• Whistleblower
• “Ice” broadcast
Whistleblower
An O‘ahu firm is being ordered to pay a fired worker almost $749,000 because of his “whistleblowing” to state officials regarding the work being done on the Waikaea Canal bridge in Kapa‘a.
The case is directly tied to the long list of political contribution fines being doled out in Honolulu to campaign contributors who broke campaign laws, but is tied to a major campaign contributor who financially supported the elections of Honolulu Mayor, and former Kaua‘i councilmember, Jeremy Harris, and that of former Gov. Ben Cayetano.
The work on the bridge that crosses a canal that leads to a small boat ocean launching area in Kapa‘a seemed to drag on and on over the past several years. Reports on the case show the state saying that only 95 percent of the work is yet complete, due to some guardrail flaws.
How a contractor and consultants being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars, could get away with substandard, over schedule work on such a visible job shows there are flaws in the state’s inspection and oversight of projects.
A loss of federal funding worth almost two million was at stake on this project.
Was the company that now must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to a whistleblower employee specially selected to work on the Waikaea project due to political favoritism?
Why wasn’t the employee better protected by the state once he pointed out what was going on, isn’t he a hero to the taxpayers for doing this? Does this say something about the culture of our state government?
Hopefully this bridge will stand the test of time construction wise. For sure it will remain a symbol of what happened when a major political contributor was given a plum contract and failed to work up to necessary standards.
“Ice” broadcast
Award-winning filmmaker Edgy Lee’s 60-minute documentary on Hawai‘i’s ice problem is scheduled to air at the same time on nine of Hawai‘i’s leading television stations. The date is set for Wednesday, Sept. 24 from 7 to 8 p.m.
The broadcast is being tied into educational materials being made available through a special Web site, as well as in printed form.
Educators, parents, law enforcement officers, social workers, physicians – plus anyone who touches, or is touched, by this problem, and that’s just about everybody – should watch this show for it promises to be an eye-opener.
What effect the showing will have on solving Hawai‘i’s ice problem remains to be seen. However, the fact that the state’s television stations see this as an hour of TV important as a major news story says a lot.
