Letters for Sunday, May 23, 2010

• Aiding your understanding • A big mahalo • Just being polite • Preserving culture

Aiding your understanding

Thank you Judge Laureta and The Garden Island for keeping this county manager issue before the public. The questions you ask are probably on the minds of many of our citizens.

One very important point that your letters fail to mention is that the council-manager system is widely and successfully used across the U.S. and in other countries as well. It has been adopted because it puts efficiency in the way government operates.

You ask for an explanation as to how the manager proposal will resolve what you call the “flaws, inequities and inefficiencies” I have observed during the years of watching the agencies of our government.

The educated and trained manager would act as directed by the council and the mayor who is to be chair of the council. Knowing that his position is at their will, the manager will do his/her job in the most efficient and cost-saving way he knows, unlike a mayor who may be motivated by political considerations.

I will be happy to explain why council-manager systems do not have a veto power by the mayor. First, since the mayor would be a member of the council, issues are debated and ironed out before they are adopted. Also, the mayor has a form of veto power through his vote on the council.

You raise concerns about the manager’s system requiring education and training qualifications. In general the higher the qualifications the better the performance. You refer to “common sense” — certainly that is an important element of the job. The council selects the manager and one of his/her qualifications would be the “common sense” he sees or is informed about. The difference is that if the manager lacks good judgment he can be terminated, but if the mayor in the present system lacks it, we still have him/her for several years.

I hope that you will agree that a person charged with administering a $250 million annual budget should have better requirements than being 30 years of age and living on Kaua‘i for three years.

Administering our problems can be better done by a manager who has in his education and experience similar issues without being encumbered as the mayor now is by politics influencing his decision-making.

Hope this letter aids your understanding of our ad hoc committee proposal and answers your questions, Judge.

Glenn Mickens, Kapa‘a

A big mahalo

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge several people for supporting our Furlough Friday Basketball and Life Skills Camp at the Kilauea Gym.

First of all, Mr. Jim Braman, Mrs. Jackie Inanod-Hawelu and your wonderful staff at Wyndum Vacations Properties, for providing all the lunches and spending quality time with all the children.

Officer Mark Ozaki, KPAL Coordinator, who without hesitation approved the program so the Kilauea children would have a place to go. Also, helping our children to learn valuable life skills.

Andrea Ota, Kilauea Gym Coordinator, for supporting and making everything available to the program.

Last but not least, Coach Philip Baclayon, your valuable skills and talents will not go unnoticed, believe me. Your contribution to the children in Kilauea will benefit because of you.

So while the state contemplates how to save the children from Furlough Fridays, start by joining together to teach them life skills that can truly benefit all of them free of charge!

John Kaneholani, Anahola

Just being polite

I always get a kick out of younger people who call us “old guys” dinosaurs, etc. Here is a great response the next time this happens to you as a “senior citizen.”

Hey dinosaur, you grew up in a different world, actually almost a primitive one. We the youth of the world grew up with TV, jet planes, space travel, saw a man on the moon, we have clean nuclear energy, cell phones, computers with light speed — and many more.

Then you as a “senior citizen” respond with “you’re correct young man, we didn’t have all of those things when we were young… So we invented them! Now youngster what are you doing for the next couple of generations?”

We’ll call them “young man” ‘cause we learned to be polite, not rude.

Gordon Smith, Kapa‘a

Preserving culture

“Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.” — Cesar Chavez, Mexican-American farm labor leader and non-violence activist

The ongoing discussion in this Forum on the subject of cockfighting in Hawai‘i seems to have missed one important element. That element is the callous disregard by those who participate in this practice for the neighbors in their own community.

Anyone who lives next door to a cockfighting operation has lost all rights to peace and quiet in their own home.

If a culture has not evolved to the extent that it respects the rights of the person living right next door, then that culture does not seem much worth preserving.

Louisa Wooton, Kilauea