Posted on: Thursday, January 15, 2004
EDITORIAL
By his potholes, should this mayor be judged?
Despite his many years of admirable public service, the hallmark of Mayor Jeremy Harris' tenure in City Hall in his final months has, sadly, come to be potholes.
The city's streets are simply falling apart.
There's a fair share of state highways in similar condition, but that's the topic of another editorial.
An administration that bragged of vision teams, of Waikiki renewal, Hanauma Bay upgrades, development of a world-class soccer facility and Sunset on the Beach is struggling to perform the most basic and mundane of its duties — keeping the city's streets in passable shape.
The conclusion is almost inescapable that this was an administration that expected — until it collided with an implacable Campaign Spending Commission — to be moving to Washington Place at the end of 2002.
The "gee whiz" achievements designed to captivate the public and propel political aspirations were all in place — if not paid for — by then. The next administration would be left to finish the task of dealing with sewers in dire need of repair, a deepening solid-waste disposal dilemma, mounting debt service and serious budget problems.
Harris' plan to put another $2 million into emergency road repair, and to hotwire the bidding process to get hot mix on the ground starting Monday, is clearly a crisis-based response to the totally predictable result of a failure to prepare for the inevitable.
Don't blame rain. The heavy winter downpours that washed away tons of deteriorating asphalt are normal. The advanced state of decay of the road surfaces when the rains fell is responsible.
City Managing Director Ben Lee concedes that the short-circuited bidding process will sacrifice quality and economic controls at the expense of getting the work done quickly. That means more makeshift patchwork at premium prices.
Any number of letters to the editor have pointed out how far behind road repairs had fallen in recent years.
When money is short, as it has been at the city, deferring maintenance is always an option. All governments do it. But the time has come to put the city back on a schedule of regular repair and repaving rigorous enough to avoid having to get into the crisis mode.
