Letters to the Editor
Not building road ignores our safety
Some politicians are so far removed from reality that they can overlook the safety and protection of the voting homeowners.
One great example is the fiasco with the half-million-dollar fountain in Kapolei. And it appears there was no intention of completing a second access road for Makakilo.
Instead, Mayor Harris promoted, planned and pushed an over-the-top statue, fountain and landscaping to continue his kingdom.
On the other hand, this road has been bandied about for 20-plus years. This road would give the area a safety valve to address overflow from the continued over-building of the area. It would also give emergency vehicles improved access as well as citizens improved access if a natural or man-made disaster occurs in Makakilo.
When will citizen safety come first?
Carolyn Martinez Golojuch
A vote for Anderson is a vote for status quo
Thanks, Bob Dye, for pointing out one of the most compelling reasons not to vote for D.G. Anderson.
I'm sure the commentary in the April 7 Sunday Advertiser was meant to objectively assess the candidates for governor. It couldn't have been more helpful to the Lingle campaign had the author been head of the Republican Party.
"Anderson is putting together a coalition of big-name Democrats ... the support of all three former factions of the veteran Democrats, plus that of organized labor." Haven't we been there, done that for far too many years?
How much more clearly can you point out that a vote for Anderson is surely a vote for good-old-boy status quo?
So there you have it, voters: D.G. Anderson — four more years of no hope, no fresh leadership, no sunshine, no change.
Don't want change? Satisfied with the mess we are in? Anderson is your man.
Want new, vigorous leadership, fresh ideas, hope for the future? Vote for Linda Lingle.
Martha Harding
Kailua
Auto insurers dodged an even bigger bullet
My thanks to The Advertiser for its notice and to Wayne Metcalf, state insurance commissioner, for follow-up regarding law violations in setting auto insurance premiums (see Advertiser April 3 article headlined "7 auto insurers to pay $115,000").
The $20,000 fine to State Farm (my carrier) does not, however, begin to soothe my feeling of having been violated.
Had Mr. Metcalf asked me (no reason at all that he should, but humor me, please), I would have started by thinking that 10 percent of the net during the last reported year and setting aside money for restitution is not an unreasonable levy for breaking the law — in lieu of jail time.
Let's look at the money involved. Ten percent of State Farm's net for 2000 would be $68.4 million. Assuming it has used such criteria in all 50 states, Hawai'i's share would be $1.4 million. Because we have much aloha here, I would suggest rounding it off to an even $1 million. Now that begins to get their attention.
State Farm has 58 regional offices. Ignoring restitution, the average impact per region would be $1.2 million. During the same year, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. brought in over $24.2 billion (notice the "b") from premiums. That averages out to over $417 million per region, and $1.2 million is less than 0.3 percent of the premium income. Again, not unreasonable for breaking the law and staying out of jail.
That would have been soothing to me.
Don Tolbert
Van camera contract needs some explaining
Every contract I have seen while working for the state of Hawai'i has included an escape clause allowing the contract to be terminated prior to the expiration date. If canceling the van cam contract costs the state $1 million or $8 million due to an earlier ending date, the DOT and AG personnel responsible for approving the contract should be fired.
If the payoff is reimbursement for the company's purchase of the vans and equipment ($8 million?), then the state must take possession of all the physical assets.
Let this be an educational experience for all state agencies to include language that leaves the state an early way out of every contract, preventing outrageous claims from the company. This is especially important for completely new or pilot programs that need field-testing.
Walter Zaharevitz
Article on robotics supported community
Thank you very much for your front-page article in the April 4 issue of The Honolulu Advertiser about Waialua High and Intermediate School's FIRST Robotics Team #359, which touched on the importance of workplace essential skills (beyond the academic education of the project). You addressed a very sensitive and desperate need of any worthwhile educational endeavor for students: financial support.
Your article was extremely supportive of our rural community's combined intermediate and high school (grades 7 to 12), whose vision is that "every student at Waialua High and Intermediate School will succeed in meeting the challenges of a highly technological society" and whose mission is to "give all students the opportunity to become productive and responsible citizens of the 21st century through a partnership between the school, the students, the home and the community."
Your news article was a great help to restore the "pride and respect" in one of the public education cornerstones of our community, the near-70-year-old Waialua High and Intermediate School.
The school is the site for our Waialua Complex public school's annual Education Fair on May 2, where students and teachers from both feeder elementary schools and the high school display examples of their educational projects and accomplishments over the past school year. Take a trip to the country and come enjoy some time with us. Call Waialua Elementary at 637-8228 to order a bento dinner.
Lloyd O'Sullivan
Waialua
Rhetoric over rate regulation untruthful
Ruth Ellen Lindenberg's letter of March 25 asks for the truth. The fact is, much of the rhetoric surrounding the issue of health plan rate regulation has been less than truthful.
To be charitable to many of the proponents of rate regulation, I will acknowledge this issue is not easily understood. Rather than discuss the actual language of the proposed legislation, advocates have chosen to create a myth. The myth suggests that HMSA and other health plans are unwilling to share information with the insurance division.
The metaphor most often used by advocates is the need for "sunshine." They have suggested that Hawai'i's health plans are closed organizations — that we have locked our doors to government scrutiny and other auditing authorities. This is by no means truthful.
Healthcare is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the United States. Federal and state auditors, independent review organizations and other auditors visit HMSA regularly. Our employees bask in the "sunshine" of these audits routinely. We have no fear of oversight.
The real issue being debated at the Legislature is control — not oversight. Current law provides the insurance division with ample oversight of health plan operations.
To use Ms. Lindenberg's words, the "burning question" facing the Legislature is a simple one: Do the people of Hawai'i want state government to dictate the destiny of our most important community service organizations?
From our perspective, the governance of HMSA should remain with the community leadership that has led the organization in fulfilling its mission of service to the community over the past 63 years.
Cliff K. Cisco
Senior vice president, HMSA
Would other businesses open their door early?
Robert Levy's letter regarding the "petty longshoremen's" "nonperformance" was unjustified and uninformed.
The start of the morning shift is 7 a.m., and to start any sooner would have violated the collective bargaining agreement between the ILWU and the shipping companies that states "the workday shall not commence before 7 a.m." I will guarantee you that the cruise line and the captain were fully aware of that fact, and if they weren't, they didn't do their homework.
Why didn't the captain delay entering the port for another 18 minutes and give the passengers one last chance to take pictures and enjoy the scenery? How many minutes will it be the next time? 30 minutes? One hour? Who do we decide to make an exception for? The QE II? The Norwegian Star? Where does it end?
So to insinuate that the tourist would not return or spend more time and money here because of the 18-minute delay in disembarking the ship is ludicrous. We have rules to follow, as any other business. The next time you go to the bank, ask them to open the doors 18 minutes early. The next time you go to traffic court, ask them to start the proceedings 18 minutes early. How about the movies? The airlines?
I think Mr. Levy owes the longshoremen an apology, otherwise it will be Levy who is being petty.
Robert McDurmin
Longshoreman, 'Aiea
Traffic cam program should be salvaged
Your April 7 "After Deadline" column, "Obeying the law paramount in pursuit of the news," is inconsistent with the apparent editorial policy to oppose photo enforcement of speeding laws.
I am not saying you condone speeding by your staff. However, your continued featuring of van cam news supports efforts to eliminate a very effective technology to encourage safe driving habits.
Speeding is against the law. Speed limits are set to assure safe operation of vehicles operated by drivers of widely varying skills, under changing weather conditions and a fixed roadway geometry. Once the limit is set by standard engineering principles, it should not be arbitrarily changed by the police, the courts or the media.
In hindsight, there is no doubt the system was implemented badly. Discarding a system that has been effective in reducing illegal speeding is a step backward. Fixing it with the support of the media would make all of our streets safer.
Owen Miyamoto
People get their way — van cameras gone
Hallelujah. Our tone-deaf House of Representatives and our equally as tone-deaf governor have finally heard and listened to the loud outcry of the people.
Gerhard C. Hamm
An idea right from HOG heaven
What a concept. The mind boggles. Let's see if I captured all the elements of it from your report ("Anderson proposes state-run fuel authority," April 10).
A guy who failed to win in four attempts at being elected as a Republican (mayor, governor, two each) now wants to run for governor as a Democrat. Problem. He has to carve out a niche to divert voter attention his way. The solution. Voila. Propose another brand-new state government entity in a state with enough government to run six other states and have plenty left over for itself.
This tax-supported entity would then jump in with both feet in an area about which no one in state government now has the first clue: the highly competitive and volatile international spot gasoline market. This new outfit would shrewdly buy millions of gallons of refined gasoline in several grades plus diesel fuel, transport it (in state-contracted cargo tankers?) to our fair shores, store it safely and resell it — all without any profit — at prices far lower than what we are now paying at the pump.
Hmmm. Works for me.
Now (ponder, ponder) the only problem is to come up with an existing government entity upon which to model the organizational hierarchy and efficiency of this brand-new gasser of an outfit.
Eureka. I have it. Just imagine buying vehicle fuel from a state entity as squared away as our own Department of Education. Of course, the new Hawai'i Organization, Gasoline (HOG) would first have to create a vision statement, then an overarching mission statement, then a whole lot of little, derivative individual gas station mission substatements, then a comprehensive set of standards, then a lot of documents about "accountability" — all of which would require lots and lots of consultants and nonbid service contracts before the first drop of fuel could actually be pumped into an auto or truck.
When I read proposals some years ago to provide milk, cookies and naptime for state employees or putting little boxing gloves on chickens so cockfighting could be legalized, I thought I had heard all the daffy ideas our government high-rollers and wannabes could come up with.
I was wrong. The fun just never stops. April is the month in which we must pay our entertainment tax.
Thomas E. Stuart
Kailua-Kona, Hawai'i
