• UH bill
• Local school boards
• Vandalism stinks
• Stop the mud flow
UH bill
Open letter to Senator Gary Hooser, Democrat, Kaua‘i-Ni‘ihau:
Senator Hooser, give us a break, pleeeze! Your statement (TGI 2/23) that your Senate Bill 3125 will take politics out of appointments to the University of Hawai‘i Board of Regents (UHBOR) is either naïve or disingenuous. No appointments made by politicians will EVER be taken out of politics, especially here in Hawai‘i. Your proposal to create a 12-member candidate advisory council to “help” the governor find qualified candidates for UHBOR is laughable. Do the math, senator.
If four members are appointed by the president of the Senate, a Democrat, four by the speaker of the House of Representatives, a Democrat, and four by the governor, a Republican for the first time in 40 years, it gives Democrats an 8 to 4 voting majority in selecting candidates for this prestigious position. Stacking the deck in favor of your party is political, sir, and you insult the voters by piously claiming otherwise.
Your proposal would create another layer of bureaucracy in the UHBOR appointment pro-cess. But just last month you attacked Governor (Linda) Lingle’s proposal for local school boards as an unnecessary additional layer of bureaucracy. Senator Hooser, please explain your “thinking.” What makes your additional level of bureaucracy a good idea and Governor Lingle’s a bad idea?
The story in TGI said you got the idea for the candidate advisory committee by researching how other universities across the nation successfully used these committees, and you felt that such a process could benefit the UH system. Governor Lingle’s research showed that the use of local school boards produced higher student achievement all across the nation, and she thought Hawai‘i should follow what has worked so well for the other 49 states. But you Democrats said what works for the rest of the nation won’t work in Hawai‘i, and rejected her proposal.
Now you have the audacity to tell us that what works well for other states in appointing boards of regents will work here. You can’t have it both ways! Your goals are obvious, partisan, and your attempted smoke screen of taking politics out of appointments insults the intelligence of the electorate. As a member of the non-partisan Kaua‘i County Council you had the reputation as a straight shooter, but it appears that partisan politics has worked its evil on you to such an extent that you would attempt this transparent flip-flop that mocks common sense.
Biff Whiting
Kalaheo
Local school boards
Sherwood Hara’s objections to local school boards focuses on our individual rights in our state and nation as the broader and more important issue.
Mr. Hara, would you object to a state referendum asking the individual voters of Hawai‘i whether they are in favor of local, elected school boards? Give the electorate a chance to speak. The educational failures of this state are well documented.
Let’s see how the people, with those individual rights you so nobly defend, feel about this issue. And at the same time, why not ask the people if they want an elected state board. Let me see your response to these points.
Monroe Richman
Koloa
Vandalism stinks
I have a complaint about the vandalism at our community parks. I think that community parks are places where people can go and relax. They can also have a good time, take their kids and let them play, have nice lunches on clean tables, and enjoy the beauty of the park. To see writings on the tables, bathroom walls, and the equipment is not pretty.
Actually, I think it’s ugly and rude for the public to see such bad things written. Even more so, all the people who put such hard work into building the bathrooms, equipment, and picnic tables have to see such damage that kids and teen-agers do to them.
I also think it’s bad because when the parents take their little ones to the park to play and they see such ugly writings, that’s not right. The kids can read them and then go back and ask their parents what it means, or say it to them and get them in trouble. When, at the beginning, it wasn’t even the kid’s fault. All in all, I think something needs to be done with the vandalism.
Maybe putting out signs or making the teen-agers or kids that are doing it paint the writings up or something (would help). So thank you very much for taking the time to read my complaint, and I hope you understand.
JENNIFER P. ALAMANI
Kealia
Stop the mud flow
The plan to enhance the civic plaza sounds great. However, before a large sum of money is spent on such a project, I believe there is a serious problem that certainly needs immediate attention, and that is the muddy slope by the tennis courts on Hardy Street. The mud flows onto the sidewalk in several places, and then into the gutter. It then in turn continues to flow to the bottom of the street at Hardy and Rice. There, a large deposit of mud continues to build on the sidewalk. This is the only place that the sidewalks are so neglected. For the past three years I have written numerous letters to the streets department, but the slope is still in the same condition. About once a year they scrape the mud off the sidewalk, only to have the mud begin to return on the occasion of the next rainy day!!!
IRMA EKNO
Lihu‘e
