• County lawsuit • Gated communities County lawsuit This letter is to express concern about the inaccurate statements made at the County Council meeting on July 28 and reported in the Your Government section of The Garden Island on July
• County lawsuit
• Gated communities
County lawsuit
This letter is to express concern about the inaccurate statements made at the County Council meeting on July 28 and reported in the Your Government section of The Garden Island on July 31.
There were multiple errors in the report that the County Council approved $75,000 of further funding of the law firm of Goodsill, Anderson (the largest in Honolulu) to fight “a lawsuit initiated by a citizens group to wrest property taxing power away from the county.”
As is well known the lawsuit referred to was filed by the County and not by Ohana Kauai, the citizens group that sponsored the charter amendment. The litigation and its related expenditures of well over $100,000 of taxpayer funds came about because of a decision by County officials to disregard the public will and to make a judicial challenge to the election result. This case is the only known instance where a county has sought to ignore the expressed choice of its citizens and to challenge a measure validly adopted by its voters.
It is also a false statement to assert that the lawsuit seeks to wrest taxing power away from the county. Under the Kaua‘i Charter the people are the County and the Ohana measure was an exercise by the people of their power. In no way did the measure change the taxing power of the County. What it did do is offend seven people who would like to believe that they have exclusive power to determine how the laws governing our people are determined.
The “spin” used by the County is predictable. It is matter of regret that The Garden Island so readily accepted it.
Gated communities
Two statements in the letter supporting gated communities particular jump off the page. First: “If everything belonged to everyone, then each child felt he had a right to use anything” Well, it so happens that some of us do feel that, on an island, certain things really do belong to everyone: the beaches, the mountains, the rivers, the parks, the other public spaces (including roads) and the views (some of which can be seen only from certain roadways).
The second: “Sharing raised their self-esteem to see themselves as generous persons.” So, my question is, “If sharing raises self-esteem, isn’t that a good thing?”
Why can’t those who want the “exclusivity” of a gated subdivision learn to share and be generous? After all, aloha is all about sharing and generosity, and that very aloha is what welcomed these people to move to Kaua‘i in the first place! (I don’t think you’ll find mainlanders still living “back home” in their gated communities talking about aloha!)
True to his usual pattern, instead of sticking to the subject the letter writer resorts to name-calling, boldly asserting that people who oppose gated communities are motivated by “envy” and that they feel they “need not respect anyone’s private property” and that they want to be “free to trespass at will.”
Nothing is further from the truth. Even on an island, a person is free to erect a fence around his own private homesite, and that enclosure would be respected by his neighbors. (Luckily, most people on Kaua‘i do not find such an enclosure necessary and welcome interaction with their neighbors.)
But if you want to erect a gate blocking access to the entire subdivision from other Kauaians, then one should not expect the right to ever call in help from the publicly-owned fire department or police department or public trash collectors, etc. And, to be fair, he should not be allowed to drive on the roads in other people’s neighborhoods!
Seniors’ good sense
I applaud your editorial warning us that there are a variety of scammers out there trying to separate us from our money. Such reminders do help to keep us on our toes.
However, as a senior citizen, I resent your comment that “the elderly are especially easy prey for scammers.” Just because we get older does not necessarily mean that we get stupider. No doubt some of us do get Alzheimer’s or some other form of senility but to tar an entire generation with the broad brush concept that we need to be protected by our children seems to go much too far.
In many societies, the kupuna, or elders, are treasured and looked up to for their experience and knowledge. In ours, sometimes, it seems that we are considered babbling idiots.
It has been said that you can’t scam an honest man. A recent study showed that High school seniors in Hawai‘i did very poorly on an economics aptitude test. It is a combination of this economic illiteracy combined with greed that make people of any age susceptible to a scam.
Police support
We had an attempted burglary July 31 at 3:45 am. It took police 25 minutes to arrive, luckily we scared away the burglar. Because of this, I started asking questions about the police patrol in the North Shore area.
I have learned that there is one patrol car assigned from Princeville substation to Ke‘e beach and one patrol car assigned from Princeville substation to Anahola. When we called, the police car was at Ke‘e beach.
I spoke to a police officer I had met him at a neighborhood watch meeting. He stated that there are several problems, inability to fill existing police positions, low salaries, need for community involvement.
I think the community should be made aware of the police shortage on Kaua‘i. The police officer stated that the city council will fund more positions if they can fill the ones they have. He also stated that starting salaries for new recruits is $32,000 a year. He had many ideas on how the community can get involved to help the crime problem and make the position more attractive to new and out of state police officers.
He suggested that if builders could offer housing for police officers, private schools could offer reduced tuition, golf courses offer free golf this might entice more officers to fill the existing positions.
I believe that a series of articles concerning this problem might help to remedy the situation and initiate community involvement. The officer can be reached at 241-1648.
