• A stitch in time saves nine • We need to be self-reliant • I miss Wailua Beach A stitch in time saves nine Salary increases for administrative positions were deferred for a year in 2009 and for seven months
• A stitch in time saves nine
• We need to be self-reliant • I
miss Wailua Beach
A stitch in time saves nine
Salary increases for administrative positions were deferred for a year in 2009 and for seven months in November 2010. The deferrals became necessary after four salary increases spread over two and a half years were established in 2007 and no thought was given to simply canceling the last raise and bringing it back when circumstances warranted.
On Aug. 5, 2011 the Salary Commission, under the guise that it was merely amending the November resolution, adopted Resolution 2011-1, which purported to defer until 2013 the increases that had taken effect on July 1. The resolution was written by Boards and Commissions Administrator John Isobe, who apparently included the unprecedented idea that it merely amended the November resolution at the suggestion of Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura.
On Sept. 7 the council rejected Resolution 2011-1 by a vote of 6-1. The main reason offered for rejecting it was that it violated the charter’s March 15 deadline for submitting resolutions. Designating the resolution as an amendment to the November resolution was clearly a ploy intended to defeat the deadline.
On Sept. 21 the council approved a motion to reconsider its decision to reject. The back story of who said what to whom that led to the motion reaching the floor has not been publicly revealed. What has been revealed is the fatuous arguments advanced by the county attorney aimed at convincing council members to approve Resolution 2011-1 and the ease with which some members changed their votes.
On Sept. 27 a 3-3 vote on the motion to approve the resolution led to its taking effect by default, whereupon Councilman Mel Rapozo announced that, based on his commitment to upholding the charter, he was taking the matter to court at his own expense.
The expenditure of time and energy in connection with Resolution 2011-1 could have been avoided if county agencies had received timely and competent legal advice last November.
With appropriate legal advice the commission would not have improperly entangled its decision-making with the vagaries of furloughs and civil service negotiations. Its Nov. 3 resolution would not have included an illegal section (Section 2), which purported to authorize the mayor with council approval to lower the salaries of appointed officials through the annual budget process.
In September the county attorney’s office belatedly acknowledged that Section 2 was illegal. If that information had been provided in November the commission would not have mistakenly assumed that it had creatively solved the problem facing elected officials and relieved itself of any need to take further actions for the foreseeable future, the council would not have enthusiastically embraced the illegal section, and the mayor and council would have either included the salaries due to take effect on July 1 in the budget ordinance or would have asked the commission for a new resolution long before Aug. 5.
Horace Stoessel, Kapa‘a
We need to be self-reliant
A world-wide universal chorus of protest is reverberating from sea to shining sea, indicative of the myriad discontent among the masses in “protest” to a wide range of inequities between the 1 percent of those who “have” and the 99 percent of those who “have not.”
The ways in which there may be resolution to those conflicts will differ from place to place, and it will be interesting to see how “life goes on” accordingly, as the demonstrations continue to reverberate, and eventually subside.
Here, in the most isolated spot on earth, it may do us well to remember how important it is to nurture, protect and preserve what we have in the way of the finite resources in our midst from mauka to makai, including what’s in our ocean waters that surround our islands.
No matter what, it will be to our advantage for us to grow and/or provide our own food resources right here rather than rely on importing what we eat.
The bottom line is this: in order to survive, we need to be self- reliant and able to take care of ourselves, each other, and this place. It would be impossible, otherwise.
Jose Bulatao Jr., Kekaha
I miss Wailua Beach
We are so happy that construction is finally done after the bridge and bike path projects. But what happened to the beach parking lot?
There use to be a big parking lot here and now there isn’t. There is a big beautiful sign saying “Wailua Beach Park,” but there definitely isn’t enough parking space for the size of the beach. Give us back some parking space, move the rocks past the port-a-potties like it use to be.
Right now I’m sitting here on the beach, there are about 11 cars in the parking lot stacked four on top of each other, and we can’t forget about the ginormous tractor parked right on the beach.
Most of those people are by the river and there is no room for anyone at the beach.
As a local citizen I am asking someone to please think about us, the people who love Wailua Beach, make some changes so that we may enjoy our home break.
Raychel Brandenburg, Kapa‘a
