Who’s running the show

For state Sen. Avery Chumbley, who last session was Senate vice president

during the last session of the Legislature and seemingly a step away from the

presidency, it’s “lonely, for the moment” out of the leadership.

For state

Sen. Jonathan Chun (D-7th District, south Kaua’i and Ni’ihau), the Senate

reorganization sees the first-term Senator as majority leader, with a seat on

the all-powerful Ways and Means Committee and, possibly, a committee

chairmanship in Hawaiian Affairs.

What a difference a few months

makes.

When Senate president Norman Mizuguchi announced he would not seek

re-election, the wheels were set in motion for a new cadre of Senate leaders,

with Chun’s fellow freshman, Sen. Colleen Hanabusa securing Chumbley’s former

vice presidency as Sen. Robert Bunda ascended to the presidency.

Chun

(D-7th District), who was majority floor leader in this year’s session, said

the new collection of leaders needs to learn to work together, and they’re

learning.

“It’s a good start,” said Chun, who earlier this month was having

serious thoughts about how much effectiveness he would enjoy if he were to run

for re-election in 2002.

The reorganization is not as important, Chun said,

as the continued need for the five Kaua’i legislators (Chun, Chumbley, and

Reps. Bertha Kawakami, Mina Morita and Ezra Kanoho) to work together as a team

for the good of the island.

Chun said he was a bit disappointed that

Chumbley (D-6th District), formerly co-chairman of the Senate Judiciary

Committee with Sen. Matt Matsunaga (son of the late Kaua’i native and

congressman Spark Matsunaga), declined a chance to head the Senate Health and

Human Services Committee.

It’s important, Chun continued, that Matsunaga,

Chumbley and other senators displaced from committee chairmanships by the

reorganization stay involved.

But Chumbley admits to being not only lonely

but left in the dark about the new leadership’s focus for the upcoming

session.

“I know nothing of what their agenda is going to be, or what their

major policy issues are going to be,” Chumbley said.

Chumbley, reached at

his home on Maui (his district includes the north Kaua’i area), said he is

concerned about the money committee – Ways and Means – as the new leadership

has apparently abandoned the long-standing practice of having a neighbor-island

chair of Ways and Means if the Senate president is from O’ahu, and vice

versa.

“I’m particularly concerned that the neighbor islands are going to

be left out of any significant decisions in Ways and Means,” Chumbley

said.

“We are at such a disparity to the state of O’ahu that it is

important that the neighbor islands be given the consideration,” especially in

budget-making chores and other money decisions, he said. “Hopefully, we’re

going to be able to convince the majority members that this structure as

proposed doesn’t meet the spirit of equitable distribution.

“Naturally, I’d

be interested in Ways and Means,” he said when asked of his committee

preferences.

Money and education issues are key 2001 issues as Chumbley

sees them. Even with increased state tax collections, there are serious funding

needs and questions, including an estimated $100 million needed this fiscal

year alone to comply with federal special-education staffing and other

requirements.

“I’d like to see a revolution in the governance of public

education, not just some tinkering at the fringes. In order to have that kind

of revolution, you must have a constitutional convention. Because the

revolution is only going to come by constitutional changes to the governance

structure, not statutory changes,” Chumbley said.

Should local school

districts have more of a say in funding and operations at schools? Should state

Board of Education members be appointed instead of elected? These are some of

the questions that must be asked and answered, he feels.

“Let’s create a

constitutional structure that will really empower the schools and relieve the

schools of some of the bureaucracy and the oversight that’s being handled

through the state superintendent’s office,” said Chumbley, who at one time

chaired the Senate Education Committee (currently Education and

Technology).

“I think that we should spend some time during this

legislative session having some really engaging, deep discussions about what is

the way to best improve the governance” of the school system, he said. “Is it a

constitutional convention, or is it through some statutory changes?

“I

wouldn’t want to just jump to a concon (constitutional convention). I don’t

know if it’s the only way to resolve it.”

Creating more opportunities for

attracting venture capital to the state during relatively good current times is

important, too, for when an economic downturn occurs, he said.

Staff

Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at [

HREF=”mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net”>pcurtis@pulitzer.net] or 245-3681 (ext.

224).