Posted on: Thursday, November 21, 2002

EDITORIAL
Gov.-elect shouldn't shun offered help

Gov.-elect Linda Lingle has repeatedly promised a new beginning for Hawai'i. But we hope that doesn't mean she'll be constantly reinventing the wheel. Not everything needs to be changed.

After eight years of running the show, Gov. Ben Caye-tano's administration has some wisdom to impart, and it would behoove Lingle to draw from that pool of knowledge.

After all, most Islanders, including Cayetano and the Democrats, want to see the state function well. It's a selfish thing.

So to cushion the transition, we suggest Lindle and her top staff sit down with Cayetano and his key Cabinet members and get up to speed on some big-ticket projects.

For example, Cayetano says he has invited Lingle and her chief of staff to sit in on negotiations to build a new jail in Halawa. Lingle, who would rather see an alternative prison that focuses on drug treatment built on the Big Island, has not yet taken Cayetano up on his offer.

The same goes for Lingle's plan for a double-deck toll highway to link Kapolei to downtown. Cayetano long ago rejected that proposal because of high cost, community opposition and aesthetic concerns. He has offered to share with Lingle any of that background.

Again, we'd like to see Lingle make use of that data. We're interested in ideas that are built on something, not ones that pop out of thin air.

Now, we're not advocating that Lingle pick up exactly where Cayetano left off. That's clearly not the new beginning voters want. But in the next fortnight, it would be smart of Lingle to pick the best brains in the Cayetano administration for the simple reason that Hawai'i needs to move forward and can't do so if we keep going back to Square 1.