• Forgotten facts • Arrest just rotten eggs • Proposals shouldn’t sit on shelves Forgotten facts The mayor said that adopting a council/county manager system would fundamentally change how Kaua‘i has been governed for the past four decades (“Would a
• Forgotten facts
• Arrest just rotten eggs
• Proposals shouldn’t sit on shelves
Forgotten facts
The mayor said that adopting a council/county manager system would fundamentally change how Kaua‘i has been governed for the past four decades (“Would a CEO run Kaua’i better?” The Garden Island, June 17).
An informed understanding of his deceptively simple statement must pay attention to two facts that the Charter Commission and others have ignored. First, over the course of four decades the position of mayor has grown into two full-time jobs. Second, the voters have been offered no opportunity to update the charter in a way that takes account of the mayor’s increased responsibilities.
The mayor’s time and attention are about equally divided between his charter-mandated administrative role to, with certain exceptions, “exercise direct supervision over all departments and coordinate all administrative activities and see that they are honestly, efficiently and lawfully conducted” (Section 7.05A) and his customary role as the political and titular head of county government.
Both roles are important, and when the charter was adopted four decades ago the mayor could realistically expect to fulfill both. But circumstances have changed and the demands associated with both roles have increased accordingly.
The county has adopted a makeshift way of dealing with the multiplication of mayoral responsibilities: The administrative assistant has been designated as the day-to-day manager of the administration. The charter does not authorize this arrangement or provide for its implementation, and the only attention given to the matter was a charter amendment proposed and rejected in 2006 that consisted merely of a change in title.
The position of administrative assistant was created primarily to provide for someone to act as mayor in the mayor’s absence and secondarily to provide an “administrative aide” for the mayor. The charter requires no professional credentials for the position, nor does it grant administrative authority or define administrative responsibilities for the position.
A council/county manager system solves the problem. It retains the mayor’s important role as the county’s leader while providing for a professionally qualified manager to devote full time to administrative affairs.
As David Mora pointed out, this solution to our local problem will work if everyone, including the electorate, works together in the public interest. In my view, a shift from a mindset of conflict, competition, and authoritarianism to one of cooperation will be the most significant change required when we adopt a council/county manager system.
Horace Stoessel, Kapa’a
Arrest just rotten eggs
The harassment arrest article portraying Bernard Patrick Carvalho Sr. (“Mayor’s father arrested,” The Garden Island, June 19) has “conflict of interest” written all over it, coupled with “what happened to the other side of the story.”
Based on my knowledge of this wonderful father, stand-up community-minded citizen, and good friend, the writing of this article was in bad taste by The Garden Island and those who pursued his arrest.
In all of my years, I have yet to recall such a blatant attack on a person for expressing their feelings. This smells like rotten eggs to me!
Marjorie Bettencourt Brown, Kapa‘a
Proposals shouldn’t sit on shelves
Thank you Coco Zickos for your fine headline story “Turning trash into energy” (The Garden Island, June 16). And mahalo to John Hoff for his efforts and those of Western Renewable Energy and Carbon Tech to address our long, ongoing solid waste problems here on Kaua‘i.
Having done some further investigating of this critical issue, I find two very disturbing factors.
First, the people of Kaua‘i have never been told that this renewable energy system as outlined by John Hoff is being used in Arizona and Canada so is not some mystical pie in the sky as was the Plasma Arc mirage offered to this county five or six years ago. WRE has offered to recommend to their investors to invest up to $100 million on Kaua‘i for a brand new municipal recycling facility to remediate Kaua‘i’s solid waste/green waste/plastics as well as to generate green energy — with no money asked from the taxpayers.
Second, this win-win proposal was offered to our county in September 2007 and to this date no one from our council or our administration has even offered to meet with these people (including John Hoff), go over the details, and get this long standing problem resolved.
Yes, maybe there will be obstacles to overcome but to not at least sit down with the people that are making this legitimate offer is unacceptable.
As Mr. Hoff said, if WRE has the capability of putting their system into operation in two or three, why should we wait 20 or 30 years?
With a county manager system that is now being proposed to the people of Kaua‘i you can rest assured that this type of proposal would not sit on a shelf for three years without at least being addressed.
Glenn Mickens, Kapa‘a
