the retention bonus, due in our next paycheck, until all of the contract terms have been completed and the document signed.
I agree and urge all teachers to understand that it is improper for any of us to provide the state with our services until we have a complete, valid and fair contract.
Steve Stephenson
