Posted on: Monday, August 12, 2002

EDITORIAL
Likely park problems are public's business

At this point, accusations about unnecessary cost overruns and shoddy workmanship at the new Central O'ahu Regional Park are just that: accusations.

But with its apparent reluctance to help City Council members get to the bottom of those accusations, the Harris administration simply fuels suspicion on the council and with the general public.

Rather than look for reasons to keep this matter under wraps, the administration should be looking for ways to throw light on things.

If something went wrong, the cure is to fix it, not hide it away.

Council members have been told that information about the project is either unavailable, is a personnel matter than cannot be publicly divulged or is under investigation and thus confidential.

This last is particularly frustrating for the council. Whenever an accusation is made, all one has to do is announce an investigation and at once the policy-making council is out of the picture.

The latest offer to the council from Managing Director Ben Lee is to get them the answers and information they need, but in a closed session. That's a step forward, but not enough.

There might be some particularly sensitive legal or personnel matters that cannot be publicly divulged.

But council members are right in demanding that — to the greatest degree possible — questions about this project should be hashed out in public.

That makes sense. The subject, after all, is the spending of taxpayer dollars. Taxpayers have every right to hear how their money is being spent.