Letters to the Editor
Judge should reverse traffic ticket ruling
District Judge Leslie Hayashi fostered contempt for law enforcement when she accepted Rodelio Baysa's "mitigating circumstances" plea and fined him $69 based on a traffic camera citation she knew to be defective as a consequence of the previous day's court decision.
As a supporter of enforced speed limits, I cannot condone Mr. Baysa's apparent violation of the law. However, he is entitled to equal protection by the court from technically flawed citations resulting in dismissal of nearly 100 similar charges one day earlier.
Justice is not served unless Judge Hayashi reverses her acceptance of Baysa's plea, returns the fine she imposed and expunges the conviction from his driving record.
Mr. Baysa acted in good faith when he admitted his guilt. The Judiciary is obligated, in the interest of fairness, to do likewise.
Larry Shohet
10-mph grace speed works; leave it alone
Legislators, van cam operators and District Court judges, please take notice: Judge Russel Nagata's dismissal of speeding violations for drivers going less than 10 mph over the posted speed limit is fair.
I can live with that. No need to raise the speed limits around town. HPD officers have been practicing this method of citing speeders all along. This system works, so don't mess with it.
Now, Mayor Jeremy Harris and City Council members, when are we going to see the van cams in our residential neighborhoods?
J. Marquez
Lower speeds mean less air pollution
Concerning the Feb. 25 Island Voices commentary "Set speed limits at the speed 85 percent drive": One might argue that perfectly "reasonable people (who) blatantly disregard a law" may be perfectly misinformed as well.
Let's think twice before we act to increase speed limits at all. In fact, perhaps we should consider reducing them and for some very good reasons.
Safety issues were never the primary impetus for the establishment of a national 55-mph speed limit more than 25 years ago. As a matter of fact, Hawai'i's low speed limits (maximum 55 mph) represent part of the American community's reasonable curative to the heavy pollution that our vehicles spew into the atmosphere when traveling at speeds greater than 50 mph, and that less streamlined vehicles, such as SUVs and trucks, are far more guilty of producing.
When we drive at speeds above 50, the laws of physics force our big-profile vehicles to waste more and more fuel just to push all that "heavier and heavier air" out of our way as we seek to maintain higher speeds against the increasingly powerful wind resistance we encounter.
Thus, slower speed limits both reduce air pollution and save fuel, big time. Is this not something that we petroleum-dependent American patriots should support as a reasonable discipline toward stopping energy wars and the associated terrorism they are claimed to cause?
Jack Hobbs
Politicians must keep hands off the ERS
For decades, the Legislature, in concert with various governors, skimmed more than $1.3 billion from the state Employees Retirement System in order to perpetuate the lifestyle the state bureaucracy had come to enjoy.
In 1997, realizing the wrong being perpetuated by balancing the state's budget at the expense of public service workers and retirees, lawmakers did right by passing a law promising to stop all future skimming so the system could rebuild lost revenue. However, that promise didn't last long. In 1999, Act 100 was passed, a classic "robbing Peter to pay Paul," which authorized skimming $347 million to pay for public workers' retroactive pay raises, and a promise to stop skimming was broken.
However, there was good news as legislators and the governor promised Act 100 would be the last time. But once again they took money from retirees in 2000 in a different way: A longstanding five-year retirement inflation adjustment was eliminated. The governor vetoed the inflation adjustment, saying, "The ERS couldn't afford it."
Then more bad news for retirees in 2001, when this Legislature passed Act 88, the infamous Employee-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund bill, sending public service workers and retirees into inferior defined (contribution) health plans.
This year Gov. Cayetano's scheme to exempt the state from paying its due amount to the ERS is working its way through the Legislature in the form of HB 2460, and SB 2718, exploiting the effects of Sept. 11 to justify a new version of "skimming." If enacted, by 2024 the state will still owe the ERS $1.3 billion, in part to be paid by taxpayers yet unborn.
As projected retiree numbers will grow from 30,000 to 40,000 within seven years, drawing on a system with a current $990 million unfunded liability, now is not the time for the state to renege on its fiduciary responsibilities to public workers and retirees.
Earl Arakaki
Hip-hop radio show in danger of the ax
While most of you have never heard it, it is considered to be one of the best and arguably most influential hip-hop radio shows in Honolulu. Kavet Omo has been hosting this show on KTUH, the radio station at the University of Hawai'i, and after four years, there is a threat from the powers-that-be to take this away.
Kavet has done a lot for hip-hop in Hawai'i, and with his 'ohana of fellow MCs, DJs and associates, it's only going to get better.
True hip-hop has always acknowledged those who weren't able to be heard, and Omo has done this for four years. On the Mainland, DJs like him are very hard to find. He has been a voice for thousands of hip-hop fans in Hawai'i who were force-fed only what was given to them by mainstream radio and MTV.
I am someone who would like to see him keep his spot on KTUH, as I feel he is one of only two people at the station who have made the station what it is today.
John Book
Survival odds better at lower driving speeds
I can understand Sam Gillie's comments that time is money and time on the road traveling to your destination is lost money because it accomplishes no productive work. What I would like Gillie to explain is: Even at the current set speed limits, we are still getting into accidents.
If we are in an accident, for whatever reason, an accident at a lower speed will usually result in less sustained injury to oneself and others. A person may even come out alive in a lower-speed accident.
Now, if I die in an accident, do you think my family could walk into a store and buy a replacement? We can't always be thinking of money, especially when a life is involved.
Michael Nomura
Kailua
Many contributed to saving Sandy Beach
I would like to thank you for your recent articles on "Golf Course 5 & 6," which, of course, was the object of the Save Sandy Beach Initiative that last week culminated in the final settlement between the city and Kamehameha Schools.
In your article, I was named as "co-founder" of the Save Sandy Beach Coalition, which I was, together with Phil Estermann.
It should be clearly understood that Phil and I were only the match that started the flames. The actual fire was nurtured by many others as well, whose knowledge, creativity and hard work made the final solution possible.
There are too many to name, but they know who they are. They deserve most of the gratitude and a heartfelt thank-you from everyone, including me.
David E. Matthews
Cutbacks in public education outrageous
As a mother of three children, two of whom in public schools, I am outraged that the state wishes to shorten the school days of kindergartners and double up the already full classrooms of the upper grades.
These decision-makers are the people who make the big bucks that afford them the opportunity to send their children to private or parochial schools.
Hawai'i's children already suffer enough in the classrooms. Most of the schools are falling apart and do not equip their staffs with the proper tools necessary to teach.
What about our "beloved" OHA? This is where you will find the money that is needed and meant for our children's education. The trustees sit on a high pile of money that they do not deserve to control.
I have a right to expect that my children will have a chance at a real education. The state officials have no right to take that away from my children or yours so that they can make sure their pockets are full and they can run the state educational system (which is already a joke) further into the ground.
Kelly Cho
Property taxes aren't tied to public schools
Two previous letters to the editor were incorrect in saying that Honolulu's property tax rate is low when compared to Mainland counties. It is not (entirely) because we have a state general excise tax.
The main reason Mainland counties have higher property taxes and debt service is that they typically have the responsibility for public schools.
Imagine what our property tax would look like if the county had to cover the cost of public schools.
Cy Watase
Improving university requires financing
I am writing in response to problems faced by students at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.
There was a meeting held recently in order to gain information on what the staff can do about raising the quality of student life. There is much that the students can do to increase the value of the UH community.
But the university needs funding and organization that would come from a larger staff.
Chris Lum
Threat to recycling
Any bottle bill I see proposed will likely kill any recycling program already long in place at major apartment buildings. I also see no consideration of this prospect in your coverage.
Kermit Reineman
Let's make poverty, homelessness crimes
Regarding the Jan. 14 story about homelessness: It's about time the people of Hawai'i realize that poverty has been effectively outlawed in this state. Now poverty and homelessness are punished with measures that equate with debtors prison and indentured servitude, which were done away with hundreds years ago with the founding of this nation.
Today park closing and camping regulations are used to get around the Constitution. If a person or family with no house or apartment is in the park or other public property (which they own, simply by being citizens), they are cited for "illegal camping," "being in the park after closing" or other ordinance violations. When they, due to their impoverished state, cannot pay a fine (debt), community service is ordered (indentured servitude) or they are sent to jail (debtors prison).
The city and the state are now even making it illegal for the impoverished to be fed by charitable people and organizations. Requiring a permit to give away food does this. Permits to give something away? What's next?
Why not just pass a law formally making poverty illegal? The employed citizens can reduce their tax burden while providing the basic needs of the currently homeless, in a prison.
This will create more jobs in the construction, police, court and prison occupations as homeless and poverty prosecutions increase. The people, thus employed, will help to create more jobs in the businesses that service their needs. This positive economic ripple effect will continue to spread until equilibrium is achieved, thereby solving the economic crisis and homeless problem at the same time. The homeless people will then be performing a useful social function, i.e., filling the prisons to provide jobs for others.
While we're at it, why not turn the prisons into factories? After all, we can't have the prisoners lolling about all day at the taxpayers' expense when they could be making things for the prisons to sell for profit. This will make the prison self-supporting, possibly even more profitable, and lower or even eliminate taxes.
After all, this system is working very well in China, and we don't hear about any Chinese homeless problems, do we?
John J. Scarry III
c/o IHS homeless shelter
