Harris sees Vision Team future
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
Officially it was billed as "Focusing on Vision," but before the lively two-hour Blaisdell Center Pikake Room meeting ended at noon yesterday, most of the 250 folks in attendance were calling it everything from "old-fashioned government" to "town hall politics."
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, obviously pleased with what he concluded was a ringing endorsement of his Vision Team concept, called it "grassroots democracy in action."
Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris listens as John Steelquist presents his group's project suggestions.
"Most politicians don't like it because it's messy," Harris said after the meeting ended. "But there are several things that came through loud and clear, and one is that they definitely want to continue the Vision Team process."
That process began four years ago as a way to give citizens a means of getting directly involved in the decision-making for capital improvement projects in their neighborhoods. The resulting 19 Vision Teams were each given a $2 million budget.
Since then the teams have been responsible for creating beautification schemes, skateboard parks, and canoe halau, among other projects.
Some 139 projects have been completed or are under way, with more than 115 others in the design stage.
However, with the city's capital improvement budget down $100 million, much of the attention was focused yesterday on trimming the team budgets by half to $1 million. No decision has been made on those cuts, said city spokeswoman Carol Costa.
"All options are still open," she said. "We're here today to hear what everybody thinks."
Most present were members of Vision Teams, Neighborhood Boards or both. The meeting began with Harris showing a slide show of numerous completed projects and lauding the Vision Teams for their work.
Harris then asked those present to consider focusing on one of two projects in the coming year, and to concentrate on getting them completed. At the same time, he suggested that they not begin any new projects until those focus projects are done.
At that point the entire gathering split up into five breakout groups representing Vision Teams for Leeward O'ahu/Pearl Harbor, Central O'ahu/North Shore, Windward O'ahu, East Honolulu and Downtown.
At times the decibel level of the group sessions was so loud it was difficult to hear above the roar.
Much of the discussion centered on the relationship between the Vision Team process, which is a non-elected process, and the elected Neighborhood Board System, which has been around since 1972.
"It doesn't make sense to have two parallel processes," said Rick Egged, president of the Waikiki Improvement Association and a member of the Waikiki Vision Team. "It doesn't make sense to have two sets of meetings. There's a lot of overlap between the two."
But Ken Harding, who is a member of both the Kalihi-Palama Neighborhood Board and the Kalihi-Palama Vision Team, disagreed.
"I worry about the idea of Neighborhood Boards and Vision Teams merging," Harding said. "Vision Teams have been excellent at being proactive. Neighborhood Boards are reactive. They are two different processes."
John Steelquist, who chairs the Makiki Neighborhood Board and is a Vision Team leader in the same area, said the two processes can work in conjunction with one another.
"They have different functions," Steelquist said. "But they should coordinate. The Vision Team looks for the long range, and the Neighborhood Board does look in the short range. "
Neighborhoods are better served if both processes work in unison, he said.
After 40 minutes of meetings, the five factions each presented a summary of their conclusions to the mayor, City Manager Ben Lee and other officials present.
There were calls for streamlining the process, better communication between the city and the Vision Teams, and more feedback from the city on the status of individual projects.
But the one point on which there was unanimous agreement was that the Vision Team process shouldn't be done away with.
Harris characterized the reaction to the proposed financial cuts as a "split decision," with some factions wanting to retain full support and others willing to go along with less money.
He wouldn't speculate on the outcome.
"It's a little too early to say," he said.
