• Superfarce
• A Republican challenger?
• Not the Clintons’ fault
• Low county salaries?
Superfarce
I find the letter of Elaine Dunbar about the Superferry both ridiculous and laughable.
I have no interest in the Superferry other that it sounds like a less expensive way to go to O‘ahu.
I am suspicious of opponents who may have some self-serving interest the public doesn’t know about. The connections with the war she promotes are beyond ridiculous; she is mixing apples and oranges and makes no sense.
To imply that the Superferry is intended to carry depleted uranium shows her complete lack of knowledge about the matter.
To help educate her she should understand that depleted uranium is sent to places to be stored for several hundred years until it no longer dangerous. If she has proof that this is planned she could win a Pulitzer Prize and probably a Nobel Peace Prize also.
Not likely.
I have no strong opinion pro or con about the ferry. However, if the people of Hawai‘i would agree to an Environmental Impact (Study) for each cruise ship, each airplane, each Matson ship, each Young Bros. barge and the food barge that comes into Hanapepe, I would support it. The most likely invasion is that one of the planes coming here will bring a mosquito with the (West) Nile Virus.
A Republican challenger?
As a concerned O‘ahu resident, I was excited to learn Capt. Jerry Coffee has entered the senatorial race against the victor of the Case/Akaka battle. I strongly believe it is important to have viable candidates representing each of the two major parties in all elections. Capt. Coffee’s entrance into this race has given Republican voters their viable candidate.
In these uncertain times, I feel it is important to support those in the political arena who will be tough on crime and terrorism. Seeing as Coffee spent 28 years in the Navy, and seven of those years as a POW in Hanoi, I feel that he has the wherewithal to stand up for our country in the face of adversity and terrorism.
It is refreshing and encouraging to see a candidate of such caliber willing to devote himself to the service of the people of Hawai‘i. I encourage those of you who value honesty, strong leadership and devotion to strongly supporting Capt. Jerry Coffee in his bid for the United States Senate.
Not the Clintons’ fault
It is mind-boggling to see Mr. Tom Rice blame Hillary and Bill Clinton for the state of today’s health-care system, when we all know that Hillary’s plan was never enacted! Congress refused to endorse her plan! Repeat: No “healthcare reform” whatsoever resulted from the Clinton administration! By what stretch of the imagination can the Clintons now be blamed for subsequent problems in the health-care system?
The No.1 rule in the political playbook of certain people is and forevermore will be this: “Whenever there’s a problem of any kind, it’s always the Clintons’ fault.”
Sorry, Mr. Rice, but I’m calling you on this one!
Low county salaries?
I would like to offer a few initial comments on the front page story about “low” county executive salaries (TGI, July 9). Beginning in 2004, when I served on the salary commission, I have worked to understand the issues involved in this complex subject.
I believe there is general agreement on two points: The people of the county want well-qualified and highly motivated persons serving as department heads, and there are knotty questions associated with setting executive salaries which preclude easy answers. Some of the questions require attention to the ways the government as a whole is organized and operates.
The mayor proposes solving his immediate problem by asking the council to devise a way to bypass the salary commission and set the salaries of police chief and water department head on the council’s own initiative.
The first question raised by the mayor’s proposal is this: Why doesn’t he recommend salaries for these positions directly to the council in accordance with his authority in Sect. 7.05E of the charter? Mayor Kusaka submitted a pay plan to council in 1999 before the salary commission had even been convened.
The answer to this question may lie with an opinion issued by the mayor’s own county attorney.
The charter authorizes both the mayor and the salary commission to recommend executive salaries without defining the relationship between the two authorities.
At the request of the 2004 salary commission, the county attorney opined essentially and with minor exceptions that only the commission can recommend these salaries and that the council can act only in response to commission recommendations.
Will the council take on the responsibility of violating the charter as interpreted — and interpreted rightly, in my opinion — by the county attorney? If so, it will require from the county attorney a “creative” new way to interpret the charter that bypasses both the salary commission and the attorney’s existing opinion.
The mayor’s proposal glides past several inconvenient facts and repeats the contempt elected officials have shown for the charter and the salary commission in the past.
For example, during six of the past 10 years, including the current term, no commission has been appointed at all, and no commission has ever been appointed in a timely manner.
Unlike most commissions, salary commissioners do not serve staggered terms, so this dereliction by mayor and council has deprived the commission of a chance to work continuously and credibly to address the county’s executive salary needs.
Finally, the mayor’s proposal promotes the myth that low salaries are the main obstacle to hiring some department heads. This myth, along with several substantive questions, deserves detailed examination.
I would hope that The Garden Island will help educate the public in this area, as distinct from simply reporting the mayor’s half-baked ideas and whatever “solutions” the mayor and council may devise as a substitute for a principled handling of executive salaries. I would gladly contribute to the undertaking what I have gleaned from my investigations.
