Letters for Friday, Dec. 7, 2012

• Last hearing for Kealia permit extension • HI Alarm sales people are too pushy • Valenciano should have excused himself • Sandy is a reminder of unpredictable weather • Praise for Pasion and his team • Suh, Abercrombie need to see the value of education

Last hearing for Kealia permit extension

Planning Commissioners have made it clear to the developer and the public that Tuesday, Dec. 11, 8 a.m., will be the last public hearing regarding an 8-year permit extension for the proposed subdivision of Kealia’s agricultural lands. I’m urging Kauaians to testify in person or to submit written testimony to the Planning Department by Monday. On Tuesday morning, I will ask the commissioners to deny the extension for the following reasons.

1. We need to preserve this 2,000-plus acres of ag lands to grow food for Kauaians. Climate change and high fuel costs to import food are major considerations for our food future. The likelihood of wealthy gentleman farmers using their parcels to produce food is remote. When ag lands are subdivided into expensive parcels, all of that land is likely to be taken out of agriculture production forever, as the gentleman’s estate owners neither farm nor want to be subjected to the noise, odors or workers that are associated with farming.

2. Even though the developer says that it’s mandatory for estate owners to grow food, there is no legal way to ensure that or enforce them to do so. The problem with the existing Kealiakealanani permit is that it would guarantee that lands be taken away from the inventory of possible future ag production, rather than leaving that land available for either large-scale or small-scale farming in the future.

3. By extending an expired permit, the developer wouldn’t have to comply with changes in the law since 2007. These new laws would require the developer to include affordable housing as well as reduce the number of estate houses from 188 to 115. In addition, extending expired permits without any good cause would set a bad precedent for dealing with other expiring permits, such as the Coco Palms permit. The developer should apply for a new permit and comply with existing laws.

4. Kaua‘i infrastructure is not adequate to support hundreds of additional vehicles pouring into the already congested Kapa‘a area.

Overall, I believe that approval of this permit extension would negatively affect our quality of life here on Kaua‘i.

Gabriela Taylor

Kapa’a

HI Alarm sales people are too pushy

Thank you Laurie Cicotello for your interesting article “HI Alarm brings security systems to island” that appeared in Monday’s Business Week section of The Garden Island newspaper. Your well written and descriptive article shows that HI Alarm System would benefit many of us residences. But with this system have come very pushy sales people that don’t like to take “no” for an answer.

In  the second week of November, my wife said “no” and closed the door on the HI salesman. A few days later, the same salesman approached me while I was mowing the yard; and after he had gone through his presentation, I said “no thank you” but he still kept on pushing me to buy the security system.

He told me that if I bought the system, I would help put food on a braddah’s table. Finally, he asked me if that I was saying “no” because of his looks. After 20 minutes, I was able to convince him that I wasn’t going to purchase the security system.

But yesterday, another HI Alarm representative rang the doorbell; but this time, I was able to say “no” and closed the door since I was in the house. Three times saying “no” within a short period of time to the same company is too much.

Why can’t the HI Alarm sales representatives be like the other security alarm company that came through our neighborhood a few months back? All of us that rejected their offer were tagged with a reflector on our mailbox, which indicated that we had already been approached.

Kaua‘i can use new up-to-date security system, but we don’t need pushy sales personnel to come with the new product. A simple “no”, or “no, thank you”, or “thanks, but no thank you” all means the same. NO!

Stephen Fujii

Lihu‘e

Valenciano should have excused himself

Judge Valenciano should have not been assigned to this case about the falsifying gas cards. Find out who was filling up the mayor’s car with gas.

For one, Judge Valenciano, Lenny Rapozo (Janine’s husband) and also Janine Rapozo all worked at the football games as officials, referees or downs marker person. So this case is a conflict of interest case and Judge Valenciano should have excused himself from this case.

This case should be heard again with a non-biassed judge and non-biassed jury, and they should be from off island and not from Kaua‘i. This is a very corrupt case. The corruption is so bad that they are afraid of the mayor.

I’ll give you an example — after I wrote the first letter I met the mayor at a funeral. He came straight up to me and put his finger on my chest. At that time I told him where is my gas card joking to him he said to me I just got out of court and they dismissed the case.  

Gloating to me in that manner. Something is very wrong with this case but everyone is scared to come forward. I am a retired Union Agent and can’t hold back without writing something.

Wrong. Wrong Again.

Gilbert Nobrega

Hanapepe

Sandy is a reminder of unpredictable weather

In the recorded history of modern meteorology, there has never been a storm like Hurricane Sandy.

It is the first storm to span from the Arctic to the equator and at its peak, it covered nearly 1/3 of the U.S. About 21 years ago there was “the perfect storm” which was made famous by a Hollywood movie starring George Clooney.

That storm was steered into the open waters of the Atlantic by what is known as the Bermuda high: An area of high pressure that has consistently turned late season storms to the northeast for as long as people can remember. A period of time long enough to enable humans to build a megalopolis along the eastern seaboard of the U.S.

This year that high was situated near the Arctic due to an oscillating jetstream most likely caused by drastic changes in the mid and upper level air temperatures of the atmosphere.

It’s too early scientifically to prove the cause, but common sense would suggest that the rapid decrease in Arctic ice may be having an impact on air temperatures.

Sandy was steered right into one of the most populated areas of the planet by changing upper level wind patterns. These changes are the direct result of climate change and the predictability of weather patterns that have allowed humans to flourish over the last century are over. We have now entered the age of unpredictability when it comes to long term weather patterns.

Good luck farmers. You’re gonna need it.

Jason S. Nichols

Koloa

Praise for Pasion and his team

So many good, dedicated government employees on Kaua‘i get little or no recognition for the fine work that they do. Our County Auditor, Ernie Pasion is one of these people. He and his staff, led by Lani Nakazawa, have been doing an outstanding job with their audit work and need to be recognized.

Admittedly, when I took my 18-year county roads paving problem to Ernie two years ago, I was skeptical that a thorough audit would ever be done. However a complete audit was done and, along with our new county engineer, Larry Dill, all 300 miles of our roads will now be resurfaced by strict code (AASTO or HAPI standards) saving tax payers millions of dollars.

In response to skeptics saying that audits are a waste of tax payers money and could even get people fired, Councilman Rapozo wisely said that audits are not done to get people fired but are done to put maximum efficiency in government run operations.

To date Ernie has done five audits on projects that badly needed addressing, some of them on going for nearly two decades. The results of these audits are clearly defined in booklet form and are available (free of charge) from the auditors office in Lihu‘e.

One of the best things that these audit summations do is put the Executive Summary on the first page to give the reader an idea of what the report recommends and then goes through the details in the book.

These audits are extremely revealing in what is recommended to be done, what has been done, and what has failed to be done.

In their wisdom the people of Kaua‘i who voted to have an auditors office and our council who hired Ernie Pasion to head this office are getting a huge bang for their bucks.

Hopefully those in power will completely refrain from micro-managing the way this office is so efficiently run and let Ernie and his staff continue to get results that will benefit all citizens.

Glenn Mickens

Kapa‘a

Suh, Abercrombie need to see the value of education

I respect and appreciate public education. And while I also enjoy a good football game, I am disgusted at Detroit Lions’ player Ndamukong Suh’s flagrant disregard for both.  

According to an AP article in The Garden Island on Nov. 29, 2012, Suh was fined $30,000 for unnecessary roughness when he kicked the opposing team’s quarterback. He has been fined three times in previous seasons and easily cuts the checks because he’ll make $40 million guaranteed … in a five-year contract.

After a $60,000 to $100,000 college education, a starting teacher salary is $30,000.

Gov. Abercrombie penalizes Hawai‘i’s public education with seven furlough days per school year, annually reduces funds for school supplies and utilities, and continues to disrespect teachers by avoiding contract negotiations. His appointed Board of Education hasn’t helped matters at all.

It seems that both Mr. Suh and Gov. Abercrombie do not value the significance of public education. This could change, however, if Mr. Suh chooses to donate his repeated fines to public school teachers’ salaries and Gov. Abercrombie chooses to fulfill his responsibility to Hawai‘i’s students and their teachers.

Terese Barich

Lihu‘e