CEDED LANDS

OVERDUE SETTLEMENT NOW BEING SQUANDERED

The 2008 Legislature has an opportunity to resolve an important issue facing all of Hawai'i — the long-overdue settlement of public land trust revenues owed to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

But the chances of that happening seem to dwindle daily at the Capitol.

First, three Senate committees killed the bill 10 days before OHA complied with a resolution that it produce a report on 45 meetings it held statewide with beneficiaries over terms of the $200 million settlement.

Next, one of those Senate committees produced a poorly written and obviously rushed resolution calling for a financial and management audit of OHA.

After OHA trustees and state Attorney General Mark Bennett challenged numerous falsehoods in the resolution, the committee chair incredibly said she didn't know who wrote the resolution and then gutted the offending portions.

This is political sabotage designed to divert public attention from the real issue — a public land trust settlement.

OHA is not afraid of an audit. It already has a legislative audit scheduled to start in December, in addition to yearly internal audits that show continuing improvements.

Still there's a push for a hurried up audit, and as lawmakers spend time on that, there remains no resolution on the settlement.

It's another opportunity squandered on an issue the state Senate is responsible for but has long shirked. And, once again, all of Hawai'i loses.

TAKES EXCEPTION TO CEDED-LANDS EDITORIAL

I am a beneficiary of the Hawaiian homestead trust and the OHA trust and I am offended by the March 18 editorial. The Advertiser has done a disservice to our Hawaiian community, as you have skewed the facts around the ceded lands deal.

Have you not done your homework on OHA and how the trustees are elected and what their function is? They are now elected by all citizens of Hawai'i and they do not represent Native Hawaiian beneficiaries. They are elected to administer a public trust for the betterment of Native Hawaiians.

For you to say homesteaders have no status separate from other OHA beneficiaries in the ceded-land issue is preposterous.

Mahalo nui to our lawmakers for delaying the ceded lands deal. You did the right thing. You knew it was wrong, knowing the Hawaiian community had no knowledge of this agreement. There was no beneficiary consultation or inventory of land.

EDUCATION SPENDING

ISLE TAXPAYERS DESERVE ACCOUNTABILITY AT DOE

A statement by Sen. Norman Sakamoto, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, in your March 23 article about Department of Education spending is incredible.

You stated that Sen. Sakamoto likened the current DOE budget situation to a leaky dam, where money is flowing but some slips through the cracks. Then he is quoted as saying, "Right now the dam is leaking and we need to do a better job spending the resources we have. But I personally believe we need more resources."

Let me see if I have this straight. We are wasting money, don't know where it is going but we need more to waste to make things right.

James Brese, DOE chief financial officer, has some legitimate claims as to many of the increases in DOE expenses. And he is correct that the DOE has been regularly audited, but he failed to say that there has been no comprehensive audit.

An audit should be done from top to bottom, and then the recommendations should be mandated. Hawai'i's taxpayers deserve accountability and efficiency.

I suggest that the Senate Education Committee get an extensive repair job done on that leaking DOE dam before it crumbles.

PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM MUST BE REFORMULATED

Over the past eight years, the Legislature has responded to the appeals of officials of the Department of Education to spend more money on education in order to improve it.

During this period, the budget for public education has risen sharply and the average annual expenditure per student is now more than $13,000. (By comparison, the average tuition of Hawai'i's private schools is just under $9,000.)

Despite substantial funding increases, however, the quality of public education continues to stagnate.

In these uncertain economic times, many organizations are forced to do more with less. So it is downright baffling that the DOE manages to do less with more.

Hawai'i's confounding and dysfunctional public education system should be dismantled, then reconstructed and reformulated so that it works.

RAIL OPTIONS

WHY DOESN'T COUNCIL BELIEVE EXPERT PANEL?

I don't understand why the City Council thinks it knows better.

The expert panel gave its best recommendation based on its collective background and experience — the panel recommend steel rail.

The panel already considered magnetic levitation, rubber-on-concrete and steel technology.

The recommendations were credible, logical and made good sense.

These experts have no stake in this project, so why doesn't the City Council believe them?

It's obvious that no matter what the experts say, some council members are only listening to what they want to hear. It sure looks like certain council members favor the Phileas bus system; who and why?

HAWAIIAN GARDEN

OHA IS BRINGING NEW SPIRIT TO WAIMEA

I am writing because the letter of March 21 stating that Waimea Valley has become degraded made me sad.

I live in Pupukea, attend Kahuku High and Intermediate School, and have visited Waimea Valley about 100 times since I was a baby.

The valley is such a beautiful place, a refuge for native and unusual plants, and for families. With Gary Gill in charge, OHA is doing a great job in bringing a new spirit back to Waimea Valley.

The letter said some very negative things about Waimea, like "If a garden could be called slum-like, Waimea Valley is it."

I think that the writer does not understand the valley. Waimea Valley today is a garden that shows people what it was like in the old Hawaiian days, encourages people to walk, and allows people to swim safely in the big waterfall.

I went to the valley with my family for a delicious Easter brunch, watched hula, played Hawaiian games, saw the waterfall, and enjoyed the gift shop with all local products.

I thought everything was hassle-free and beautiful.

AIR CONDITIONING

NORDSTROM'S SYSTEM SHOULD BECOME MODEL

I would like to respond to the letter of March 24 chastising The Advertiser for using the headline, "Green air conditioning at Ala Moana." The author states, there is nothing green about Nordstrom's new system and the store's only motivation is the cost saving of buying cheaper energy from HECO at night.

If more businesses invested in systems like Nordstrom's, O'ahu could avoid building future fossil-fuel power plants by shifting energy demands to off-peak hours.

The author then writes a press release for a seawater air-conditioning system, but neglects to talk about the enormous negative environmental, cultural and economic impacts.

Before we start blowing holes in our coral reefs and screwing up traffic by digging up Downtown streets for an untested seawater system, let's get behind solar power in a big way.

If our elected representatives would require solar hot-water systems in all new homes and expand tax credits for existing homes, we could reduce our oil dependency by hundreds of thousands of barrels a year.

Now that would be going green!