Council offers 'vision' guidance

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer

City Council members want to give community groups more guidelines on how to spend the $70 million a year they were given control of under the "vision team" concept.

But they aren't yet ready to risk the wrath of residents by rejecting their recommendations.

Councilman John Henry Felix praised Mayor Jeremy Harris for establishing the innovative exercise in community involvement in 1999. The city created 19 community vision teams and gave each the authority to decide how to spend $2 million in construction projects.

Last April, Harris broadened the program by giving each of the 32 neighborhood boards $1 million to spend.

Vision team projects range from park improvements and sidewalks to proposals for new swimming pools.

"The vision concept is a brilliant political ploy," Felix said yesterday during a Council budget committee briefing on the vision team proposals. "I wish I had thought of it. But I'm not running for mayor."

Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said she favors the idea of providing guidelines to future community groups to help them assess projects. Kobayashi and Felix questioned the practice of spending city money on projects on state land. They pointed to vision projects that paid to landscape state highways along Pali Highway and on Ala Moana.

Kobayashi said she's reluctant to take money away from the community projects after it's been committed by Harris. "The game already started. We can't change the rules," she said.

Kobayashi said she believes that Harris would forgo some of his projects to ensure that the vision teams and neighborhood board programs get their money.

At a briefing early this week, council members had questioned the price tag for the city's popular Brunch on the Beach Sunday events and the Sunset on the Beach movie programs.

"Brunch on the Beach and all these things are very nice," Felix said. "The bottom line is: can we afford it?"

Felix accused Harris of taking away the council's authority by promising the money directly to community members.

"The mayor actually gave away our responsibility and our authority by committing $2 million here and $2 million there," he said. "Eventually, it adds up to real money."

City Design and Construction Director Rae Loui said the mayor favors community empowerment through the program, but the decision on spending ultimately rests with the Council.

"It's a policy decision for you to make," she said.

Councilman Duke Bainum, who is running for mayor, disagreed with Felix's description of the program as a political ploy.

To Bainum, the vision teams have been "one of the best things that's ever happened in government."

Bainum said he sees people coming together who care about their community, who want to make a real change, and are setting the priorities to improve their neighborhoods.

"Not every project's a winner, but the process is phenomenally good," he said.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.