Posted on: Friday, May 17, 2002

Council struggles over final budget

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer

The city budget moved a big step closer to its final form yesterday after the City Council Budget Committee spent more than 11 hours wrangling over programs and restored more of the spending plan originally submitted by Mayor Jeremy Harris.

The meeting prompted 195 people to sign up to testify, although only about half of them spoke as the meeting continued throughout the day. Many of the people who signed up had been prompted to go to the meeting by thousands of letters mailed out by the administration to community members with an interest in various city projects or programs.

The letters remained a sore point with the Council. Budget chairwoman Ann Kobayashi complained that she has still not received an estimate of how much the mailings cost.

City Managing Director Ben Lee bristled at the reference.

"I don't understand all the criticism about mailings," he said. Lee said he sees the 10,000-plus letters mailed out as an attempt to encourage people to participate in the democratic process. "This is our city; this is our country."

Kobayashi said she has no objections to informing the public. However, she said, "it's such a biased letter taking a position against another part of government and also with a lot of misinformation."

Lee said he doesn't believe the letters were misleading because they warn about possible budget cuts but don't actually say the Council is threatening specific programs.

Keala Yuen, of Double Happiness C Software, was among those urging the Council to put back economic development money. And Mark Beede, of the Hawaii Pacific Tennis Foundation, said he supports the administration's effort to build a tennis complex as part of the Central O'ahu Regional park expansion. Beede earlier told the Council that he was working toward a public-private partnership in which half of the new courts could be free and open to the public while the others could be used by the operator for classes, tournaments and other activities that could help support the complex and reduce the amount of city money spent.

Kobayashi said the departing Harris administration is leaving the city with a budget situation next year that will be even more difficult to balance.

"I feel sorry for the next mayor," she said.

Councilman Duke Bainum encouraged Lee to point out which projects are higher priorities than others.

"The city of Honolulu has hit the financial wall," Bainum said. "We see some major problems looming."

When Bainum kept pressing Lee to help the council find the most important priorities, Lee responded, "That's difficult to do." Bainum answered: "That's what your job is."

Bainum added, "It's not that hard. Mr. Lee, you're a smart man. Let's work together, OK?"

Lee replied, "If you're looking at a silver bullet, I don't have that right now."

At one point, city Economic Development Director Manny Menendez pushed for restored financing for his office. After he told the council that the $2 million in proposed cuts "don't make sense," the discussion grew more heated with Menendez and the Council members interrupting each other.

In frustration, Councilman Gary Okino told Kobayashi: "We don't have to listen to him rant and rave." Kobayashi recessed the meeting until Menendez left the room.

Bainum pushed for more money for economic development.

"To walk away from economic development at this time would, I think, send the wrong message," he said.

City Customer Services Director Carol Costa told the committee that the cuts to her department endangered the popular holiday Honolulu City Lights display and programs as well as the planned opening of an East Honolulu Satellite City Hall.

Later in the day, Kobayashi said some of that money would be restored, although Costa remained uncertain of exactly what would be in her budget.

Mayor Jeremy Harris in March proposed a $1.1 billion operating budget and a $475.5 million construction budget. Council members objected to the tapping of special funds, debt restructuring and reliance on short-term financial solutions.

To change that, the council budget committee earlier cut $19.1 million from the operating budget and $74 million from the construction budget. The latest proposal under discussion yesterday trimmed less, cutting about $5 million from the operating budget and about $38 million from the construction budget.

The budget is scheduled for final approval by the City Council on May 29.

Kobayashi hammered on her point that the administration is continuing to drive up the city's debt costs to avoid raising taxes and fees. "The credit card is not limitless because the taxpayers have to pay the bills."