• Mayor, county’s abuse of power continues • Hold officials accountable • Genetic modification saved the papaya • Saddened by Polihale Mayor, county’s abuse of power continues I am suing the County of Kauai over a property tax dispute in
• Mayor, county’s abuse of power continues • Hold officials accountable • Genetic modification saved the papaya • Saddened by Polihale
Mayor, county’s abuse of power continues
I am suing the County of Kauai over a property tax dispute in the First Judicial Circuit, Land and Tax Appeal Court, the honorable Judge Gary W.B. Chang presiding.
In a recent motion to dismiss my appeal in favor of the County of Kauai, Mayor Bernard Carvalho, Jr. claimed that he and Kauai County council members can pass any law, good or bad, and the people of Kauai and judges, including Judge Chang, are obliged to obey the law.
The law is the law and it must be obeyed.
The only remedy available to the people of Kauai is to beg Mayor Carvalho and Kauai council members to pass another law correcting the bad law.
I was absolutely flabbergasted when I read this piece of horse manure. This is an insult to the people of Kauai and to the honorable Judge Chang and the Tax Appeal Court.
This is just another example of the arrogant abuse of power wielded by Mayor Carvalho and members of the Kauai County Council.
Jerry J. Sokugawa, Kekaha
Hold officials accountable
As I said in a previous letter to the Forum, I have lived on Kauai for 80 years and I am concerned with the direction our leadership is taking us.
I regularly testify before the council on issues that impact all of us. Not being political, my only concern is that we have competent, qualified people making decisions that are correct for all of us and not made because of politics.
As I previously wrote, I helped build the bike path that parallels our highway 30 years ago. For some reason, this administration wants to spend millions of tax dollars duplicating a project that proved to be a failure, and though I strongly testified against their pursuing this action, no one cared to listen.
We keep hearing from concerned citizens that our system as it now operates is broken. I totally agree with this evaluation and believe that we need a county manager style of government where responsibility for whatever actions that are taken can be accountable.
As I understand it, the mayor would still be elected but would also be one of the seven members of the council. As a body, they would hire a manager (with very stringent requirements to qualify for the job) and direct him to do whatever job is needed — be it fixing a leaky gym roof (an 18-year-old debacle), preventing revenue losses at our municipal golf course and our water and sewage operations and a laundry list more.
This manager would do that job in the most efficient, cost-effective manner with the right people at his command knowing if he didn’t do his job, he would be fired.
Under the present system, finger-pointing between the council and administration perpetually goes on, with no one ever being accountable and stagnation continues.
Thousands of other municipalities are successful using a council-manager system, so with people calling for a change, why not at least try it.
Joe Rose, Lihue
Genetic modification saved the papaya
I would like the opportunity to respond to Douglas Henry citing me wrong in his recent letter, “GMO lovers want labels.”
If Douglas Henry and others had read my recent letter to the editor they would have seen I agree that GMOs should be labeled just as kosher and organic foods are labeled. Please re-read my letter you’re commenting on (GMOs = Great Meal Offering, 06-10-13).
Mr. Henry and others missed my point. My point was that GMOs really aren’t the anti-Christ. The papaya industry was rescued in 1998 with the birth of the rainbow papaya during the ringspot virus invasion. Commercialized in 1998, the Rainbow papaya produced immediate results, single-handedly rescuing one of Hawaii’s major industries.
Genetic modification had made it possible for barren couples to conceive with the process of in vitro fertilization.
It’s not the GMOs that are bad. It’s the toxic chemical fertilizers being sprayed. If only an organic natural fertilizer could be used in lieu of spraying with chemicals, I believe we’d have a win-win situation.
GMOs. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
James “Kimo” Rosen, Kapaa
Saddened by Polihale
This past weekend’s mob attack at Polihale left me angry and saddened. Why shouldn’t everyone be able to safely enjoy camping out at Polihale? We’ve all heard stories of similar events in the past. Shame on this group of adults for terrorizing a group of kids. They probably felt pretty tough at the time.
Is that how you were raised? I raised my sons to have respect.
Joan Kutzer, Kilauea
