•Free speech? •Now see it through • Think first Free speech? As Michael Levine reported (“County considers destroying audio records,” The Garden Island, Nov. 6), Rolf Bieber wants to ensure the preservation of audio tapes from meetings of the Board
•Free speech?
•Now see it through
• Think first
Free speech?
As Michael Levine reported (“County considers destroying audio records,” The Garden Island, Nov. 6), Rolf Bieber wants to ensure the preservation of audio tapes from meetings of the Board of Ethics.
Prior to the council meeting on Nov. 4 he sent written testimony to the council and asked that County Attorney Al Castillo advise against destroying the audio records.
Minutes before his request for permission to destroy the tapes came up for consideration on the council’s Nov. 4 agenda, Boards and Commissions Administrator John Isobe withdrew his request. However, Bieber was allowed to offer testimony on the agenda item.
Bieber hardly completed a sentence before Castillo interrupted him with a warning that testifying would place him in violation of the County Code and County Charter. When asked later by Levine what provisions Bieber would be violating, Castillo cited Charter 20.02D, which prohibits officers of the county from appearing in behalf of private interests before any county agency.
In fact, Bieber’s concerns arose from his experience as a member of the Board of Ethics. His seeking the preservation of county records in no way smacks of appearing in behalf of private interests, and to claim that he was about to violate 20.02D is nonsense.
Bieber later told The Garden Island that his first amendment free speech rights had been infringed upon. If that is true, and I believe it is, why did all members of the council sit silently while the county attorney effectively disrupted the process of public testimony?
I believe that most citizens would feel intimidated in the face of the county attorney’s unexpected and unsupported warning/implied threat and the council’s silence. How many already refrain from offering testimony rather than expose themselves to such treatment?
Horace Stoessel, Kapa‘a
Now see it through
I wish to thank each and every member of the House of Representatives, including members Abercrombie and Hirono representing Hawai‘i, for their courage and statesmanship in voting for HR 3962.
By continuing to show the political and personal courage you recently showed in opposing the agenda of the incestuous boards of directors and management of the insurance industry and their cousins, the spectacularly failed titans of Wall Street finance, you will continue to have my support.
We need protection from these elite rich who do not care what harm befalls the “lower classes” of America, nor do they care about the welfare of our country except as it affects their ability to increase their own personal wealth in the international arena.
To the members in opposition to health care reform, it will be both a pleasure and a civic duty to help your opposition defeat you, both politically and in the marketplace, on every Main Street USA.
The decades of failure of our state leaders, as well as our national leaders, to address the problems in public education has not created a nation of ignorant sheep. We are well aware that there is a class war occurring between the 2 or 3 percent of our population who control some 90 percent of our collective national wealth and the rest of us who have been “trickled down on” while watching the roughly 10 percent of our national wealth decline.
Just as we commoners defeated the economic lords of London some 225 years ago, so today the lords of Wall Street — the banks “too big to fail,” insurance companies and their radical wealthy incestuous boards of directors will fail in their sordid attempts to bankrupt “we the people” into economic servitude to them.
To the supporters of HR 3962, my thanks and gratitude for your great service to the vast majority of voters. Have courage and see this fight through to a victorious finish. To the HR 3962 opponents in all districts, you’ll have my attention and your opponent my support, during your next election.
Lonnie Sykos, Kapa‘a
Think first
With all the opinions being aired regarding teacher furloughs, the general public should also know that all teachers are being required to go through an unnecessary, expensive and time-consuming process of relicensing.
Every year teachers are already required to attend numerous workshops and meetings analyzing best practices in teaching and student achievement.
The amount of education and credentialing that is initially required to become a teacher is already extensive and expensive. The Board of Education’s argument is that other professions such as doctors and lawyers are also required to relicense. Is this is so, one can hardly equate the earnings potential of teachers to doctors and lawyers.
Let’s do the math: 13,000 teachers are being charged $480 relicensing fee. This works out to $6.24 million. Nine people will be employed for this latest bureaucratic nonsense. This breaks down to $693,333 per BOE employee.
One has to wonder where the money will be going. The financial hardship on teachers should not be overlooked when considering the recent pay cuts from furloughs and relicensing. Everyone knows teachers spend many unpaid extra hours preparing lessons, grading papers and spending extra money for their classrooms — and now 60 required credits for relicensing.
Maybe people should think before they express their opinions about renegotiating teachers’ contracts to their detriment.
Delpha Menor, Kapahi
