Lawmakers fight Mainland-only rule
By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer
Members of Hawai'i's congressional delegation are asking the Department of Defense to reconsider a recommendation that its national events be held in the continental United States.
Advertiser library photo • Sept. 26, 2002
The Hawai'i Tourism Authority executive director Rex Johnson wrote letters to the four lawmakers asking them to intervene in the American Society of Military Comptrollers' attempts to cancel a meeting May 28-June 2, 2005, that would draw about 4,000 participants. The society is an association of military financial managers.
The American Society of Military Comptrollers is trying to cancel a 2005 meeting at the Hawai'i Convention Center.
"In the interest of economy and efficiency the Department of Defense can support and encourage attendance at national DoD-wide training events ... only when those events are conducted in the continental United States at centers of major financial manager populations," according to a directive to the comptrollers from Dov Zakheim, undersecretary of defense (comptroller ).
Zakheim also cited the long travel time getting to meetings away from the Mainland.
He recommended that the group look into holding a meeting in or around Washington, D.C.
Sen. Dan Inouye's office has questioned the Department of Defense about Zakheim's directive and Sen. Daniel Akaka's office is doing the same.
"How can they be citing time and cost when Hawai'i put in a winning bid (for the comptrollers' meeting)?" said Paul Cardus, Akaka's press secretary.
"They're citing a whole bunch of different reasons, but nobody's given us any rules. Certainly there are a lot of questions to be answered. ... Is it actually a policy or rule of the administration?"
U.S. Rep. Ed Case sent a letter to Zakheim urging him to reconsider. Case asked for justification for the policy and said Hawai'i is "a first-class business convention destination."
"You just always have to stay on top of the bureaucracy back in Washington, D.C., so that these kinds of decisions which have no basis to them are not made," Case said.
If the military can base forces here, "certainly they can have a convention here," Case said.
This is the first time Hawai'i has run into this problem with a military meeting, according to the convention center's management.
State officials fear the Defense Department directive may make Hawai'i "a second-class state because of our location," Johnson said in his letter.
State officials have long struggled to change the perception that Hawai'i is more a destination for play than a place to hold conventions and association meetings.
Cardus said the delegation has worked to counter "the hesitation of some people to travel to Hawai'i for fear of being accused of wanting to go to a resort location" by putting the state forward as a well-situated location to conduct business.
Reach Kelly Yamanouchi at 535-2470, or at kyamanouchi@honoluluadvertiser.com.
