• Water • Police Commission Water Here we are in our “wet season” and a lot of the water is running into the ocean. Earlier in the year, I remember seeing an article which had a comment about with sugar
• Water
• Police Commission
Water
Here we are in our “wet season” and a lot of the water is running into the ocean. Earlier in the year, I remember seeing an article which had a comment about with sugar irrigation now gone, it seemed that the drinking water wells levels are in decline. I’ve noticed that quite a bit of the former L.P. lands are in non-irrigated usage which means that less water is seeping into the ground down to the well levels. I’m just wondering if some of that land could be ‘developed’ to be water-sheds so that the drinking wells can be replenished over time and keep run-off from going into the ocean. That would seem to be less costly for a drinking water supply rather than, I believe the plan is to build a water treatment plant to allow drinking of reservoir water. Of course, the land-owner(s) can do whatever they want to with the land. Just wondering…maybe sombody else can say this better.
Masaru Shirai
Lihu‘e
Police Commission
Mayor Baptiste’s delay in asking for Gonsalves to resign from the Police Commission is puzzling. All he needed in order to make a decision was a copy of the offensive email, which I’m sure he had. It seems this administration’s answer to everything is, “We have to study for days (or weeks or months) before we can make a decision or give an answer.” They have been “studying” the toxic fire for about four months now, and they “studied” the Kekaha landfill situation for years before finally submitted an application to the state in late 2004!
I would have respected the mayor if he had (1) acted immediately (there was no need to search for “more information,” since the email was in black and white and Mr. Gonsalves did not deny writing it) and (2) fired him outright, rather than politely asking for his resignation.
As for claims that the racial slur was OK because it was in a “private” communication, I believe what a person says “in private” is a clear indication of that person’s true character. I can’t help wishing we had more people who speak and behave the same way privately and publicly. Sadly, since the Gonsalves-Baptiste matter became public, I have heard some people comment that “we all do these things in private.” As someone who grew up in the Deep South and yet never in my life uttered the “N” word, I beg to disagree—we do not all talk that way!
The other puzzling aspect of the Gonsalves-Baptiste matter is a question that was never asked, not by the Mayor, and not by any investigative reporter: Why should a police commissioner be communicating at all with a “friend” inside the police department?
Barbara Elmore
Lihu‘e
