•Let’s try bartering as a community •County salary levels should be discussed •Moi, food for the kings •Repeal unfair law Let’s try bartering as a community With a recession at our door step, many families are looking for ways to
•Let’s try bartering as a community
•County salary levels should be discussed
•Moi, food for the kings
•Repeal unfair law
Let’s try bartering as a community
With a recession at our door step, many families are looking for ways to make ends meet and many small businesses are looking for ways to keep their doors open.
Bartering has been in existence since the beginning of time. In ancient Hawai‘i, the bartering system was used between the farmers and the fisherman for their food. Bartering in these perilous times can help individuals (families) especially in periods of hyper-inflation or severe deflation.
In some cases it may or may not work depending on the individual and market conditions. Barter can provide an alternative means of conducting commerce when money may be scarce or so plentiful that it is rapidly losing its value.
By exchanging goods either through direct barter (one good for another) of through indirect barter (one good for fish or vegetables or vice versa) people may still be able to obtain goods and services they require.
Folks, lets face it, with a trillion dollar bail out, government spending on infrastructure combined with multiple wars, it seems as though inflation will be knocking on my door as well as yours.
Maybe as an island, we can take a proactive approach in starting a bartering program, a network of people in trades, business and professions and anyone that would be interested.
Again, we can help our families by having our food storage, staying out of debt, saving and living beneath our means.
• Myron Lindsey, Koloa
County salary levels should be discussed
The highest administrative salary, as distinct from civil service salaries, in the county on June 30, 2007 was the mayor’s salary of $80,000.
The next day more than 30 administrative positions received a 25 percent salary increase, followed by three 7 percent increases, the third of which took effect last December, for a cumulative increase of slightly more than 50 percent over a period of two and a half years.
Salaries for all of these administrative positions now exceed $100,000. Unfortunately for all concerned, the increases were enacted on the brink of the current economic crisis.
The salary increases were enacted by the Salary Commission, whose decisions automatically take effect unless the council nullifies them in whole or in part. Some councilmembers apparently wanted to approve only the 25 percent raises in 2007, but the council took no action, thus allowing the entire package of raises to become law.
Anyone familiar with the pitched battles and nonfeasance associated with the salary process during the past 15 years may well marvel at the ease with which these salary increases were implemented. The process by which they were implemented was made possible primarily by a charter amendment adopted in 2006, but the process also involved some questionable features that are worthy of public debate.
Most notably, the failure of both the commission and the council to hold a public hearing regarding the salary decisions represented a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the law.
However, my focus is on a question arising from current economic conditions. In the early days, the Salary Commission took pains to recommend salaries that the county could afford, and department heads could adjust the salaries of deputies downward.
Nowadays, about a dozen persons/boards in government who have appointing authority have the authority to adjust the salaries of their appointees downward and the Salary Commission has the authority to adjust all salaries.
Will current administration salaries remain recession-proof regardless of economic conditions, or will there be serious discussions about what salary levels make sense today?
• Horace Stoessel, Kapa’a
Moi, food for the kings
I’m known as a “threadfin,” a delicate tasting fish, savored for only royalty. They call me “moi” in the islands.
I was the cherished catch from the sea and only royalty could taste my sweet, moist flesh. However, these days there are no kings to nourish, but then again there is less of my kind in the sea.
My existence and extinction is due to the rapid progress and mismanagement of the environmental restrictions and enforcement. The tourism industry along with government has little concern for my existence along with my aquatic community.
They allow resorts, hotels, private home owners and businesses to damage my aquatic home by having their pools, golf courses and yards that are contaminated with chemicals to drip, flow and pour into the ocean. These pollutants do irreversible damages to the underlying topography, which then inhibits any life to exist on the ocean floor, destroying our food source (algae and limu) to sustain our life.
We need your help to survive, for as we nourish your bodies, you must keep the cycle of our existence in continuation for many years to come. Please do your part to protect the environment. You may get rich by taking shortcuts, but will you be able to purchase the food of kings when there are none to be bought?
Think about it. Be aware of the impact that you have on our environment and make a positive effort to improve its fate. Malama ka ‘aina ame ke kai, it’s our responsibility.
• Myles Emura, Kekaha
Repeal unfair law
This is a constitutional matter requiring a constitutional amendment.
When I was working for Mayor Frank Fasi, he could run for governor without quitting as mayor. This irritated then-Gov. George Ariyoshi to the extent that he was able to get a friendly Legislature to pass a law, which he signed, requiring anyone holding an elected office to resign in order to run for another office.
I believe that most people would consider it grossly unfair to make anyone quit one job in order to seek another.
In Hawai‘i, we have a lot of good people who have chosen public service as a career. The people of Hawai‘i are the real losers because many good people will be forced out of office. This bad law is still in effect and should promptly be appealed by the present Legislature.
• Harry Boranian, Lihu‘e
