St. Francis nurses need better conditions

As nurses and union members who advocate for our patients daily, we were saddened to see the statements by Sister Beatrice Tom denigrating the dedicated registered nurses at St. Francis.

St. Francis provides vital services based on need, not profit, and it is time for the community to support the good work of St. Francis, not scapegoat the nurses who have provided patient care despite being undervalued, short-staffed and subjected to poor working conditions. Exhausted after working long hours, sometimes nurses make mistakes.

The nurses of St. Francis are the face of the nursing shortage in Hawai'i. Nurses are leaving the profession because they simply are fed up with their working conditions and their inability to give the level of patient care they want to give.

Despite these challenges, and despite being the poorest-paid hospital nurses in Honolulu, they continue to provide excellent care in support of St. Francis' mission in our community. They are the backbone of the hospital and deserve our support as they lead the fight for the highest quality patient care and to keep nurses working at St. Francis.

All this service to our community costs St. Francis, and its long-standing cost-cutting measures have been to understaff nursing units, to require mandatory overtime and to pay nurses less than their counterparts at other hospitals in Honolulu. The Hawai'i Nurses Association will not accept these measures. These nurses are dedicated to the mission of the hospital, and this year the nurses need a good contract. Better working conditions for nurses mean better patient care for the people of Hawai'i.

What do legislators have to hide from us?

Regarding the state Sunshine Law: It appears our legislators just don't get it. Breene Harimoto is quoted as saying "complying with the letter of the law is totally ridiculous." Perhaps the school board chairman should find a different job in the private sector, where he can have all the secret meetings he likes.

It's outrageous that our legislators passed the state's Sunshine Law but exempted themselves and didn't adequately fund or give proper authority to the Office of Information Practices, rendering the law toothless and unenforceable.

Who pays their salaries, anyway? They are accountable to us taxpayers. I, for one, would like to know what they have to hide.

Religious holidays aren't the problem

I am writing to refute the March 25 editorial on Good Friday. How can anyone living in the state of Hawai'i object to a religious holiday? The state of Hawai'i has more holidays than any other state I have lived in. For example: Prince Kuhio Day, King Kamehameha Day and Admissions Day.

I understand that Hawaiians want to celebrate their heritage, but if we want to do away with holidays, let's get rid of these three.

As a father of school-aged children, I think those days would be better used for school. The kids do not spend enough time there as it is, with every Wednesday off at noon and at least once a month off for some kind of teacher day.

When I was young and attending school, I went from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. every day except national holidays and summer break.

Leave religious holidays alone or rethink the whole Hawaiian calendar.

We'll miss you, Tanya

Aloha and best wishes to Tanya Bricking Leach and good luck in this new phase of her life. Her writings in the Sunday Ohana page were always a pleasure to read. Thanks for everything, Tanya. We will miss you.

How do you explain the Democratic vote?

For all their seniority, Sens. Akaka and Inouye must be afraid of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. Otherwise, what could possibly explain their votes in support of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? They were nearly the only Democrats in the U.S. Senate not to support protection for this incredible wilderness and wildlife refuge.

As an Alaskan, I have fought to protect the Arctic refuge from drilling since 1987. I'm extending an open invitation to Akaka and Inouye to visit ANWR with me. I will show them why ANWR should never be drilled for oil.

While Hawai'i shouldn't bear the brunt of a tourism boycott, I won't be going to Hawai'i until your senators support protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Wana'ao Road traffic safety test is essential

Regarding your March 21 story on Wana'ao Road traffic safety: It is gratifying to see that the city is taking some action, under our new director of transportation services, to test a solution to the serious traffic safety problem on Wana'ao Road in Enchanted Lake.

The safety and speeding problems were identified by Enchanted Lake residents at a city-sponsored meeting a number of years ago. A traffic-calming solution was requested by the Vision team, the Kailua Neighborhood Board and a majority of residents of the road by a petition, and subsequently designed by city traffic consultants. The Kailua Neighborhood Board took the unprecedented step of doing its own door-to-door, unbiased survey which found majority support for the project designed by the city.

There is overwhelming support for something to be done. Mayor Mufi Hannemann visited the site and said that this is not a "nice to have" project, but a safety issue. Even the leader of the opposition to the city's design acknowledged that something needs to be done and recommended that the city install large speed tables.

Some will complain about being slowed down to near the speed limit, but I am sure that the three-month test will be a success.

City isn't dismantling any projects but being prudent

Much has been made recently about the Hannemann administration "dismantling" city capital improvement projects.

It is true 18 projects were canceled. The cancellations stem not from a desire to undo the previous administration's work, but from recognizing the city's financial straits and the desire to focus on essential services such as sewers and roads.

The Department of Design and Construction established a process for evaluating projects based on:

• Necessity or appropriateness as recommended by affected city departments. Some of the projects, such as Punchbowl Street makai of King Street, had been initiated despite concerns from various city agencies.

• Delays in project starts that would result in significant added costs over original contract amounts, primarily escalating fees. These were due to inadequacies at the time of bidding such as incomplete designs, lack of permits and clearances, and land acquisition requirements.

• Maintenance concerns raised by city departments.

• Other concerns such as liability.

Contracts for most of the initial 18 canceled projects were awarded up to four years ago. It was determined that it would be less costly to cancel the projects and consider rebidding them rather than add escalation compensations to the original contract amounts.

A number of asphalt sidewalk projects were among those canceled because of the high cost of building and maintaining them, and the difficulty in meeting requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Also of concern was potential liability associated with the possible flooding situations resulting from the projects.

The installation of anti-crime security cameras planned for Chinatown, Phase V, was canceled because technology advances made them obsolete.

We will continue using the same criteria as we evaluate other city projects. This is prudent policy, not an attempt to discredit anyone.

Bill could boost state economy

One of the most important pro-jobs proposals in the Legislature involves reducing the burden of unemployment taxes in Hawai'i.

A bill submitted by Gov. Lingle would allow employers to keep an estimated $200 million they otherwise would have to pay into the state's unemployment trust fund. This money could be used instead to increase wages, add benefits and create more job opportunities in Hawai'i.

Hawai'i has had the lowest unemployment rate in the nation for six of the past seven months, building on low unemployment levels for the last two years. As a result, $400 million has accumulated in the state's unemployment account. Rather than continue to collect these funds that will sit idle in the state coffers, the governor's proposal would allow employers to use the $200 million more that would accumulate into that fund over the next three years to improve their companies and acknowledge employee efforts.

Hawai'i's current unemployment income tax applies to the first $32,300 of every worker's total wages. This is the highest in the country. And in Hawai'i, the wage base goes up every year, whether needed or not. Federal law sets the wage base at a minimum of $7,000. The national average wage base is $12,620. In fact, 30 of the 53 states and territories assess employers only on the first $10,000 of salaries earned by workers.

The bill proposed by the Lingle administration (Senate Bill 815/House Bill 706) would lower the taxable wage base in Hawai'i to $7,000 for the next three years. At the end of the three years, a financial assessment would be done to see if the wage base needed to be adjusted based on the unemployment levels in our state.

In the interim, businesses both large and small could use the money they would have paid into the fund to improve their businesses and reward their workers. This infusion of $200 million into the state's economy could be done without costing the state a single cent.

Ironically, this common-sense reduction of an overly burdensome tax has been unnecessarily tacked on to a bill to increase the minimum wage. This good idea may die if it continues to be entangled in the minimum-wage dispute. We urge our fellow business friends to ask the House to consider the administration's idea on its own merit and decouple it from controversial proposals to change minimum-wage laws.

It's time for our lawmakers to take an easy, simple step of providing immediate, significant relief to businesses throughout our community. It's good for the employer. It is good for the employee. And, it's very good for our economy. Call or write your legislator today.