A trade group representing real estate investment trusts has spent more than $126,000 in two months to defeat measures in the Hawaii Legislature that would impose taxes on some of the $18 billion worth of trust investment property in the islands.

But one of the bills to tax them is still alive this session.

The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts is the biggest spender of 250 organizations registered to lobby this legislative session. The groups spent a total of more than $1.1 million from Jan. 1 to Feb. 28, according to reports filed with the Hawaii State Ethics Commission.

While the association was the biggest overall spender for this reporting period, it only paid out about $8,000 directly to lobbyists at the local law firm Ashford & Wriston, including Luis Salaveria, the former director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

Ala Moana Center, managed by General Growth Properties, is a real estate investment trust.

Cory Lum/CIvil Beat

The majority of its money went to advertising ($63,486), lobbying materials ($35,413) and consultant fees ($19,036). What exactly all that paid for is not clear, because organizations aren’t required to provide spending details beyond those broad categories.

There’s been a surprisingly strong push in the Legislature this session to start taxing REITS. Senate Bill 301 would impose a 6.2% corporate income tax on the trusts. The bill is headed to a conference committee of House and Senate members.

The REITs association has submitted testimony in opposition, arguing the tax could scare off companies and investors, resulting in negative long-term effects on the state economy.

The company has launched a website extolling the benefits REITs have in Hawaii. Several REITs in the state sponsored a campaign set up by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts Foundation to help fund affordable housing projects in Hawaii.

The association has been lobbying at the State Capitol since at least 2014, but this is only the second time its expenditures hit six-figures for a reporting period. The other time was in 2017 during the Legislature’s special session to fund rail, when the organization spent $103,369.

REITs are securities that operate under rules that require them to distribute at least 90 percent of their taxable income to shareholders annually in the form of dividends. They are allowed to deduct those dividends from their taxable income, legally avoiding federal taxes.

They own some of Hawaii’s premier real estate, including Ala Moana Shopping Center, Hilton Hawaiian Village and the International Market Place.

Shareholders are taxed on dividend income in their own home states or countries, not in the places where the income was generated. For the most part, that means not in Hawaii.

Hundreds of local church parishioners, progressive activist groups and about a dozen owners of small businesses in the state have allied in support of SB 301, charging that offshore real estate owners operating as REITs are in essence tax dodgers.

Vacation Rental Properties

The vacation rental hosting platform Airbnb is also resisting legislative efforts to tax its income.

Airbnb had lobbying expenses of $30,000. David Louie, a former attorney general turned lobbyist with Kobayashi Sugita & Goda, was paid $20,244 by the hosting platform.

Airbnb also paid about $2,600 each to Bruce Coppa, Blake Oshiro and Ross Yamasaki of Capitol Consultants, the state’s largest government relations and lobbying firm.

Two bills to tax vacation rental hosting platforms are still alive and may move into conference committee. House Bill 419 would tax the rentals and require counties to keep registries of those properties. It would also outlaw any rental not listed on the registry.

Louie sent eight pages of written testimony when the bill was last heard in a committee. He also wrote that the bill violates a federal statute that exempts websites from having to verify third-party information.

He argued that private information stored on a website should be inaccessible to the government without a search warrant.

Louie also testified in opposition to Senate Bill 1292, a similar measure that would also collect general excise and transient accommodations taxes from vacation hosts.

Verizon Top Spender On Direct Lobbying

While Aribnb and the REITs association are high on the list for total expenditures, the telecommunications company Verizon spent the most on direct payments to lobbyists.

Verizon spent $55,000 directly on lobbyists ($55,844 in total lobbying costs), followed by Kamehameha Schools at $30,712 ($32,111 total), Airbnb at $30,027 ($34,227 total), the Hawaii Medical Service Association at $26,675 ($35,052 total), and the Ulupono Initiative at $23,764 ($25,608).

Michael Bagley, Verizon’s regional public policy director, was paid $33,000. Verizon also made payments of $10,000 each to Michael Iosua and Kimberly Yoshimoto from the law firm Imanaka Asato.

Bagley sent written testimony to legislative committees in support of a pair of bills that seek to lift certain regulations on telecommunication companies.

Senate Bill 991 and its companion House Bill 272 are set to go to conference committees.

The bills would remove restrictions for a “telecommunications service provider providing fully competitive retail services.” They would cap monthly rate increases for basic services on neighbor islands at $6.50 unless companies get approval from the Public Utilities Commission, but would lift other PUC restrictions.

Companies like Hawaiian Telcom would no longer be required to get PUC approval for selling stocks and other investments. They also wouldn’t need the PUC’s blessing to lease, sell or mortgage property and infrastructure.

The bill would also exempt telecommunications companies from a state law that requires a report of any accident, including loss of life, resulting from the company’s services.

Bagley testified that the bill would modernize the state’s regulations.

“Streamlining and reducing regulations in an increasingly competitive environment in which telecommunications businesses operate is a demonstration of good public policy – it is in the public’s best interest,” Bagley said in written testimony.

While expense reports don’t say exactly which measures lobbyists are tracking, the reports list subject areas a company is lobbying in. For Verizon, those include communications and public utilities, consumer protection and commerce, government operations and finance, public safety and corrections and science, technology and economic development.

Kamehameha Schools has been busy at the Capitol this session weighing in on a number of measures related to education, health, agriculture, the environment and the minimum wage. It’s paid a total $15,000 to Melissa Pavlicek and Stephen Teves from Hawaii Public Policy Advocates, as well as more than $14,000 to its own in-house lobbyists.

The Ulupono Initiative was founded by Pierre and Pam Omidyar. Pierre Omidyar is the CEO and publisher of Civil Beat.

The post Group Opposed To Taxing Billions In Real Estate Trusts Is A Big Spender At Capital appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

Civil Beat says, “It’s time for Hawaii to have a conversation about economic growth in the islands.” (“Beyond Hotels and Beaches: Can Hawaii Really Diversify its Economy?” April 2.)

Why? There are better ways to live well. Let’s not just assume that economic growth is the answer.

Economic growth can mean increased incomes for the rich while the rest of us continue to sit on the freeway for hours to get to the dead-end jobs we need to cover our outrageous mortgage payments. Economic growth often fails to lift the bottom half.

An alternative approach would be to focus on strengthening communities or creating new ones, places in which people live and care about each other’s well being on a day-to-day basis. Such communities are not about doing charity better, but about making charity unnecessary.

Deliberately designed communities, commonly described as intentional communities, do not offer clever solutions to social issues such as poverty and homelessness. Those issues simply don’t show up on those communities’ agendas.

The organized homeless camp at the Waianae Boat Harbor. The state should consider giving the residents land.

Civil Beat

As I pointed out elsewhere, communities can function well even if they have little money. Charles Eisenstein writes that throughout history, many people have “lived largely outside the money economy. In a small village in India or Africa, most people procured food, built dwellings, made clothes, and created entertainment in a subsistence or gift economy, without much need for money.”

George Kanahele said the same thing about pre-contact Hawaii:

There is a good deal of interest in ancient Hawaii’s foodways (Bremer et al. 2018; Watson 2019). Maybe a few residents could go totally off the grid and return to the pre-contact lifestyle in Hawaii, but certainly not all of us, not unless we made more radical changes in lifestyle than we are willing to make. But we can learn from the past about ways to live together well.

Just about everyone who goes hungry is poor, but not everyone who is poor goes hungry. Where people care about one another’s well-being and about the environment in which they are embedded, few people go hungry. This is true even in poor and in so-called primitive societies.

In modern times, some of the poor are ejected by the mainstream economy.

But notice that the people living on the streets do that in clusters. Living together with caring, supportive friends is more important than houselessness. Instead of offering bare housing, a better approach would be to offer those people opportunities to live in strong communities.

Puuhonua o Waianae is a group of about 200 people who have been living in an encampment near the Waianae Boat Harbor. It has been operating under the leadership of Twinkle Borge under strict rules. They have been struggling to find a new site to establish their community on a permanent basis.

At the same time the city government spends millions for sweeps of homeless people, often bumping them and their tents from one sidewalk to another. The state’s Department of Agriculture acknowledges that there are thousands of acres of good agricultural land sitting fallow. It would not be difficult to find underused land.

Giving Puuhonua o Waianae a bit of land would be a wonderful investment. That is, it would be a good investment if we measured outcomes in terms of self-sustaining enrichment of the quality of life for hundreds of people, and not just in terms of increases in money wealth.

Helping people help themselves is a good investment. It would be good even if it did not produce measurable economic growth for the state.

Once the group had a specific piece of land to work with, they could begin their planning for the long-term functioning of their new community. They could start by drafting a charter. They could consult with people with all sorts of experience and expertise, perhaps contacting some of them with the help of the Internet.

They could draw on the best available technologies. Many experts would gladly share their knowledge and enthusiasm about gardening and other kinds of skills.

Maybe some people in the community would be interested in setting up a farm as a cooperative. If they set up a restaurant next to it, I would be glad to visit, and bring along some friends, and buy some fruits and vegetables on my way out.

Yes, Hawaii can diversify its economy, especially if we diversify our understanding of what should be valued.

We should value the well-being of all people and the whole environment, past, present and future more than we value the accumulation of wealth.

The post Economic Growth Is Not Always The Solution appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

When it comes to taxpayer-subsidized industries, Hawaii’s motion picture business has few equals.

The state paid out an estimated $99 million to productions in 2016 and 2017 alone, supporting two network television series, “Hawaii Five-O” and “Magnum P.I.,” a steady parade of Hollywood blockbusters and numerous big-budget television commercials, with more than $467 million in expenditures that qualified for the credits.

In simple terms, it’s a 20% to 25% rebate. If a production spends the minimum of $200,000, it gets back $40,000 to $50,000. A $1 million project can get $250,000 back in the form of a check from the state.

But is it worth it?

Producers of Hollywood blockbusters like “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and television series like “Hawaii Five-O” pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the Hawaii economy each year.

AP

That’s what lawmakers are asking as they take a hard look at the incentive, rethinking a decision to cap the credits at $35 million annually. The cap went into effect this year, and already industry boosters say the policy is costing Hawaii production business — and jobs.

Heavy Pro-Movie Lobbying

A broad swath of people, from Hollywood lobbyists and government officials to union workers, is pushing to lift the cap or eliminate it altogether. Even the Tax Foundation of Hawaii, which often looks askance at tax credits, has joined the bandwagon, extolling the economic development benefits of the motion picture tax credits.

Leading the push is Mike McCartney, acting director of the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. In testimony, McCartney has asked the Legislature to raise the annual cap to $55 million.

“This competitive advantage is in jeopardy, if this cap is not amended,” McCartney said in March testimony submitted to the House Finance Committee.

The Motion Picture Association of America has gone a step further, asking lawmakers to lift the cap entirely and remove a sunset provision that will require the Legislature to renew the program to keep it active past 2026.

“MPAA and its members submit that those amendments will ensure stability and predictability for motion picture and television producers, who want to bring even more projects to Hawaii,” Vans Stevenson, the MPAA’s senior vice president for government affairs, testified.

Georja Skinner, who oversees the Hawaii Film Office as the head of DBEDT’s Creative Industries Division, couldn’t say in an interview how much business Hawaii has lost. But she said the loss of projects is very real in a state that saw an estimated $425 million in production expenditures for projects that qualified for tax credits in 2018.

A lobbyist for the Motion Picture Association of America, testified that features designed to set limits on the production incentive program, specifically a cap and sunset provision, create uncertainty for productions like “Hawaii Five-O,” pictured here.

Flicker: SexyAndHotTv .

“We know that there are productions and studios that have been calling and are concerned because the cap is in place,” she said.

Legislation is now headed to conference committee. The key provisions – the cap and sunset date – are left blank, which means legislators will have to hash out those terms in the waning days of the session. If not, the current cap and sunset date will stay in place.

“Is the industry activity worth the investment by the state? That’s a question on everyone’s mind.” — House Finance Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Luke.

The push comes at a critical time for Hawaii. With its high cost of living and dearth of relatively high-paying jobs, the Aloha State has experienced population decline for two years in a row – the apparent result of young people migrating from the state in search of better jobs in what amounts to an unusually high pace of brain drain.

But is subsidizing Hollywood a good bet?

The trend is for states to say it isn’t.

As of 2018, 31 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands offered subsidies for the industry, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But that was down from 44 states in 2009. Although some states have expanded incentive programs, states generally are scaling back, NCSL reported in a 2018 document.

“Most states’ policymakers walk a fine line and try to balance film production incentives in ways that limit forgone revenue, yet still reduce the chances of losing the state’s film industry to competing incentive programs,” the NCSL report said.

Rep. Sylvia Luke, the chair of the House Finance Committee, said a key question facing lawmakers trying to balance the state budget is the extent to which producers would film projects here anyway, without the incentive.

“That’s the question everyone wants the answer to,” Luke said. “It’s a tough issue because you really don’t know the answer to that question unless the tax credit is gone.”

Rep. Sylvia Luke, chair of the House Finance Committee, said the state needs to determine whether motion picture industry activity is worth the state’s investment, which totaled almost $100 million in 2017 and 2018.

There’s no doubt that the creative industries have a substantial impact on Hawaii’s economy, and motion pictures – mainly, movies, television series and commercials – are a big part of that.

In a recent report, the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that “arts and cultural production industries” in Hawaii accounted for 22,742 jobs and $1.4 billion in income in 2016. Almost 15,000 of those jobs and $950 million in income were in what the bureau calls supporting arts and cultural industries, including publishing, broadcasting and motion picture production.

Good Pay For Blue Collar Work

It’s not just artsy types who make a living from Hawaii’s production business. The Hawaii Teamsters’ movie division, for instance, employs more than 220 workers, including 160 truck and equipment drivers and 45 location managers, said Cody Sula, the union’s government affairs liaison and business representative.

Including overtime pay, a union driver can make $80,000 to $120,000 annually, with some earning as much as $150,000, Sula said.

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate Hawaii has a robust film industry. According to the bureau, 130 camera operators were employed in Hawaii in 2018, for instance, with an average annual wage of almost $60,000. The numbers were even better for other media and equipment workers; there were 230 of those earning just under $79,000 annually. Hawaii has concentrations of these workers above the national average, bureau data show.

“This competitive advantage is in jeopardy, if this cap is not amended,” Mike McCartney, acting director, Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism

Such jobs are critical in Hawaii. A 2015 report by Hawaii’s Aloha United Way found that a family of four including two adults, an infant and a preschooler would need a household income of more than $72,000 to afford basics like food, clothing, transportation, health care and housing.

Families with income below the threshold are struggling, the report said.

It had a term for such families: “asset limited, income constrained, employed,” or ALICE. The report estimated 48% of people in Hawaii were living below the ALICE threshold; while some were actually below the poverty level, many were just able to make ends meet.

Stevenson, the industry lobbyist, said CBS alone employs almost 1,000 cast and crew workers on “Hawaii Five-0” and “Magnum P.I.” But that’s only part of the local hiring from big television shows. According to data from the Hawaii Film Office, the two largest television series in Hawaii made an estimated $93 million in expenditures qualifying for tax credits in 2017 and made an estimated 3,727 local resident hires.

At What Cost?

The problem for lawmakers trying to balance the state’s budget is that all those jobs don’t come for free. The state also paid out $18.5 million in tax credits to the state’s two largest television productions.

What’s often overlooked when discussing tax credits is the true cost of the program, said Randy Roth, a retired tax law professor.

The term “tax credit” often seems benign to the public and even some policymakers, said Roth, who taught tax law for 36 years at the University of Hawaii, William S. Richardson School of Law.

“When they say ‘tax credits’ they act as if it’s Monopoly money,” Roth said. “But it’s the equivalent of simply writing a check to someone.”

Unlike a standard legislative appropriation, however, tax credit programs steer money through a more opaque process. Who exactly gets the money, and how much, is all secret. For instance, while the film office posts a list of productions with qualified expenditures and estimated tax credits received, the productions themselves are not identified.

Skinner said productions need to keep costs under wraps for business reasons, but Roth said tax credits are tax expenditures just like appropriations, even though they don’t appear in the budget.

“The lack of transparency: That’s the big one,” Roth said, when asked about problems he saw with the program.

Hawaii has one of the highest concentrations of dancers in the nation, but only motion picture productions are targeted for the lucrative subsidy program.

Cory Lum/CIvil Beat

Another issue is getting a handle on the net loss to the state in terms of tax revenue, said Luke, the House Finance Committee chair. Although the tax credits stimulate economic activity, it appears the activity doesn’t produce enough tax revenue to offset what the state pays out. The result is a net fiscal loss.

In 2017, for example, 48 productions made $268.6 million in qualified expenditures to generate an estimated $55.4 million in tax credits versus about $29 million in taxes generated, for a net loss of $26.3 million.

Estimates for 2018, which was a banner year, are more striking: $477 million in production spending generated an estimated $90 million in tax credits and $51 million in taxes generated. The loss to the state was $39 million.

Of course, the big difference between motion picture productions and public libraries is that the movie business has a huge economic impact. Not only are the productions essentially exports, which bring new money into the economy, but they also generate a wide range of spending throughout the community.

DBEDT estimates the industry’s economic impact to be $825 million in 2018, far greater than the $39 million fiscal loss.

“Government is notoriously bad at picking winners.” —  Randy Roth, retired UH tax law professor, on state tax credits

A final question, Roth says, is whether the government should be trying to pick winning industries by singling them out for support. Beyond movies, Hawaii’s local entertainment industry is strong, its nearly 10 million annual tourists creating high demand for traditional live performances.

In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hawaii’s concentration of professional dancers, singers and musicians is many times greater than film technicians and camera operators when compared to other locales. And while it might be hard to make a living on stage, the hourly wages aren’t bad: about $18 an hour for dancers and $36 an hour for musicians and singers.

Becky Newbold, an attorney who serves as entertainment director for the Star of Honolulu dinner cruise ship and the Rock-A-Hula show at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center, said the ship employs about 35 to 40 Polynesian dancers, while the Rock-A-Hula show has about 15 dancers, including some jazz dancers.

Asked why DBEDT’s Creative Industries Division singles out motion pictures for big subsidies over such local live productions or other creative artists, Skinner said the answer was complicated.

Some arts organizations get other forms of government support like grants, she said.

Another factor, she said, is that motion picture productions cut across all the creative industries and stimulate those.

“The film industry is a catalytic industry for all creative sectors,” she said.

Roth isn’t sure. He thinks DEBDT would be better off creating a good business environment for everyone.

“Government is notoriously bad at picking winners,” he said.

For now, lawmakers must sort it all out: decide whether to keep in place the policy that scales back the program or open the state’s coffers again.

“Is the industry activity worth the investment by the state?” Luke said, framing the issue. “That’s a question on everyone’s mind.”

“Hawaii’s Changing Economy” is supported by a grant from the Hawaii Community Foundation as part of its CHANGE Framework project.

The post The High Price Of Luring The Movies To Hawaii appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

The measles outbreaks continue to spread, with New York City declaring a public health emergency and requiring people in four ZIP codes to have their children vaccinated or face penalties, including a fine of $1,000 and or imprisonment.

Since September 2018, 285 measles cases have been reported in Brooklyn and Queens, mainly in neighborhoods where ultra-Orthodox Jews have chosen to not have their children vaccinated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that from Jan. 1 to April 4, 465 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 19 states. This is the second-highest number of cases since the CDC declared measles eliminated in 2000; in 2014, 667 cases occurred.

Hawai’s Department of Health has recently published vaccination rates for public and private schools in the state, sparking a debate over whether kids should be vaccinated in order to attend school.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Cases have still been occurring each year, often brought into the United States from international travelers. Officials believe that to be the cause of the outbreak in Rockland County, New York, where 168 cases were reported as of April 8.

Rockland public health officials issued a ban that would keep unvaccinated children out of public places, but a judge overruled that on April 5. On April 9, county officials said they would appeal.

But there are limits to what health care providers, public health officials and legislators can do. It is crucial to consider both the power – and the limits – of potential solutions that will provide education, medical care and protection for the public while still upholding principles of informed consent, parental decision-making and sustaining public trust.

As a professor who researches and teaches health law, public health law and medical ethics, I think it’s worth clarifying what states can or cannot legally do when responding to cases of communicable disease.

A Right To Refuse Medical Care

The law recognizes the right of an individual to refuse medical interventions. Health law has a strong history of recognizing bodily integrity: Adults can choose whether to accept or reject a proposed medical intervention, even in instances where public health authorities conclude a vaccine would benefit both the individual and society. The Supreme Court has recognized parents’ ability to direct the care and control of their children, including consenting or forgoing medical treatment for their child except in very specific circumstances.

In the 1905 Jacobson v. Massachusetts case, the Supreme Court upheld a state law delegating power to local health officials mandating that adults receive one smallpox vaccine in the midst of an epidemic or pay a fine (about $130 today). Under the concept of police power, states have a duty to enact laws that promote the health, safety and welfare of its residents. Public health authorities may offer vaccines as a method of prevention, but medical professionals, public health authorities and even courts may not legally compel a person to submit to a vaccine.

The Jacobson decision also set forth limits on police power, yet subsequent cases addressing vaccine mandates discarded these requirements, extending multiple vaccine mandates to school attendance for disease not in circulation and in the absence of an epidemic.

Deferring to respected scientific consensus as a means to justify forced medical interventions in the name of individual benefit and the public good has historically resulted in some of the most egregious constitutional and human rights atrocities in the U.S. The mass forcible sterilization during the eugenics movement is but one example.

The history of science and medicine further demonstrates the fallibility of commonly accepted medical knowledge, such as when Bayer introduced heroin as a safe, non-addictive substitute for morphine, or physicians prescribed Bendectin and thalidomide to relieve nausea, only to find these medications resulted in babies born with severe birth defects.

American health care efforts eliminated the Measles, but more than 400 cases have been identified in the U.S. recently, highlighting the collective danger from parents choosing not to vaccinate their children.

CDC

Public Good, Personal Rights

The law is also quite clear that public health authorities and law enforcement may place restrictions on a person’s individual liberty – including religious liberty – in situations where a person’s actions pose a direct, immediate and compelling harm to others, such as using venomous snakes in religious worship or asserting a nonexistent “right” to use an illegal substance such as marijuana when operating a motor vehicle.

In public health law relating to communicable disease, this constitutes a very specific standard: A person must have a present disease, and this person’s actions must pose a direct threat to others.

For example, health officials may seek a quarantine order or civil commitment for a person with active tuberculosis who continues to frequent highly populated public spaces until the person is no longer contagious.

The CDC classifies vaccines as one of the top 10 public health achievements.

Even in such a case, health authorities can offer treatment and limit a person’s movement to prevent infecting others, but the law does not permit forcibly medicating a competent person against his will.

Accordingly, legal precedent does not support quarantining vast geographic areas of healthy persons who have not been exposed to the communicable illness, but would support tailored voluntary isolation and quarantine of persons who have been exposed to, or currently have, the illness.

What Health Officials Can Do To Protect Children

The CDC classifies vaccines as one of the top 10 public health achievements. The vast majority (about 98%) of parents across the U.S. as a whole comply with the state law mandated schedule of vaccines for their children.

Vaccines, like any other FDA-approved product such as a prescription drug or medical device, carry a set of risks and benefits. These calculations vary depending on the vaccine, its efficacy, safety, potential side effects, the severity of the illness the vaccine aims to protect against, and the individual to whom it is administered.

Vaccine science and practice similarly evolved with historical mistakes (the Cutter incident) and ongoing disputes about risks and benefits for individual vaccines like flu and anthrax.

To promote vaccination for children, health officials may offer educational campaigns and set up free clinics for parents to bring their children. State laws may also mandate vaccines as a condition for school attendance, or require excluding unvaccinated children during an active outbreak at their school.

However, if states offer a religious or nonmedical exemption, courts have been clear that health officials and school officials do not have discretion to require the child’s parent to identify with an organized religion or reject the sincerity of the parent’s beliefs because this violates the First Amendment.

Harm To Community

Public health professionals worry that parents who forgo vaccination are placing their child and the community at risk. Some have advocated that the state should step in with coercive measures such as eliminating any nonmedical exemptions for all children or intervene by force, such as classifying parents’ decision as child neglect or seeking a court order to vaccinate the child.

In my opinion, these strategies rely on a distortion of legal precedent, dismiss longstanding authority of parents to make decisions for their children, and threaten to undermine an already fractured public trust.

Cases that uphold state intervention to protect a child by compelling medical treatment generally require that the child has an illness, the illness is severe and life-threatening, and the risks and benefits of intervening are assessed.

This requires medical professionals and health officials to maintain precision in distinguishing whether the parents are deciding to forgo recommended vaccines, or whether they are refusing medical care for a critically ill child. Indeed, a recent case in Chandler, Arizona, demonstrated how a climate of coercion and force may result in parental fear and refusal to constructively engage with state officials for even an ill child.

State public health officials have the duty to protect residents from illness and communicable disease, but these strategies must fall within appropriate legal parameters. Dismissing these legal boundaries or justifying unnecessary force not only undermines fundamental liberties, but in my view fuels parental and community distrust of health officials and sets back the ultimate goals of protecting the public.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post Measles Outbreaks: The Legal Challenges Of Public Good Vs. Personal Rights appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

Recently a coed at the University of South Carolina was killed after getting into a car she mistook for her Uber ride. This tragedy occurred 5,000 miles away, but it’s sending a clear message to us here in Hawaii.

The Hawaii Legislature is considering legislation that would establish statewide regulations for drivers and cars operating as part of a transportation network company such as Uber and Lyft.

Noticeably absent from the proposed regulations is any language that would require TNCs to display signage or a decal identifying themselves as an Uber or Lyft vehicle.

Taxis, on the other hand, must carry a dome light on top of the car and the company name on the sides to make them easy to identify.

The failure to require TNCs to carry signage is one of many deficiencies in the regulations the state is now considering. It’s also one more example of a longtime bias against taxis.

Since 2016, the City and County of Honolulu has systematically deconstructed Hawaii’s taxi ordinances. The city euphemistically describes this process as “creating a level playing field.” The idea is that in a city with no regulations, taxis and TNCs would be able to participate in free and open competition.

All this newfound freedom opened the gates for Uber and Lyft to operate in Honolulu, but it also threw consumer safety under the bus. The city essentially turned a blind eye to the regulatory framework that for years governed taxi operators and protected consumers against unscrupulous practices such as price gouging, long-hauling, uninsured drivers, and allowing drivers to work without passing a comprehensive criminal background check.

Transportation network companies are changing the local industry — unfairly, say traditional taxi companies.

Flickr: www.quotecatalog.com

As one bill after another was passed, consumer safeguards were peeled away to the point where, today, consumers have little in the way of protection when they ride with Uber or Lyft.

After the city worked so hard to tear down the regulatory framework so Uber and Lyft can compete with taxis, you might think it would be hypocritical for the state to create new regulations that would prevent taxi companies from competing with Uber and Lyft.

But that’s exactly what House Bill 1093 HD2 seeks to do.

In fact, serious questions must be asked as to the constitutionality of HB 1093 HD2, which taxi companies and others view as discriminatory and anti-competitive.

HB 1093 HD2 discriminates because it defines a TNC company as “not a taxicab association or a for-hire vehicle owner.” It further defines a TNC vehicle as “not a taxicab, limousine, or other for-hire vehicle.”

What about my company, AllWays Charley’s?

AllWays Charley’s is a city-licensed TNC, a separate entity from Charley’s Taxi. It operates using a digital network or software application to connect passengers to drivers, just as Uber and Lyft do.

But with this legislation, AllWays Charley’s would not meet the definition of a TNC, and would not be treated in accordance with the same advantageous regulations afforded TNCs.

What about other taxi and limousine companies that may want to transition to become a TNC? Apparently they would have to start over from scratch.

In effect, it’s as if the city and state are trying to drive taxis out of business by changing the laws to allow Uber and Lyft to under-price taxi and limousine fares.

Taxis, Limos Excluded

Taxi fleets have already been reduced to about half their size just a few years ago, and now the Legislature is maneuvering to exclude taxis and limousines from operating as TNCs.

HB 1093 HD2 is anti-competitive because it does not require TNCs to adhere to the Motor Carrier Law, as taxis must.

Under HB 1093 HD2, Uber and Lyft drivers would be required to carry $50,000 to $100,000 in personal auto liability coverage per accident, and $25,000 in property damage coverage. This is less than half of what is required of taxis. TNCs provide their drivers with liability coverage of $1 million when there are passengers in the car.

But there’s a catch.

Uber and Lyft do not provide this coverage when drivers are logged off their app, and state regulations will not require them to do so. So if your driver closes the app with you in the car, or his phone battery runs out, the only coverage available to you will be the driver’s personal auto insurance and uninsured motorist coverage.

Consumers have little in the way of protection when they ride with Uber or Lyft.

Personal auto insurance rarely covers an at-fault driver who causes an accident while operating a motor vehicle for a fee.

To make matters worse, the driver may not have insurance coverage at all. The Insurance Research Council estimates that more than one out of 10 Hawaii drivers are uninsured. And while HB 1093 HD2 does require that TNC drivers carry personal auto insurance, there is no enforcement mechanism in place to determine whether there is primary coverage as required.

Insurance is important not only because it affects the safety of kamaaina, but also because Uber and Lyft are carrying a growing number of visitors to the islands.

Conveniently, the TNCs are exempt from filing individual Certificates of Insurance per vehicle or having to furnish the city and DOT Airports Division with a list of all vehicles and VIN numbers of TNC vehicles operating at any given time.

There are imposters picking up fares at the airport that are not signed up with Uber and Lyft. But airport officials and security have no clue who they are because most of the vehicles picking up in the Ride Sharing zone have no Uber or Lyft signage or decal, no airport permit decal, and no airport transponder as required of all taxi, limousine and bus operators at the airport.

Taxi drivers struggle to understand why the city and now the state seem so anxious to give the TNCs what they want. The city says Uber and Lyft are the future. Perhaps that’s true. But are we powerless to have any say in how that future unfolds? Must we rely on the mercy of the TNCs to do what’s best for Hawaii’s consumers?

Instead of encouraging a race to the top, where quality and safety are paramount, why do we keep passing legislation that accelerates a race to the bottom?

I encourage the conference committees responsible for HB 1093 HD2 to shelve the bill until the issues pertaining to consumer safety and to its unconstitutionality can be properly addressed and the bill amended to create a safe and fair outcome for all of us in Hawaii’s transportation industry.

The post Proposed Bill Regulating Uber, Lyft Is Biased Against Taxis appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

I have a relative and two friends who became addicted to opioids initially prescribed to them by their doctors to treat physical pain. It makes me mad to think about the suffering they endured.

It is common knowledge that large pharmacy companies, particularly the Sackler family’s Purdue Pharma, manipulated U.S. health regulators and thousands of doctors into believing that painkilling pills such as OxyContin are not addictive.

“It is one of the biggest con jobs in the medical history of the United States,” says Edward Mersereau.

Mersereau is the director of the Hawaii Department of Health’s Behavioral Health Services Administration and the first person I called to find out why opioid addictions, overdoses and deaths are not as prevalent here as they are in some mainland states.

PaijBritt Emmanuel in the Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center outreach van. A recovering opioid addict herself, she now works to steer other addicts toward treatment.

Courtesy of PaijBritt Emmanuel

Certainly opioid misuse has brought anguish to the islands. Just listen to anyone who has become a pill addict or mixed opioid pills with other drugs and you are likely to hear a story of sorrow and regret.

“Opioids are an equal-opportunity catalyst for misery,” says PaijBritt Emmanuel, a recovering heroin and prescription painkiller addict. “It doesn’t matter who you are. If you become addicted, you will end up in the same place: the gutter. It is horrible, just horrible.”

Opioids include illegal drugs like heroin and the synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and pain relievers that can be obtained legally by prescription, including OxyContin, Vicodin, codeine and morphine.

Emmanuel, who grew up playing at Kaimana Beach at Diamond Head, started experimenting with heroin soon after she graduated from high school. As the years went on, she says she added prescription opioids to her mix of drugs because of a concern the heroin she was buying at various locations on Oahu might have been altered.

“At least with a prescription morphine pill, you know what you are getting,” she says.

Emmanuel says her downtown Honolulu dealer sold her morphine pills that he got with a legal prescription, which he then turned around to sell to get cash to buy his illegal drug of choice: crystal meth.

Pills-for-cash exchanges like this are going on every day here but even so, prescription opioid abuse is not as prevalent here.

Mersereau says that although deaths by opioid overdoses are relatively low in Hawaii, the amount of opioids pills prescribed is still a concern. Last year there were 640,000 prescriptions for opioids in Hawaii.

“In a state of 1.4 million, that is a huge amount of opioid prescriptions,” he says. “It is good that deaths by opioid overdoses are decreasing in Hawaii, but it is hard to pin down exactly why.”

There were 640,000 prescriptions for opioids in Hawaii last year, says Edward Mersereau, director of the Department of Health’s Behavioral Health Services Administration.

Denby Fawcett/Civil Beat

In 2017, the latest year data is available from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Hawaii had 3.4 opioid-related deaths per 100,000 people compared with places like West Virginia with 49.6 deaths per 100,000 people, and New Hampshire with 34 deaths per 100,000 persons.

“We are not sure why Hawaii hasn’t gotten slammed like West Virginia and other states,” says Dr. William F. Haning III. “We can only speculate. All we can do is to continue doing what we think is right to try to prevent it. We don’t know what will happen in the future.”

Haning is the program director of addiction psychiatry and addiction medicine at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii, where he is also a professor emeritus of psychiatry.

He speculates that one of the reasons the death rate is lower in Hawaii is because crystal methamphetamine is still a top drug here, as well as cannabis, but not heroin or prescription opioids.

Hawaii Department of Health data for July 2017 to December 2018 show that 9% of individuals (750 people) enrolled in state substance abuse treatment programs were opioid users compared with 40% or 3,444 people who had crystal meth or other amphetamine diagnoses.

Haning speculates that opioid use also may not be as prevalent here because Hawaii does not have factories or wholesalers directly diverting pills to drug dealers, as has happened elsewhere.

“I was homeless downtown for many, many years. Now I am the one who gets back into the van to continue traveling to help others.” — PaijBritt Emmanuel

He says opioid deaths are higher in places where heroin or homemade, illegally imported fentanyl are more readily available.

Opioid deaths may also be lower here because of the rapid response by ambulances in Hawaii.

“Transport times in Hawaii are excellent just like they are in California and other areas where the majority of inhabitants live in urban centers,” Haning says.

Jared Redulla, the administrator of the state’s Narcotics Enforcement Division, Department of Public Safety, says because some drug abuse trends take longer to reach Hawaii, the opioid crisis creeping across the mainland has given Hawaii time to create proactive defenses.

“This time with opioids the community realized the importance of confronting the problem before it got bigger. Everyone has had a strong buy-in and that has made a whole lot of difference,” says Redulla.

Gov. David Ige’s plan on opioids, unveiled by the health Department on Dec. 1, 2017, brings together health care providers and government agencies, law enforcement, first responders and community groups to address opioid and other substance abuse problems in a coordinated way.

Mersereau says it is the first time he has seen the involvement of so many medical practitioners and agencies.

These opioid drugs were confiscated by authorities on Kauai.

Courtesy of Kauai County

Also helping are new laws from the Legislature, including a measure approved last year to require doctors to record in a central data base system known as the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program every prescription they write for a controlled substance to prevent illicit drug users from “doctor shopping.”

Before, registering in the system was only voluntary.

And there is better success in weaning opioid addicts off heroin and painkiller pills as more and more doctors and treatment facilities each year offer prescriptions for the drug Suboxone.

Emmanuel says Suboxone has transformed her life. She has been clean and sober for more than seven years.

Suboxone is a combination of two drugs, buprenorphine and naloxone. The pills reduce the pain of withdrawal and tamp down cravings for opioids.

”Suboxone has kept me normal, not exciting, kind of boring,” Emmanuel says. “But that’s okay. I am freed up. I am able to have a job. I am a contributing member of society.”

She is employed as an outreach worker with the Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center, going out in a van every day to help guide addicts to treatment, counseling and medical care as well as exchanging syringes one-for-one with drug users.

Emmanuel says she feels no cravings in “the combat zone” — downtown Honolulu — when she interacts with her old friends she used to do drugs with.

“I am the one healing them. I was homeless downtown for many, many years. Now I am the one who gets back into the van to continue traveling to help others. I call myself an agent of change.”

The post Denby Fawcett: Why Hawaii Has Many Opioid Users But Few Overdose Deaths appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

WASHINGTON — Of all the people donating to U.S. Rep. Ed Case’s 2020 congressional campaign there’s one name that sticks out.

In fact, it’s the only name — Paul DiNino.

Case reported in his latest Federal Election Commission filing on Monday that he only raised $475 from individual donors during the first quarter of 2019, and that $250 of it came from DiNino, a Washington, D.C., lobbyist who used to work for retired Democratic senator Harry Reid.

Congressman Ed Case talks to his constituents during a “Talk Story” event at Campbell High School in Honolulu.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

The remaining $225 came from individual donors who gave Case less than $200 each, meaning FEC rules didn’t require disclosure of their identities.

Still, Case was able to raise nearly $78,000 during the first three months of the year.

Almost all of that money — 99.4% — came from political action committees.

In 2018, Case raised nearly $564,000 in his bid for Hawaii’s 1st Congressional District. At the time, only $74,000 came from PACs. He also loaned his campaign more than $151,000.

Some of the industries donating to Case’s 2020 campaign include those affiliated with hotels and tourism, such as Marriott International, the Asian American Hotel Owners Association and Hilton Worldwide, and those with interests in sugar.

Case’s top two PAC donors — which each gave $10,000 to his campaign — were the American Crystal Sugar Company PAC and the American Hotel & Lodging Association PAC.

Case, who is on the House Appropriations and Natural Resources committees, is a former executive with Outrigger Enterprises, which is a top operator in Hawaii’s $18 billion tourism industry.

Two of Case’s Democratic House colleagues, Ted Lieu of California, and Bill Foster of Florida, gave money to the congressman’s 2020 re-election bid. So too did the Blue Dog PAC and the New Democrat Coalition.

Case also received thousands of dollars from the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America PAC and the National Beer Wholesalers Association as well as from committees associated with defense contractors, such as General Dynamics, Honeywell International and Raytheon Company.

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono doesn’t have to worry about another election until 2024.

Anthony Quintano/Civil Beat

Other companies whose PACs are giving to Case include Walmart and Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

Case’s PAC donor list also includes the Poarch Band of Creek Indians and the Chickasaw Nation. As a congressman, Case promised to fight for the rights of Native Hawaiians.

Case’s fundraising, of course, pales in comparison to his Hawaii colleague, Tulsi Gabbard, who’s putting her congressional bid on pause while she runs for president.

Gabbard reported raising more than $1.9 million during the first three months of 2019.

Hawaii’s senators, meanwhile, had relatively low-key fundraising quarters, according to FEC reports that were also filed Monday. Neither is up for election in 2020.

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, who’s become a Democratic lightning rod since President Donald Trump took office, raised just over $58,000 in the quarter.

Hirono, who is 71 years old, easily secured a new six-year term in the Senate in 2018, which means she won’t be up for election until 2024, when she’ll be 77.

She reported having nearly $1 million in cash left over at the end of the reporting period.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz’s campaign reported raising more than $33,000 in the quarter. Schatz, who isn’t up for election until 2022, has more than $2.6 million in the bank.

The post Hawaii Rep. Ed Case Raised 99% Of Campaign Money From PACs appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

The Hawaii Legislature passed a package of bills Tuesday that provides millions of dollars to elderly care programs.

The bills will now to Gov. David Ige for his approval. The funds for kupuna programs were some of the larger budget requests left out of the state’s operating budget passed in March.

House Bill 465 would appropriate an additional $8.2 million over the next two years for programs that provide the elderly access to basic services like bathing, eating, shopping and purchasing medications.

The base budget already included $9 million for the programs.

A long-term care program supporter sits at the Capitol in 2016.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

Senate Bill 1025 would add $1.5 million to the budget in the coming fiscal year beginning July 1 for home caregivers. The bill also changes the amount of compensation caregivers can apply for from $70 to $210 a week.

Rep. Gregg Takayama said that allows caregivers more flexibility in how they use the money. Takayama said, as an example, if a family wanted to hire an at-home nurse for certain services, they’d be in a better position to do that.

Sente Bill 366 would fund an Alzheimer’s services coordinator in the Executive Office on Aging tasked with updating the state’s Alzheimer’s plan that has not been amended since 2003, Rep. Sharon Moriwaki said at a press conference Tuesday.

That coordinator will also collect data on how the disease affects Hawaii, Moriwaki said.

House Bill 468 would provide $550,000 to fund two health programs for Hawaii’s elderly. One teaches kupuna how to manage their chronic health conditions. The other is a health and fitness program.

Those programs got funding in 2017, but received no funds from the state last year.

The appropriations come at a time other big-ticket budget requests are also moving out of the Legislature or have already cleared the governor’s desk. They include disaster relief for the Big Island, emergency funds for highway repairs on Oahu and Maui and the Hawaii Promise Program.

Lawmakers had to fit all that into the budget while also dealing with a projected slowdown in economic growth that could result in $80 million less in tax revenues going into the next fiscal year, according to the state Council on Revenues.

“To make this kind of commitment in this financial situation speaks volumes to where the money chairs put the priority of the funds we do have available,” Sen. President Ron Kouchi said at the press conference.

Kouchi was referring to Senate Ways and Means Chair Donovan Dela Cruz and House Finance Chair Sylvia Luke.

The post Legislature Approves Spending Millions For Elderly Care appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

This Saturday will mark the 100th day of Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign for president.

The question now is, how many more days before she throws in the red, white and blue towel? Because the candidate of aloha is getting little of it from voters and donors nationwide.

The most recent public opinion polls have Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders still leading the Democratic primary pack with Gabbard, the U.S. representative from Hawaii, far behind in the 1% range with the likes of Andrew Yang, Julian Castro and a half-dozen other declared or would-be candidates.

Meanwhile, Gabbard’s presidential campaign pulled in $1.95 million during the first quarter of 2019, far less than established candidates like Sanders and charismatic contenders like Beto O’Rourke and Kamala Harris. And they all entered the race after Gabbard announced she was running Jan. 11.

Tulsi Gabbard campaigning in Iowa on Feb. 21.

Team Tulsi

Gabbard’s rejection of political action committee money no doubt limits her cash haul. The FEC reports show she raised just over $1 million from small donors giving less than $200.

But that pales in comparison to Sanders, who took in more than $18 million in the first quarter of 2019. CNN reported that 84% of individual contributions to the Vermont senator and democratic socialist were for less than $200.

Gabbard’s biggest donor was herself: She transferred $2.5 million into her presidential account from her congressional campaign committee. Put another way, a lot of people who contributed to Gabbard’s previous campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives are now paying for Tulsi 2020, as her campaign is called.

Gabbard’s FEC filing for her Tulsi Now committee shows that she has appeal across the country in terms of campaign contributions. But not much comes from Hawaii. Of the 2,078 itemized receipts for Gabbard, only 114 — or about 6% — came from Hawaii.

In addition to her parents Mike and Carol Gabbard, who donated the maximum to their daughter, Hawaii donations include $1,000 from Danny Kaleikini, who is identified as “Ambassador of Aloha” on FEC receipt disclsoures. Lois Mitsunaga, a structural engineer with donor-friendly Mitsunaga and Associates, gave $2,700.

Gabbard has not been a passive campaigner. She has spent a number of days each in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and California. She was in Alabama for Bloody Sunday remembrances. And she has eight “meet and greets” scheduled this week back in Iowa and appearances Friday and Saturday in New Hampshire.

She says she has reached the threshold of 65,000 individual donors needed to participate in the Democratic debates.

Tulsi Gabbard campaigning in New Hampshire on Feb. 17.

Team Tulsi

But the media are not paying attention. An April 5 story in The New York Times mapping out where Democratic candidates had been in March did not include Gabbard, even though she had been in some of the same places as other candidates.

The Times did mention Gabbard on Sunday. But it was in an article titled, “The Many Reasons to Run for President When You Probably Don’t Stand a Chance.”

Gabbard made some news when she criticized the U.S. Justice Department’s indictment of Julian Assange, saying it puts the U.S. government on a “dangerous and slippery slope” in its treatment of journalists and all Americans.

But the critique rings hollow for a politician who often does not respond to media requests and who, in a plea for campaign donations just last month, accused the “mainstream media” of “anti-Tulsi bias” and ignoring or smearing her campaign.

That’s rich for someone who has appeared on national television more than 100 times since being elected to Congress, according to tallies kept by CQ’s Newsmaker.

To her credit, Gabbard has honed her message as the candidate of peace. She talked about that with Chris Matthews on MSNBC recently and used it in a pitch for contributions Sunday:

The problem for Gabbard is that foreign policy is not the defining issue of 2020. It’s who can beat Donald Trump. And the answer to that question is wide open.

The latest Democratic flavor of the month is Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana. Buttigieg’s meteoric rise has got to gall Gabbard. Like her, he is a military veteran. He is also younger than Gabbard and a Rhodes Scholar and a graduate of Harvard and Oxford.

Though Gabbard blasts the media for “anti-Tulsi” bias, she has appeared on national TV nearly 100 times since being elected to Congress. She is shown here appearing on “Hardball” in April.

And he’s gay.

Gabbard is now an LGBT rights supporter, but has been criticized for espousing anti-gay rights sentiments earlier in her political career.

Meanwhile, Sanders is hot, having released 10 years of tax returns, unlike Trump (and, as of yet, Gabbard).

Anything could happen to change the dynamic of the race, of course.

Gabbard could give a boffo performance in the debates. Vice President Biden could say and do more inappropriate things. Trump might bomb Iran or invade Venezuela. Seventeen of the 18 Democrats (and counting) currently running could drop out en masse.

Or maybe Tulsi Gabbard might decide that representing Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District isn’t such a bad gig after all.

That’s certainly the view of state Sen. Kai Kahele, who is gunning for the job with a quarter of a million bucks on hand and endorsements from heavy hitters.

The post Chad Blair: Why, Tulsi, Why? appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

Hawaii Department of Education officials are hoping a new statewide facilities master plan will persuade lawmakers to provide more money for maintaining and renovating aging public schools and building new facilities.

Extensive and wide-ranging, the master plan lays out an exhaustive list of 1,300 desired capital improvement projects across all 261 DOE campuses.

It was published late last week on a website managed by Jacobs Engineering Group, an outside firm commissioned by the DOE to conduct the study.

The estimated total price tag for “top priority” projects, such as additional classroom space to account for overcrowding or basic repair and maintenance to make schools safer, is $7 billion, according to the 309-page report. That figure rises to $11 billion when accounting for all levels of priorities.

Under the DOE’s current approximately $300 million annual CIP allocation from the Legislature, those “Priority 1” projects — which include the “highest, non-negotiable needs” identified in each area of Hawaii — would take 23 years to address.

Central Middle School is a historic school building in Honolulu, built on the grounds of the former palace of Princess Ruth Keelikōlani. The average age of the state’s school buildings is 60 years old.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

“This is the first time the state Department of Education has a facility master plan – how are we going to invest in the important and often small amounts of CIP funding we get,” said Assistant Superintendent Dann Carlson, who is in charge of facilities for DOE.

“It also says, if we’re only to get $300 million for the next 10 years, this is what we can expect to get done, but the reality is we have a lot of priorities the communities have prioritized. We’re not going to be able to accomplish all that if we’re only getting $300 million a year.”

A Large List Of Needs

The master plan is the culmination of a years-long contract Jacobs had with the DOE to complete a statewide facilities assessment, evaluate how the needs match up with education standards and determine the best process to address those needs.

That contract was initially estimated to cost $4.6 million in 2014, but rose to $7.9 million as the scope was broadened from developing an Oahu schools’ master plan to a statewide assessment, according to contracts between DOE and Jacobs. 

The purpose of the master plan is to provide a “10-year roadmap” for school officials to consider how it wants to prioritize capital improvement projects and actually deliver on them.

“The goal of this facility master plan is simple: a quality school for every child, regardless of where they live,” the report states.

The categories for these capital improvement projects include capacity and instructional needs, such as building more classrooms that support STEM, visual arts, career and technical education. They also cover meeting gender equity and accessibility requirements, as well as basic repair and maintenance, starkly captured in anonymous comments sprinkled throughout the report.

“Main building is sinking in certain areas. I have to put my legs around the desk to stay still because my chair slides off,” the principal of Naalehu Elementary on Big Island, whose name is not included in the report, is quoted as saying.

The proposed projects include meeting basic needs such as air-conditioning for classrooms. But there are also highly ambitious proposals like a $20 million to $40 million construction project at Central Oahu’s Mililani Uka Elementary, complete with a new three-story classroom building, cafeteria, kitchen and covered multi-purpose area.

Another major proposal is a $40 million to $75 million plan for combining Jarrett Middle School with Palolo Elementary into a pre-K through 8 school, while turning the Palolo school building into a “Honolulu Professional Development Center.”

DOE officials emphasize that the wish list was compiled through extensive community engagement.

The effort involved 500 people, including parents, students, teachers, principals and administrators around the state. There were 100 workshops held during the past year culminating in a two day “summit” on Oahu in February to discuss goals and objectives, according to the report.

Inequitable Spending

DOE faces complicated challenges.

Many of its buildings are worn and aging — DOE facilities, which span 20 million square feet of space across the state, average 60 years in age. Changing migration patterns around the state have contributed to schools that are both over- and under-capacity. And a politicized system of “legislative add-on” line item projects often bump other projects off the DOE capital improvements priority list, the report notes.

“Without a strategic plan, the result has been sustained inequitable allocation of public resources, with some students benefitting at the expense of others who are under-represented,” the plan states.

There are schools in “high-growth areas” that are short of seats for up to 12,000 students. Other areas shrinking in population have “more than 22,000 surplus capacity for students that are no longer there,” the report notes.

Dann Carlson, assistant superintendent for school facilities, said the facilities master plan is “a starting point” to drive DOE decisions moving forward.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

The more open question is how the facilities master plan will drive DOE decisions moving forward.

There’s an existing DOE “priority list” for CIP projects and this plan is just a “starting point” to steer it in certain directions, Carlson said.

“It’s a valuable resource we can draw from and look at in making our decisions for planning as we go forward,” said John Chung, public works administrator for the DOE.

Where’s The Funding?

There are big questions about where the funding will come from. The plan recommends finding new funding sources and models, including issuing asset revenue bonds, or raising the sales tax, tourism tax or property tax for education.

The current funding framework is “insufficient to deliver top statewide priorities within a reasonable timeframe,” the plan says.

But the 10-year plan will take “a fundamental change of political institutions” that involves a “broad legislative information campaign and courageous leadership from HIDOE, Board of Education and legislature,” the report continues.

The DOE in the 2019 fiscal year requested $783 million for its CIP budget. The Legislature approved $281 million.

It’s not clear whether the existence of this new facility master plan will sway lawmakers in appropriating more down the road.

Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Donovan Dela Cruz said the DOE needs to come up with “a portfolio of ways” to fund projects and that the Legislature needs to balance the school system’s needs with other needs throughout the state.

“I don’t think the Legislature, or the governor or budget director will give up their fiduciary responsibility and just take whatever (figure) the board (of education) sends to the Legislature verbatim,” he said.

“There’s so many different needs statewide. There has to be a portfolio of ways to pay for these improvements, even new facilities.”

The post DOE Lays Out A 10-year ‘Road Map’ For Fixing Old Schools, Building New Ones appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

The timing of the announcement was curious. The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal challenging the state of Hawaii’s exclusion of migrants from the Compacts of Free Association nations from its Medicaid program on Monday, Nov. 3, 2014. By that afternoon the administration of Gov. Neil Abercrombie announced its intentions to remove patients who had been enrolled in Medicaid.

The Hawaii Department of Human Services had a plan ready for rollout. Those 18 and under and pregnant women would continue to receive Medicaid. The aged, blind, and disabled would continue to receive state-funded benefits under a Medicaid-like plan. Those 19 through 64 years of age were moved onto private insurance plans via Affordable Healthcare Act mechanisms.

Of note, Abercrombie was a lame duck by Nov. 3. He had lost in the Democratic Party primary to David Ige, who went on to defeat Republican James “Duke” Aiona and independent Mufi Hannemann the next day: Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014.

What was the reason for the alacrity to announce the plan to remove COFA migrants from Medicaid rolls?

Abercrombie had previously noted that he had to pursue the case in federal court because of his “fiduciary responsibility” (presumably to the taxpayers of Hawaii to minimize entitlements). He had said that as long as he was governor, Micronesians would continue to be covered by Medicaid (personal communication April 8, 2014). (They were, indeed, removed from Medicaid rolls only immediately after his tenure ended.)

However, it could not have escaped his notice that denying Medicaid to indigent people (as one must be below 133% of federal poverty levels to qualify for Medicaid) would result in adverse health outcomes for them. On the face of it, this would seem to belie his reputation as a liberal.

Former Gov. Neil Abercrombie at the Capitol in 2018. During his tenure Hawaii limited health care for Micronesians.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

Perhaps Abercrombie was “taking one for the team,” in the sense that he sought to fix a troublesome public policy and budgetary conundrum prior to fellow Democrat Gov. David Ige’s taking the reins. Ige thereby didn’t have to appear to be a heartless chief executive during his first days in office.

While the children of COFA migrants born in the U.S. are U.S. citizens, COFA migrants cannot vote in Hawaii. Thus, Hawaii politicians need not pay attention to Micronesians as a voting constituency.

The general populace of Hawaii had been subjected for years to political pronouncements about the “cost” of COFA migrants — and a commonly held belief is that this cost should be borne by the federal government. Such logic ignores the fact that employed COFA migrants pay both federal and state payroll taxes, and all participants in the economy pay the state general excise and use tax.

The inability of COFA migrants to vote is thus a form of taxation without representation. Their exclusion from Medicaid means that they are taxed while being barred from benefitting from the social commons.

Abercrombie’s disdain for Micronesians is evident in a recent pronouncement: “People come here, they have no job, they don’t even have to have a job, they don’t have to pay any taxes, if they get enough to get airfare they can go from the airport to Queen’s Hospital.”

The exclusion of COFA migrants from Medicaid in Hawaii had been first proposed by Republican Gov. Linda Lingle in mid-2009 in the wake of the Great Recession. During this period, the Hawaii delegation to the U.S. Congress, including then-Rep. Abercrombie, worked to reinstate COFA migrant eligibility for Medicaid at the federal level, attempting to insert such language into the Affordable Care Act.

Former Gov. Linda Lingle during the inauguration ceremony for Gov. David Ige, at the Capitol. Medicaid eligibility for COFA migrants was first proposed during her time in office.

Ronen Zilberman/Civil Beat

On July 1, 2010, during the waning days of the Lingle administration, COFA migrants were placed on a severely limited program called Basic Health Hawaii. In December 2010, however, Circuit Court Judge Michael Seabright placed an injunction against Basic Health Hawaii, agreeing with the plaintiffs that they had a constitutional right to equal protection under the law.

Having defeated Republican Duke Aiona in the general election of November 2010, as Abercrombie was inaugurated as governor in December 2010, it was his prerogative to allow Judge Seabright’s decision to stand. Given Abercrombie’s liberal reputation, COFA migrants and their friends and allies were hopeful that he would do so.

The state, however, appealed to the federal Circuit Court, which decided in favor of the state’s power to exclude COFA migrants from Medicaid. The Circuit Court decision became the final word when the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal.

The legal battle is over. The only way in which COFA migrants could participate in Medicaid now is via an act of the U.S. Congress.

Shrinking Public Services

Should one interpret Gov. Abercrombie’s actions, then, as his “taking one for the team,” the power elite of the state? The power elite believes in neoliberal, market solutions. That is to say, they want to minimize the public commons. They want to shrink public services such as public education or public health care.

The power elite sends its children to private schools. They would not set foot in a community health center or a county hospital. They want to pay less tax because they don’t want their tax dollars going to educate the poor or caring for the poor.

As civil rights organizer Joakim “Jojo” Peter noted a few days before his passing, “My issue has always been that if there’s a lot of this structural discrimination or structural barriers against you that starts with the government, the state government and the federal government, and it filters down to the community, and it’s all crashing in on you, you have very little recourse.”

For the power elite it matters little which party is in power as long as their interests are taken care of. As Noam Chomsky notes about national politics, “In the U.S., there is basically one party — the business party. It has two factions, called Democrats and Republicans, which are somewhat different but carry out variations on the same policies.”

The power elite prefers that their A-team, the Republicans, be in power. When the A-team makes a major mess of things, and to demonstrate the pretense that the country remains a democracy, it’s time to call in the B-team, the Democrats.

When the casinos of Wall Street go broke, it’s time for a bipartisan bailout by the taxpayers. When the numbers of uninsured in America becomes a national disgrace, the solution is to subsidize the premiums to enroll more people with private insurance companies.

Liberals talk about caring for everybody, but when it comes down to it, they take care of their corporate backers. For Hawaii, its polity dominated by the Democrats, it is expected that even the liberal wing of the Democratic Party will take care of the power elite.

Building Walls

Within polite (these days less so) discourse regarding migrants in the U.S. ranging from a) wall-building to b) high tech border patrolling — COFA migrants forever remain migrants. The Compacts of Free Association allow citizens of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau free entry to the U.S. and the right to work without a visa, but there is no pathway to permanent residency or U.S. citizenship.

Many scientists are calling the present the Anthropocene epoch because human activity is changing the physical nature of the planet. The energy-intensive, neoliberal, “free trade” hyper-capitalism of recent decades is accelerating the pace of this change.

In the coming decades, climate change will force many more to seek higher ground. The mean elevation in the Marshall Islands is 2 meters above sea level, making it particularly susceptible to sea level rise. Historically, the human rights of the Marshallese have been run over roughshod by nuclear testing and human experimentation.

The main lagoon of Chuuk, in the Federated States of Micronesia, is severely polluted from the U.S. bombing campaign of World War II. The island of Peleliu of Palau remains densely littered with debris from the fierce World War II battle fought there. Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands remains under U.S. military jurisdiction.

Will Americans continue to exclude COFA migrants from access to health care?

Despite having assumed responsibility for the health and welfare of Micronesians after World War II, the United States failed its responsibilities to the islanders, who consequently continue to suffer from inadequate health care, limited education opportunities, and marginal economic development.

The compacts were negotiated to preserve U.S. strategic interests in the Pacific, with limited benefit to Micronesians themselves, who might not need to seek education, employment and health care here in the U.S. had the U.S. fulfilled its responsibilities. Inevitably, more people of the COFA nations will migrate to the U.S. Will Americans continue to exclude COFA migrants from access to health care?

Will we build walls or tear them down? In the present day, the denial of the human right to health is an insidious step toward the denial of other human rights. The first clause of Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, reads: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care …”

Meanwhile, exclusion from Medicaid, by making it clear to all concerned that COFA migrants are “non-qualified aliens” (per the language of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996), the COFA migrant is redefined as “the other,” despite their legal right to live in Hawaii.

In this way, the erosion of the human right to health underscores the fact that COFA migrants are not quite equal to Americans and can be treated differently by the state. Conversely, the fact that COFA migrants are not American citizens justifies the denial of the human right to health.

We would do well to keep in mind the words of Jojo Peter, who spoke at Civil Beat’s recent #BeingMicronesian In Hawaii event:

The post Hawaii’s Elite Excluded Micronesians From Medicaid appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

HILO, Hawaii Island – Even though its emergency room has about 50,000 patient visits a year, up from 32,000 in 2008, Hilo Medical Center has always had a small town feel, with people walking freely up to the receptionist’s desk or into the waiting area.

Until last month.

“It’s not the same here anymore,” said Justin Rodrigues, the hospital’s security manager.

That laid-back feeling ended soon after a man stabbed three hospital employees and punched another in the face March 20. All survived, and police have charged Franklin Poulsen, 21, of Pahoa, with attempted second-degree murder, terroristic threatening and multiple counts of assault.

“All of us, we were very scared because you don’t expect something like that to happen,” said Colleen Doi, a nurse who helped treat a female colleague whose hand was cut.

Hilo Medical Center security guard Bryson Majamay screens a visitor as part of new measures implemented following last month’s stabbings in the ER.

Jason Armstrong/Civil Beat

Victims of the attack have chosen not to speak to the news media, said hospital spokesperson Elena Cabatu.

“We’ve never had any incident of that type,” said Cabatu, who has worked at the hospital for 13 years.

Once was more than enough for the hospital’s administration, which has implemented airport-style security measures not seen at most other Hawaii hospitals. Guards are waving metal-detecting wands over patients and other people upon arrival at both the main and medic entrances to the ER.

It took just two weeks to produce results.

Randolph Lee Yates

On April 4, two loaded handguns were found on Randolph Lee Yates, 56, who now faces multiple felony charges, including removing the serial number from one of the weapons, after he arrived at the hospital in an ambulance, according to the Hawaii Police Department.

“It was a dangerous situation,” said Rodrigues, who secured the guns and called police.

Hospital security guards are unarmed, but Rodrigues said he hopes they’ll soon be equipped with handcuffs.

Guard Bryson Majamay said about three-quarters of ER visitors have welcomed the extra security. The rest, he said, grumble and question why he has to look in their bags.

Veteran Hilo hospital security guard Justin Rodrigues secured two loaded guns found on an arriving patient not long after the heightened security began.

Jason Armstrong/Civil Beat

One recent morning, several ER visitors said they approve of the heightened security, although others could be overheard questioning the searches while waiting in a short line.

“It should happen,” Arlene Stannard said upon arriving to have her daughter’s injured foot examined. “We shouldn’t need weapons at a hospital.”

Another change involves having intoxicated patients and those seeking care for behavioral health issues wear only a gown so they don’t have pockets in which to conceal a weapon, Cabatu said. “We believe our community understands the need for the added safety precautions and is willing to be delayed entry into our ED for the few minutes it will take to ensure their safety as well as our staff’s safety.”

Hilo Medical Center is not the state’s first hospital to use metal detectors.

The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu has used metal detectors and X-ray machines since 1995 and added the security measures for patients at its West Oahu facility in 2014, according to Shereen Johnson, director of security and safety services.

Airport-style security is not used at several other ERs, including Kapiolani and Straub medical centers on Oahu and Wilcox Medical Center on Kauai, said Kristin Bonilla, marketing manager for Hawaii Pacific Health.

The hospitals do have security stations, she said.

Back in Hilo, “We find a bunch of knives,” Majamay said, mostly of the pocket variety.

People can return prohibited items like lighters and multi-tools to their vehicle or pick them up from security on the way out.

“The craziest one I found, other than knives, was nunchucks,” Majamay said, referring to a martial arts weapon.

Three new security positions will be added to the hospital’s 24-member staff, and the hand-held metal detectors could be replaced with a walk-through design to expedite the screening process, said Tracy Arruda, the hospital’s head of security.

The post Big Island: Airport-Style Security Comes To Hilo Hospital After Stabbings appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

I remember my time in Paris with great fondness. The architecture and grandeur of that extraordinary city is humbling. My sense of time and history changed upon visiting Europe, for the built environment of the United States feels young, even infantile, against European cities with their depth and magnificence.

Notre-Dame de Paris is a grand monument to the city, its people, and its culture. I, like so many around the world, watched with sadness and horror as flames tore through the Catholic cathedral Monday.

Quick were the assurances that the country would rebuild this Lady of Paris. French billionaire François-Henri Pinault committed to donate 100 million euros to reconstruct the iconic building. It is heartwarming and reassuring to see people care so deeply about heritage sites, especially those, like Notre Dame, that are UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Cultural heritage exists all around us, and it should not take the burning of a globally significant site like Notre Dame to remind us that heritage resources need to be cared for and preserved.

A view from Kukaniloko Birthstones State Monument, which was a birthplace of Hawaiian royalty located in Wahiawa. The islands have an abundance of culturally significant sites.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

Cultural heritage is defined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as “the legacy of physical artefacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations.”

UNESCO recognizes three types of cultural heritage:

• Natural heritage

• Tangible heritage

• Intangible heritage

Hawaii is extraordinary, in part, because of its abundance of all three forms of heritage all around us. Our cultural landscapes are storied places, or wahi pana, where thousands of years of epic sagas about our traditional gods and chiefs unfolded.

We are regularly surrounded by magnificent works of tangible cultural heritage, both pre-contact and post-contact, that reflect innovation in engineering and architecture. From fishponds to Ossipoff homes, historic sites can be found all over Hawaii, reflecting an astonishing intersection of culture and talent not commonly found elsewhere.

Finally, despite the United States not being a signatory to The Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Hawaii remains a community so rich in this form of heritage. From hula and mele to cultural festivals and lantern ceremonies, these islands have long been a refuge for cultural traditions.

Yet, despite all the community work, we still do not do enough to protect historic and sacred sites in Hawaii.

Iolani Palace was the residence of rulers of the Hawaiian Kingdom beginning with King Kamehameha III.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

First and foremost, we don’t provide enough resources to the State Historic Preservation Division. The division needs more money, and it also needs to pay its overworked staff members more so they are willing to stay when the private sector comes calling.

Second, we don’t educate ourselves enough about the importance of historic sites. People will not care for what they do not understand or appreciate. It is important to have open dialogues about cultural resources.

Hawaiians must assume some of the responsibility for the continued ignorance about historic and sacred sites. Where Hawaiians are having discussions about these important issues, they are often segregated from a larger sector of the community that does the hard work of protecting and regulating these sites. This is a mistake.

We need to be educating residents, both Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian, about the value of Hawaii’s heritage. We need to be dialoguing. We need to be learning from one another. We need to care about each other’s cultures. We need to care about each other’s sites and heritage.

The world cares about Notre Dame for two critical reasons: It is well-cared for and it has been accessible to the world.

I am not advocating making sacred sites more physically accessible, but I am strongly advocating for stronger messaging from our state and local governments that heritage sites are important, sacred, cared for and valued. We are well overdue to communicate how much heritage matters to us as a community.

I am also advocating for making the significance of these places more accessible, even if remotely through technology, as a means of educating both our residents and visitors. Sites are sacred all the time. We should make every effort to have that be part of our collective understanding about Hawaii.

Cultural practitioner and lineal descendent of Puuhonua O Honaunau, Kahakaio Ravenscraft volunteers his time stewarding the Big Island park to honor ancestors buried on the royal grounds.

Jason Armstrong/Civil Beat

Traditional management involved the people, all the people. Ma‘ilikūkahi, a high chief of Oahu from the pre-contact era, was successful in implementing the ahupua‘a system because he understood that effective management required all the people under his rule to vest and benefit from the management of resources.

This form of management was place-based and dynamic. And it was wildly effective.

Heritage sites are truly about more than just architecture or culture. They are about history and identity. The value of preserving sites is that we can protect and preserve the power and integrity that our kupuna infused into these sites when they built with such deliberation and care.

If we can recognize that our songs, poems and stories contain layers of kaona — hidden meaning, then is it so hard to realize that built environments also contain layers of knowledge and meaning that we have yet to unlock and restore? When we alter, modify or destroy historic sites, it is as if we set a cache of knowledge on fire.

And for our beloved native sites, which have not had the benefit of centuries of study, documentation and data collection, there is no way to rebuild what we lose.

The post Trisha Kehaulani Watson: Thinking Of Hawaii’s Treasures As Notre Dame Burned appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

(AP) — Last year, much of Hawaii was shocked to learn a Chicago restaurant chain owner had trademarked the name “Aloha Poke” and wrote to cubed fish shops around the country demanding that they stop using the Hawaiian language moniker for their own eateries. The cease-and-desist letters targeted a downtown Honolulu restaurant and a Native Hawaiian-operated restaurant in Anchorage, among others.

Now, Hawaii lawmakers are considering adopting a resolution calling for the creation of legal protections for Native Hawaiian cultural intellectual property. The effort predates Aloha Poke, but that episode is lending a sense of urgency to a long-festering concern not unfamiliar to native cultures in other parts of the world.

“I was frustrated at the audacity of people from outside of our community using these legal mechanisms to basically bully people from our local community out of utilizing symbols and words that are important to our culture,” said state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, a Native Hawaiian representing Kaneohe and Heeia.

Aloha Poke Shop, a store in Honolulu that received a letter from Chicago-based Aloha Poke Co. saying the Illinois company had trademarked “Aloha Poke” and the Hawaii company would need to change its name.

AP

The resolution calls on state agencies and Native Hawaiian organizations to form a task force to develop a legal system to “recognize and protect” Native Hawaiian cultural intellectual property and traditional cultural expressions. It also seeks protections for genetic resources, such as taro, a traditional crop that legend says is an ancestor of the Hawaiian people and that scientists have tried to genetically engineer in the past.

The task force would be commissioned to submit its recommendations and any proposed legislation to lawmakers in three years.

The resolution has passed House and Senate committees. The full Senate is scheduled to vote on it Monday.

The Aloha Poke incident echoes past disputes, like when a non-Hawaiian photographer claimed copyright over an image of a woman dancing hula and Disney copyrighted a modified version of a Hawaiian chant used in a movie.

Chicago’s Aloha Poke Co. chose as its battleground the word “aloha” — a term meaning love, compassion, kindness as well as hello and goodbye.

Healani Sonoda-Pale, chairwoman of the Ka Lahui Hawaii political action committee.

AP

“It’s traumatic when things like this happen to us — when people try to take, modify or steal what’s been in our people’s world view for generations,” said Healani Sonoda-Pale, chairwoman of the Ka Lahui Hawaii political action committee, who testified in support of the resolution.

Aloha Poke CEO Chris Birkinshaw didn’t return messages seeking comment left at his West Madison store in Chicago and on the company’s website. The company has stores in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Florida and Washington, D.C.

Aloha Poke Shop in Honolulu initially ignored the Chicago company’s letter, said co-founder Jeff Sampson. When the issue burst into the news, he and his partners had an attorney write their Chicago counterpart saying they wouldn’t change their name. They explained there would be no confusion between their businesses because they operated far from the mainland company’s stores.

But a poke store in Anchorage run by a Native Hawaiian woman changed its name to Lei’s Poke Stop after receiving one of the letters.

Native Hawaiian experts note there’s a cultural clash underlying much of this. Modern European-based traditions use trademarks, copyright and patents to create economic incentives and rewards for creating knowledge and culture. Indigenous culture, on the other hand, is often passed on through generations and held collectively.

“They’re never going to sit nicely together in a box,” said Kuhio Lewis, the CEO of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.

Michele Miyanaga prepares cubes of raw ahi at Aloha Poke Shop in Honolulu.

AP

It will be difficult to determine who would decide who can use Native Hawaiian culture and who would be able to use it. Limits may violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The task force will have to explore who can do what, Lewis said.

“At the least, they need to have some cultural sensitivity about how it’s used. And they need to know you can’t be telling Native Hawaiian businesses they can’t use their own language,” Lewis said.

The resolution points to potential models in New Zealand and Alaska, which both created signifiers that indigenous people may place on their art as a mark of authenticity.

Marie Texter of Anchorage said her late father Andy Makar — who drew, made carvings from tusks, cottonwood and horns, and sewed animal skins — was a strong believer in the Silver Hand seal for Alaska Natives.

“He said this is a great program because so many times the Native artwork gets commercialized or used by someone else,” she said.

He had to fill out proof of his Indian blood — he was mostly Yup’ik but his mother was Athabascan — to apply.

A restaurant in Anchorage, Alaska, owned by a Native Hawaiian changed its name to Lei’s Poke Stop after receiving one of the letters from the Chicago restaurant chain saying it had trademarked “Aloha Poke.”

AP

But Rosita Worl, president of Juneau-based Sealaska Heritage Institute, said not all Alaska Native artists apply for or use the emblem. Nor does the program deter the sale of bogus Native art made overseas, she said. It also lacks enforcement and publicity, she said.

Charles E. Colman, a University of Hawaii law professor, said such programs hold up under federal law because they don’t prohibit people from making work that resembles indigenous art. They merely won’t allow people to say their work is produced by an indigenous person if it’s not.

Colman believes the Aloha Poke situation, on the other hand, could be addressed within existing trademark law.

He believes the Chicago company’s trademark could be cancelled if challenged because it’s not so well-known that its name has developed a secondary meaning the way the words in the retailer name “Best Buy” have, for example.

“You can’t just register a descriptive phrase unless you’ve achieved a certain amount of public recognition,” he said.

The post Who Owns Aloha? Hawaii Considers Protections For Native Culture appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK, Hawaii Island – Specialty license plants have become a six-figure revenue source for the Big Island’s top visitor attraction.

A state-authorized program allows the issuance of specialty license plates featuring the park’s Kilauea volcano. Vehicle owners can opt to pay extra for the plates to help finance resource protection and educational programs within the expansive park that was damaged in last year’s eruption-related earthquakes.

“It’s an incredibly passive way to raise an impactful amount of money for a very important cause,” said Malu Debus, a Hilo resident and park volunteer, after putting groceries into her SUV bearing the specialized plates. “It’s our responsibility to take care of our natural environment.”

Plus they look cool, or at least different than the bland white Hawaii plates. These are the state’s only specialty license plates available to all residents.

Paying an extra $18 a year for a specialized Hawaii Volcanoes National Park license plate was not a big deal for Malu Debus, who said it’s a great way to help the park’s natural environment.

Jason Armstrong/Civil Beat

“We’ve had that frickin’ rainbow for 30-something years. I’m over it,” Robert Miguel, of Waimea said of the standard design that he replaced with the specialty plates.

Miguel said he was going through a divorce, and among the changes he wanted to make to his life was getting unique plates.

Robert Miguel bought Haleakala National Park plates, which he prefers over the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park design.

Jason Armstrong/Civil Beat

“It’s like a personal license plate, but not personal,” he said.

Miguel proudly pointed out that his truck bears plate No. 9, which he said was purchased within days of them being made available Aug. 1, 2017, on the park’s 101st anniversary. He actually took off from work and went to the Hawaii County vehicle registration office to turn in his old plates.

Miguel selected the plates depicting a native nene bird and silversword plant in recognition of Maui’s Haleakala National Park. Although he’s not toured that park, Miguel said he prefers the design to the one depicting flowing lava.

‘Find Their Volcano’

Maui company Sae Design created the images as a donation to the National Park Service, which also offers specialty license plates at a handful of mainland national parks, including Yosemite, Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain.

The special license plates for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park have raised $135,000.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

“We are proud to raise awareness of the first national parks in Hawaii through release of these specialty license plates,” Hawaii Volcanoes Superintendent Cindy Orlando said in a statement announcing the program’s launch. “We hope all residents will be inspired to find their volcano and support these treasured landscapes.”

Whatever the attraction, the plates have become increasingly popular on Big Island roadways.

Nearly 7,500 of the lava versions have been sold, compared to 1,651 of the Maui plates, Jessica Ferracane, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park spokeswoman, wrote in an email.

The plates are available statewide through each county’s participating DMV office. The designated park gets $18 from both the initial $35.50 fee and the annual $25 renewal charge.

“Who cares?” Miguel said when asked about the added expense to vehicle registration fees that jumped 30 percent starting last September.

Haleakala National Park on Maui also has a specialty plate.

Debus also was unconcerned with the higher fee.

The Volcanoes National Park plates have raised $135,000, “which will fund an endowment for future priorities and needs,” Ferracane said.

Responsibility for managing the money rests with the Hawaii Pacific Parks Association, a nonprofit created in 1933 that partners with the National Park Service to support six parks in Hawaii and American Samoa, according to a Hawaii Volcanoes National Park statement announcing the license plate program.

“We’re just a pass-through,” said Mel Boehl, business director for the association located within the park. “The money comes to us, and we pass it through to the park.”

Proceeds from its park stores and other ventures allowed the association last year to provide a combined $1.5 million to its partnering national parks, according to its website.

Park Still Recovering

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park alone needs millions of dollars to repair damage from last year’s earthquakes.

The popular Thurston Lava Tube and Kilauea Overlook remain closed, and there’s no estimate when they could be reopened, Ferracane said.

Jaggar Museum and the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory are still not “safe for occupancy,” she said.

This May 3, 2018, photo was taken hours before molten lava started erupting downslope from Kilauea volcano’s summit, seen here from the since-closed overlook inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Jason Armstrong/Civil Beat

Closure of the observatory monitoring station has created growing concern that it could be moved to Oahu. U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono last month said she wanted to keep it on the Big Island.

“The presence of geologists and associated scientists in the area predates the park, which contains two of the most continuously active and studied volcanoes in the world,” Ferracane said.

Most of the park’s trails, all its campgrounds, the Volcano House hotel, Kilauea Military Camp and Volcano Art Gallery are open, she said.

Visitor counts plummeted 45 percent in 2018, due largely to most of the park being closed 134 days because of seismic activity, she said.

This year’s tallies are still down, but last month’s spring break fueled a “noticeable surge” that saw more than 4,000 daily visitors – approaching 2017’s pre-eruption numbers – at Kilauea Visitor Center, Ferracane said.

Also promising was last year’s nearly tripling of visitor counts at the park’s southern Kahuku Unit, which was kept open an extended five days a week during the eruptions, she said.

The post Big Island: Specialty License Plates A Big Moneymaker For Damaged Park appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

You might think state Rep. Sylvia Luke would care more about preventing a catastrophic overflow of the Ala Wai Canal and its feeder streams than do politicians back in Washington, D.C..

Apparently, you would be wrong.

It was a pleasant surprise last year when Congress appropriated $345 million for a major revamp of the canal and the watersheds flowing into it, a project federal engineers say is needed to keep a massive flood from wiping out Waikiki.

Hawaii had expected less than the full amount needed for the work. But apparently the federal government thought it was a high priority to avoid a disaster that would flood an estimated 3,000 buildings and cause more than $1 billion in structural damage, not to mention shutting down the state’s biggest economic engine.

The federal appropriation comes with stipulations. Hawaii must repay $125 million of the cost, and a local jurisdiction must agree to operate and maintain the flood mitigation project.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ rendering of what could some day be underwater in and around Waikiki.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

The work involves developing detention areas along the Makiki, Manoa and Palolo watersheds to catch water, debris and sediment before it flows downstream. This includes earthen structures to manage stream flows and a concrete pad in the Manoa stream to catch debris. The Ala Wai Golf Course would function as a detention basin as well once engineers install berms along the north and east perimeter.

Another key component is building concrete walls along the canal to contain rising water. The walls would average 4 feet high, with some less than a foot high and others as tall as 6 feet depending on the slope.

Gov. David Ige included the $125 million local share of the cost in his two-year budget proposal released in December.

Senate Bill 77, which would have appropriated the canal money, breezed through the Senate this session before hitting a roadblock in the House Finance Committee chaired by Luke. In fact, it never got a hearing and at the moment is dead in the water.

Luke questioned whether the state should pay for what she implied is essentially a Honolulu public works project, and she accused the city of refusing to sign an agreement to maintain the project once it’s built.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell denied that in a letter released last week, saying the city is willing to sign on once the details are negotiated with the federal and state governments.

This is where, regrettably, a personality clash seems to threaten a clearly needed project to stave off a calamity.

The water level rose along the Ala Wai Canal during king tides in August, even as a hurricane was passing nearby.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

Luke doesn’t much care for Caldwell, a political animosity that goes back years. And she’s not pleased that the mayor keeps coming back to the Legislature seeking more bailouts for his egregiously over-budget rail project. 

“I don’t like to make Kirk Caldwell happy,” Luke said in January as she discussed spending proposals that were in her crosshairs, including the canal work.

The Honolulu mayor is not the consummate diplomat. He has an often-rocky relationship with the City Council and consistently blames others for the rail project blunders that occurred mostly under his watch.

His letter last week urging legislative leaders to revive Ige’s proposal to appropriate the $125 million for the canal project was addressed by name to the Senate president, the House speaker, Hawaii’s congressional delegation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials.

Sylvia Luke’s name was nowhere to be found. If she got a copy, it was only because every legislator was CC’d.

It would be nice if Luke and Caldwell could sit down and work things out for the good of their constituents.

Barring that, other legislative leaders need to step up to keep this project alive.

Understand, this is a flood that will happen if rational human beings don’t prevent it. It easily could have come last year when Category 5 Hurricane Lane was barreling toward Honolulu before breaking down. Or it could be a slower-moving disaster courtesy of sea level rise over the coming decades.

Legislators have been quick to appropriate state money for disaster relief after last year’s Kauai flooding and Big Island volcanic eruption.

In this case they need to decide whether to spend $125 million now or await eventual economic devastation.

It doesn’t take a budget expert to figure that one out.

The post Don’t Let Petty Politics Block A Project To Prevent Ala Wai Canal Flooding appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

Two ethics reform bills have been approved by a House-Senate conference committee while a third remains afloat.

But another measure, this one changing campaign finance laws, is on hold as lawmakers try to settle their differences.

The lead conferees on the bills are the respective chairs of the House and Senate judiciary committees, Rep. Chris Lee and Sen. Karl Rhoads.

Late Wednesday afternoon the conference committee approved House Bill 170, which clarifies how the state’s laws on fair treatment — not unduly using political influence — and conflict of interest laws apply to legislators and task force members. Its passage this session now appears certain.

State Ethics Commission Executive Director Dan Gluck proposed a measure that would exempt task force members from having to file financial disclosure statements.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

HB 170 is supported by the League of Women Voters of Hawaii, Common Cause Hawaii and the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, which proposed it.

“This bill clarifies that task members who are often appointed for their specialized expertise aren’t required to file financial disclosure statements,” the commission’s executive director, Dan Gluck, said Wednesday. “It also clarifies that they are not treated the same as state employees for the purposes of the ethics code.”

Gluck said that task force members are often individuals who are appointed for limited purposes because of their experience. Having them subject to the same requirements as full-time state employees could discourage qualified applicants, he said.

‘Modest Changes’

Two other measures that are part of the Ethics Commission’s package of bills are also advancing.

On Wednesday, the Senate agreed to the House’s changes to Senate Bill 144, meaning that the bill is almost certainly headed to Gov. David Ige for his signature.

SB 144 calls for repealing restrictions on obtaining transcripts of public contested hearings, requiring proof that violation of the state’s lobbying law was committed negligently, and allowing the Ethics Commission to levy a fine as part of a settlement agreement.

In written testimony, Gluck said SB 144 makes “modest changes” to enforcement of the state’s lobbyists law and “harmonizes” the law with the state’s open records law.

A third measure from the commission, House Bill 169, remains in conference committee.

HB 169 bill clarifies provisions of the ethics code by eliminating the “double filing requirement” of gift disclosure statements, reduces an “unnecessary administrative burden” on Ethics Commission staff by only requiring records to be kept for six years after the filing date of each financial disclosure statement, and eliminates language that restricted access to transcripts from contested case hearings.

The bill also calls for providing flexibility for participants mandated to enroll in ethics training sessions.

In the report approving HB 169 as it moved through the House earlier this session, Rhoads wrote that the Judiciary Committee found that “under existing law, certain provisions of the State Ethics Code contain inconsistencies, inefficiencies, and overly burdensome administrative requirements.”

Decreasing Transparency?

Action on House Bill 164, part of a package of bills submitted by the state’s Campaign Spending Commission, was delayed for at least another day.

Lee told Rhoads that the House plans to submit a compromise bill known as a conference draft. But the CD1, as it is called, is still being worked on.

HB 164 is intended to tweak campaign finance laws to make it easier to disclose who is spending money on political advertisements.

Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission Executive Director Kristin Izumi-Nitao urged lawmakers to reject surprise changes made to one of the commission’s bills.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

“Your Committee finds that the democratic election process benefits from transparency in campaign advertising,” the latest report on the bill reads. “Your Committee further finds that well-funded political action committees are capable of influencing elections to a significant degree. This measure will increase transparency and provide additional clarification to campaign advertising laws.”

But HB 164 was altered so significantly by the House in February that the commission’s executive director, Kristin Izumi-Nitao, ended up testifying against her own bill. She said in written testimony that the House amendments “will actually decrease transparency in campaign spending in elections.”

Izumi-Nitao pointed to the 2018 general election in which a couple spent $30,000 on Facebook ads to support multiple candidates on Maui. The law required them to report whenever they spent more than $2,000 on ads.

Contact Key Lawmakers

House Judiciary Committee Chair Chris Lee
replee@Capitol.hawaii.gov
808-586-9450

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Karl Rhoads
senrhoads@Capitol.hawaii.gov
808-586-6130

Under the amended House Draft 1, however, the reporting requirement would be eliminated. There would also be changes to when the disclosures would have to be made.

As well, the HD1 as crafted by the House Judiciary Committee would exempt legislators as well as all other candidates from filing electioneering communications statements.

Izumi-Nitao urged the lawmakers to revert back to the original bill.

Gary Kam, the Campaign Spending Commission’s general counsel, told Civil Beat that the original bill merely sought to clean up language in the state law on electioneering communications.

For example, current law only requires reporting on campaign mailers that go out at bulk rates. The commission wanted the law to apply to all mail rates.

The commission’s goal was to make it easier for people to file statements with the commission every time they spent more than $2,000 on political advertisements, including on social media.

Kam said he did not understand why the bill was changed.

“I never recall any side taking one of our bills and switching something out to actually reduce transparency,” he said, referring to the HD1. “The commission would never do that.”

The Senate last month amended HB 164 more to the commission’s liking, making sure language on electioneering communications was retained. But lawmakers also added additional reporting requirements that Kam described as burdensome.

People who spend more than $2,000 to advertise for a candidate already have to report that within 24 hours after the ad buy. The Senate Draft 1 requires weekly reporting as well.

It is these differences and others between House and Senate versions of HB 164 that need to be cleared up if the bill is to pass this session, which ends May 2.

The post Two Ethics Reform Measures Clear House-Senate Conference Committee appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

For nearly six decades, Koko Crater Stables — Oahu’s last municipal equestrian facility — has provided horseback riding and lessons to thousands of casual riders and beginners.

In recent years, however, the city-owned facility struggled to stay afloat, while its stables and buildings crumbled. 

Now, under its latest managers, the grounds have been resuscitated.

But the mission has changed, and that’s sparking a feud over who should control Koko Crater Stables and whom the facility should serve.

Private boarding of horses has long been part of Koko Crater Stables. The facility no longer boards the broken-in school horses that were previously made available to beginners.

Kuʻu Kauanoe/Civil Beat

Instead of a focus on casual riding for the public, Koko Crater Stables has largely morphed into a training grounds for elite, competitive riding using a herd of 20 privately owned horses boarded there.

“It’s like a private stable,” boarder Sandra Downey said last week as she walked the grounds with her 13-year-old therapy horse, James. “To go under the guise that this is for the community is so false. This should be used by everyone.”

The company managing Koko Crater Stable, Horse Haven, maintains that it does make available some lessons for beginners and casual riders, and that the focus on elite riding makes the most sense for the 10-acre property nestled in the back side of the crater.

The company is on the cusp of signing a deal with the city to manage the property for the next five years.

Questioning The Contract

The situation has exposed the sometimes cutthroat competition within Oahu’s equestrian community. Each of the two bidders claims the other was unqualified, and each claims it’s being bullied by its rival’s supporters.  

It’s grown so heated that Honolulu Police were called to the stables Tuesday to take a report from Horse Haven over the threats and vitriol it says it’s receiving on social media.

Furthermore, questions remain about the city’s process in awarding the contract for the property, which is still ongoing. The land was deeded to the city by Bishop Estate in 1928, and the stables aim to reflect Princess Bernice Pauahi’s love of horsemanship, those familiar with the facility say.

“My preference is that we have an operation that meets the vision of Princess Pauahi, which means serving the community as a municipal equestrian facility,” interim City Councilman Mike Formby said in a text message. Koko Crater Stables falls within his district.

The administration should “undertake a fair and transparent procurement process awarding the concession,” Formby added.

Local Legacy Of Riding

Koko Crater Stables launched in 1962 shortly before the city closed a similar municipal stables called the Town and Country in Kapiolani Park, according to Oahu native and veterinarian Emogene Yoshimura.

Yoshimura learned to ride as a girl in Kapiolani Park and she later ran Koko Crater Stables until 2015, when new city requirements made it impossible for her to continue, she said.

During her tenure, Yoshimura helped cover expenses by boarding about 25 horses from private owners at a time. Notably, however, she also kept 12 of her company’s own school horses there, making them available to beginners and casual riders at $45 a lesson, she said.

“My goal was to share the joy of riding with the public,” Yoshimura said Tuesday.  

She estimates during 25 years operating the stables for the city, she provided 10,000 horseback lessons, many to “dead beginners” who were new to riding.

“Nobody owned their own horse. They used our horses — my little herd of 12 horses,” Yoshimura said. “It’s very expensive to ride a horse. Horses cost a lot of money.”

Her operation hit a setback about 10 years ago when the city prohibited her from using its botanical gardens next door for trail rides, she said.

In 2015, the situation became untenable, Yoshimura said. The city awarded her its latest competitive 5-year contract to keep running the stables but it also added language prohibiting caretakers from living on site, she said. Although no one could live there, the new contract still required the stables to be manned around the clock, she added.

Yoshimura and others in the local horse community stressed that experienced caretakers ought to live on site in case of emergency, such as a fire. Security guards, by contrast, wouldn’t be trained for how to properly handle such events — and they’d be too expensive for round-the-clock patrols, Yoshimura said.

After more than a half-century of involvement at the stables, she opted not to sign the new contract.

$150,000 Spent On Repairs

When the owners of Horse Haven LLC took over the property about a year later they found it in “utter ruins,” company co-owner Jane Mount said.

“Nobody would take that project on — it was too far gone,” Mount said Tuesday. “The property was in such bad shape, it wasn’t going to happen with Band-Aids.”

Nonetheless, Mount and her three partners, including her husband, Jerry, raised about $150,000 in loans and donations plus free labor from community members to help fix and reopen the stables, she said.

The Horse Haven owners have run Koko Crater stables for the past 2 1/2 years via city-issued revocable permits. They’ve set up a nonprofit, the Koko Crater Stables Community Education Foundation, to help continue the work and host equestrian events. They’ll host a free horse show there in early May.

Under their new management, however, the municipal facility’s mission has changed.

Not A Place For Beginning Riders

The broken-in school horses that Yoshimura made available to the public are gone. The 20 horses currently boarded at Koko Crater are either owned by private tenants — who pay $811 a month to board their animals there — or the Mounts, who board four of their horses there, Mount said.

With those animals, Horse Haven runs a school for “hunter-jumping” — a competitive and advanced style of riding. About 50 percent of all lessons are given to teenagers who are serious about the sport, Mount said.

“It’s basically a boarder-run facility. It’s people with a lot of money. It’s top-dollar people in that barn,” said Frank Guadagno, a local farrier who’s worked with some of the animals at Koko Crater Stables.

“You’re talking $25,000 horses, $50,000 horses,” Guadagno said.

Koko Crater Stables now specializes in competitive and advanced riding lessons, with all of its horses on site owned either by private boarders or by the managers themselves.

Kuʻu Kauanoe/Civil Beat

The facility doesn’t cater to beginners, said Charlie Jordan, a caretaker who now lives on-site. It’s for more experienced riders — any beginners who would attempt to ride the horses there now would risk injury or death, he said.

Those who ask about beginner horseback-riding are referred to private facilities on Oahu, including the stables at Kualoa Ranch, Jordan said.

However, Mount said that several of the private boarders’ aging horses could in fact be used for beginners and that the private boarders who aren’t using their horses allow them to be used by others to take lessons.

Nonetheless, Horse Haven doesn’t plan to buy school horses, she said.

“We can’t be all things to all people,” Mount said Tuesday.

So Koko Crater Stables now specializes in training competitive equestrian athletes. “That’s what our program is known for and we’re very proud of that, frankly,” she said.

The hunter-jumper school makes more sense since Horse Haven can’t access the botanical garden trails, Mount said. Any basic horseback riding would be confined to a relatively small, 10-acre site, she said.

It’s the same issue that stymied Yoshimura about a decade ago.

The veterinarian said she’s grateful the Mounts put the effort into preserving the Koko Crater Stables. Some city officials wanted to lump it into the botanical garden instead.

But Horse Haven’s “mission statement is a lot different than mine,” Yoshimura said Tuesday.

“They do have experience and they do a good job,” she said. “But my only concern is there’s no place for the public to learn to ride horses unless they own a horse.”

Challenging Horse Haven’s Contract

The latest contract put out by the city to bid to run Koko Crater Stables for the next five years requires the operator to “provide horse training, riding lessons, horse boarding, and equestrian type educational seminars to the public.”

Horse Haven meets that with its focus on competitive riding lessons, according to Mount.

But another local instructor, Kim Hollandsworth of Aloha Riding Lessons in Waimanalo looked to run a program similar to what Yoshimura once offered at Koko Crater Stables — one she said would be more in line with the city’s intent.

She challenged Horse Haven for the contract and delivered the more lucrative bid. But she still lost under circumstances that raised concerns with Formby, a former city department head who’s familiar with the procurement process.

Kim Hollandsworth teaches horseback riding in Waimanalo with her company, Aloha Riding Lessons. She bid to operate Koko Crater Stables, but the city disqualified her.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

“It certainly appeared unconventional,” Formby said in a text. What he saw caused him “to question whether the procurement followed standard … policies and procedures.”

Officials in the city’s purchasing division contacted Hollandsworth in December about bidding for the contract, records show. She was reluctant at first, but when Hollandsworth visited Koko Crater she changed her mind.

She could have boarded her nine school horses and one hunter-jumper on the site and make them available to Oahu’s “barn rats” — kids who wanted to learn how to ride and care for horses but who lacked the means to own one.

Still, Hollandsworth wasn’t sure she would even qualify to bid. The city required applicants to have been in business for at least a year and grossed at least $100,000 in a year. Aloha Riding Lessons had officially opened in March 2018. It hadn’t grossed $100,000 yet, but it was on course to make more than that by the end of its first year, she told city officials.

Stables and other aging structures at the city-owned equestrian facility in Koko Crater had fallen into disrepair in recent years.

Kuʻu Kauanoe/Civil Beat

The city worked with her.

On Jan. 29, it declared Hollandsworth a qualified bidder. Two days later she submitted the most competitive bid. She offered to pay the city $1,513  in monthly rent — more than twice as much as Horse Haven’s $720 bid.

City officials scheduled a Feb. 4 “pre-award” meeting with her.

Almost as soon as Hollandsworth outbid Horse Haven, Horse Haven encouraged its boarders to lobby city officials to disqualify her.

“Ms. Hollandsworth, officially the highest bidder, does not meet the Mandatory Minimum Requirements to bid on the Concession and should never have been allowed to participate as a qualified bidder,” the group told supporters in a Feb. 3 email. “We will be contesting her participation on these grounds.”

“Many of you have asked how you might help. We can all help the City reach the proper conclusion. Time is of the essence.”

The email then provided contacts for Mayor Kirk Caldwell, the parks and recreation director and other city officials.

The next day, Hollandsworth said city purchasing officials requested she provide proof she had paid rent to her current facility, DLT Stables in Waimanalo. Emails to the city show she provided them payment invoices. The request struck her as strange, she said.

During the next two weeks, email correspondence shows Hollandsworth asked city officials to clarify the process and what would happen next. But she didn’t get answers.

Then, on the morning of March 5, an officer in the city’s purchasing division, John Francis Sapigao, called Hollandsworth and told her she needed to pay the general excise taxes she owed within 30 minutes or she would be disqualified, Hollandsworth said.

The issue had never come up before, she said.

Frantic, she drove toward town from Waimanalo to try and make that deadline. She pulled over in Aina Haina when she realized she could pay online and completed the payment within the hour — but not within 30 minutes, she said. The city disqualified her.

“I know you stated it was too late but I wanted you to see I followed through on what I said I would do,” Hollandsworth wrote in an email to Sapigao later that day.

City officials declined to discuss the details of the Koko Crater Stables procurement.

“We absolutely contested it,” Mount said Tuesday. “We put (in) a lot of time … we weren’t going to just let it go.”

Mount said she didn’t know if her flash campaign to sway city officials led to Hollandsworth’s disqualification. “You’d have to ask the city,” she said.

“It’s vicious,” Hollandsworth said of the situation.

Interim City Councilman Mike Formby says the city should “…undertake a fair and transparent procurement process awarding the concession.”

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

She and a core group of horse enthusiasts who support her say Horse Haven should be disqualified because the caretakers live on site. The five-year contract does prohibit using the site for “lodging and sleeping purposes,” but Mount says the owners received permission for caretakers to live there before accepting their temporary permit in 2016.

Horse Haven did receive permission for management to be on duty for 24 hours, according to city spokesman Andrew Pereira. However, he wasn’t sure whether that meant caretakers could live there. He said it would probably come up in the city’s review.

Horse Haven, meanwhile, expects to keep its caretakers living on-site should it receive the five-year contract, according to Mount.

“It says you can have a 24-hour manned office — it doesn’t say what needs to be in the office,” she said of the city contract. “Their language is their language.”

Formby voiced concerns about the procurement last week to Caldwell’s managing director, Roy Amemiya. “I left the ball in his court to make the final determination,” Formby said in a text Monday.

Hollandsworth is weighing whether to formally challenge her disqualification.

Whomever prevails, local horse enthusiasts hope the stables will keep Hawaii’s longtime equestrian tradition alive and accessible to everyone on Oahu — not just those who can afford to own a horse.

“Horse places are like barns — they’re all disappearing,” Yoshimura said. “It’s very important that Koko Crater stay open as a stable to the public.”

The post A ‘Vicious’ Battle Over The Future Of Koko Crater Stables appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

The recent article written by Dale Evans, “Proposed Bill Regulating Uber, Lyft is Biased Against Taxis,” was very disturbing to read. There were many inaccuracies in the article regarding Uber and Lyft regulations in the state of Hawaii, particularly Oahu, where a majority of most ride-sharing drivers reside.

I would know about these regulations, because I am one of those drivers. I am not writing to you on behalf of Uber or Lyft. I am writing on behalf of myself as an independent contractor that drives for ride-sharing companies.

Ordinance 16-25, enacted Aug. 17, 2016, states each private transportation driver’s vehicle must display a decal on the front and rear bumpers with the transportation network company’s logo, name or identifying symbol; a dome, for taxicabs only, or a company identifier, in the front window visible from at least 30 feet.

TNCs are already regulated and required to display signage identifying themselves as Uber or Lyft vehicles. Lyft vehicles will have the emblems on the front and rear bumpers, while Uber, with permission from the director, on the rear driver-side windshield. Lyft vehicles may also have a light-up amp on the front dash that will display the riders’ name and greeting once the ride starts.

Other safety features that are implemented on Uber and Lyft for riders include the driver’s current picture, the license plate of the vehicle, color of the vehicle, make and model of vehicle, and picture of vehicle on the app once the driver accepts the ride. The rider also knows how far away the driver is in minutes, the route the driver is taking, and when the driver is pulling up to greet them. These safeguards have been in place for the riders since the beginning.

As for insurance, Uber and Lyft both have $1 million policies when passengers are en route at all times. If the unfortunate incident where a driver’s battery runs out during a trip, that does not mean the trip has ended. It only means the phone has died.

The driver is still en route and has not ended the ride with the rider. Both the driver and rider are still covered under the insurance. The driver just needs to get a charger and end the trip once the rider has reached the destination.

A driver would not close the app with a rider in the car. That would cause the driver to lose money.

Paying The Bills

Drivers are out trying to make money to feed their families, pay bills, or other expenses. They are independent contractors who need to keep their app on in order to make money.

There are thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers in Hawaii. By turning off the app, the driver gave that potential income to another driver and would now have to drive longer hours to provide for their family.

The issue that needs to be addressed is safety for the drivers. The tragedy on Jan. 27, 2019, in Tempe, Arizona, that took the life of a pregnant Lyft driver while picking up a rider started a petition to ask Uber and Lyft for safety measures for drivers.

The issue that needs to be addressed is safety for the drivers.

Drivers only receive a name, rating, and where the rider is to be picked up from. The names that drivers do receive are mostly fake names. Uber never gives drivers a rider’s picture, however, Lyft will give us the picture the riders upload.

Most of these pictures are avatars, Snapchat pictures, or other fake pictures. If drivers are required by both Uber and Lyft to give current pictures and proper first names to the riders, shouldn’t the driver expect the same type of safety measure from the riders? This would ensure that everyone is safe, not just the rider, the driver as well.

I encourage the conference committees to move forward with House Bill 1093 HD2.

The post Regulations For Ride-Hailing Services Make Good Sense appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.

I first came to Orchidland Estates, in the Puna District on Hawaii Island, in 1995 for my wife’s 25th high school reunion. We were only here for 10 days but I was so enchanted that I could not make myself get into our rental car. We almost missed our flight.

We house sat on 37th during two summers. My wife had a year off in 1998-1999 and we spent the year in Orchidland. In the fall of 1998 we bought a two acre lot on 37th Avenue between Aulii and Ilima.

That year I was also active in what is called Orchidland Community Association, Inc. I was on a committee that established Orchidland’s first road paving plan.

Attending my first general meeting in 1998, and several monthly board meetings after that, gave me first hand experience of the rough and tumble nature of unsupervised subdivision associations. From my perspective there was general confusion among active property owners about the nature of our association.

As a result, I began to research the legal structure of Orchidland. This structure is made of the deeds for the 2,490 lots in the subdivision.
There are no covenants or restrictions recorded with any of these deeds. There is no mention on any deed that the owner is a member of OLCA.

In fact, there is no mention of OLCA and its court-entitled powers to assess and collect road fees.

I learned that the associations in two substandard subdivisions had taken lot owners before the Third Circuit Court in Hilo. These were Paradise Hana Huilike, claiming to rule Hawaiian Paradise Park and my own OLCA, claiming to rule Orchidland. The PHH case had even reached the Hawaii Supreme Court in 1983.

A screen shot from of a Google map marking the location of Orchidland Estates on Hawaii Island.

I read that the Supreme Court had found, in fairness, that there were duties and obligations among the lot owners in Paradise Park for road maintenance. The Supreme Court ordered our Third Circuit to find a solution.

The Third Circuit chose to “entitle” PHH in the guise of a Hawaiian nonprofit incorporation. In fact, PHH is an agent of the court. The Supreme Court did not require the Third Circuit to “entitle” PHH to manage the roads. That decision is entirely on the Third Circuit itself.

This past February our state House of Representatives considered the plight of the substandard subdivisions. In House Bill 288 — a measure regarding maintenance of roads and other infrastructure — lawmakers determined that “. . . the judicial system has created a patchwork system . . . that does not provide adequate oversight.”

In 1983, the Third Circuit had expressed doubts that PHH was “fairly structured to carry out the functions of road maintenance and the setting of fees and collection.” Before “entitling” PHH, the Third Circuit gave PHH 60 days to amend its bylaws. To insure compliance, the court maintained control over PHH indefinitely.

This is the supervision OLCA requires now.

Significant Consequences

OLCA has taken lot owners to court twice. Both times the Third Circuit chose to “entitle” OLCA to manage the roadways in Orchidland.

The court did not find any problems with the OLCA bylaws and it did not require amendments. Nevertheless, in 2014 a rumor spread among the active lot owners that OLCA bylaws did not comply with the Hawaii Nonprofit Corporations Act.

According to this rumor, the bylaws, approved on two occasions by the Third Circuit, were illegal. And in order to bring OLCA into compliance with Hawaii law, there was not enough time to follow the procedure in the bylaws.

On Nov. 16, 2014, OLCA did change its bylaws. And it did not follow the procedure required in those bylaws. And the consequences have been significant. The breach has left Orchidland confused and split between two factions.

Both hold monthly meetings; both send out newsletters; both maintain internet presence; both bill for road maintenance; and both claim to be “entitled” to manage Orchidland roads. The court allows one faction access to bank accounts but has yet to designate the faction that is actually “entitled.”

I have sued OLCA for breach of the contract constructed for us by our Supreme Court and our own Third Circuit. To be more precise, I am suing for the Third Circuit to supervise its agent, OLCA.

Again, on Feb. 21, the Third Circuit confirmed its opinion that I had no legal right to complain, as an individual property owner, about any action taken by OLCA.

“The breach has left Orchidland confused and split between two factions.”

If a property owner in Orchidland has no right to complain to the Third Circuit about a breach of the court’s arrangement, then to whom does he or she complain? Perhaps the state Legislature?

Ironically, it was the very next day, Feb. 22, that the Hawaii House expressed itself on the quality of the judicial system’s oversight of substandard subdivisions. In HB 288 our representatives provide an adequate description of our plight, but the bill did not pass.

So, what is to be done?

Near the end of Section 1 in the bill, the House considers the role of county government in the tumble:

Hawaii County’s responsibilities are clear.

And when Hawaii County has met these responsibilities, I will pay road fees to OLCA or to any other association in Orchidland that has our county’s support and supervision.

The post Substandard Conditions Frustrate Orchidland Lot Owners appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.