• Let the voters decide • Tax ag lands more when fallow • Drug Court congratulates clients on project Let the voters decide Anyone who read and absorbed the factual words that Walter Lewis recently wrote in The Garden Island
• Let the voters decide
• Tax ag lands more when fallow
• Drug Court congratulates clients on project
Let the voters decide
Anyone who read and absorbed the factual words that Walter Lewis recently wrote in The Garden Island (“Efforts for a county manager proposal,” Oct. 16; “Attorney barricades county manager proposal,” Oct. 17) must agree that it presents major failures in our governance system.
Mr. Lewis spent a lot of time and effort putting these two articles together and showed serious examples of why our present system is not working. It is refreshing to have someone with his knowledge continually fighting to better — for everyone — the direction this island is going.
Basically we need to have a county manager qualified by education and experience training to manage the operations and services of our county government.
This manager, the type now successfully used by 60 percent of the municipalities across the U.S., would have the experience, education and ability to properly administer a $250 million budget which our county now has. With all due respect to my friend and mayor, Bernard Carvalho, isn’t it wrong to have someone in charge of overseeing this huge budget with the only qualifications for the job being 30 years old and living on Kaua‘i for three years? Even his subordinates don’t meet the stringent qualifications that a county manager must have.
Citizens of Kaua‘i, for four years you have asked that the Charter Review Commission put an initiative on the ballot letting you choose if you want a county manager. By every possible excuse imaginable this democratic right has been denied to you by this board, the county attorney or any other “legal” means available to our county.
It is time that all of you who are concerned with the direction our island is going and want change to call, e-mail or write your elected officials and tell them to give us a chance to vote on a managerial type of government.
Glenn Mickens, Kapa‘a
Tax ag lands more when fallow
Spot on, Ron Holte! You hit the nail right on the head (“We are all Keynesian puppets,” Letters, Nov. 5).
I cannot agree with your economic theories, nor disagree, for I am in no way versed in the discipline of economics. The rest of your comments I can agree with: “Indeed the economy is in a state of emergency;” “unemployment … must be approached with solutions versus theories;” “we must take actions at the local level to provide jobs.”
The problem? Our local government only talks about “theories” and ignores workable solutions. Case in point: Kaua‘i’s county government snubbing their noses at Western Renewable Energy’s $1 million offer to resolve Kaua‘i’s garbage and solid waste/high cost energy dilemma in favor of continued negotiations with special interests. As Ron points out correctly, “We cannot rely on the federal or state governments to solve the problem. Right?” Who else has the bucks other than special interests?
Again, Ron correctly points out. “We need to take better advantage of our resources: land, water, sun, wind, ocean, by private enterprise.” WRE would have assisted in the preservation of these resources. As for “major acres of land owned by large trust sitting idle should be leased and made productive,” there’s a very simple solution.
All agricultural lands need to have high property taxes when lands sit fallow. As land becomes productive, taxes begin to be lowered. This goes for large and smaller land owners such as “gentlemen farmers.” That way there is an incentive to keep our fields productive which means jobs and locally grown food and energy for our islands. As for assistance from our local “ex-AOL guru,” forget it. It is risky to associate with parties of cited, questionable environmental practices.
In conclusion, “forest, fisheries, and grazing lands can be managed successfully by people who use them versus somebody in Washington attempting to manage centrally” (Elinor Ostrom, Nobel prize winner). WRE could and would manage our precious assets for the benefit of our community as well as for industry creating jobs and profits.
John Hoff, Lawa‘i
Drug Court congratulates clients on project
A belated thank you to all the agencies that helped in the painting of the Koloa Neighborhood Center on Oct. 30.
The Kaua‘i Drug Court, with clients Imilia B., Jaime D., Ricky H., Staci G., Staci L., Terrance P., Troy M., Tasia C., Calvin B., Kahea A., Adrian B., Terrance O., Steven S., Derek E., Alumni Charles S., Staff Araceli, Jack, Tori, Tammy, and county staff Aaron, Jennifer and Michelle, worked under the direction of Lenny Rapozo.
We painted the old courthouse with materials provided by the county. The whole job took several hours and lunch and refreshments were provided for by the Friends of the Kaua‘i Drug Court, a United Way agency.
The purpose of this project was to help repay the community for the “wrongs” that the clients had committed in their past lives. In times of economic hardship, they provided free labor in service to the community.
Many of these clients will be graduating on Nov. 13. We look forward to them becoming agents of positive change in the community, to rediscover relationships with friends and family, and to always help others that struggle with addiction.
The Kaua‘i Drug Court congratulates these clients on a sucessful project and impending graduation.
Alton Amimoto, Lihu‘e
