• Manager system better than most • Measles outbreak not just fault of unvaccinated kids Manager system better than most Mr. Machell’s letter in TGI, “City manager system not perfect,” raises some excellent points that need addressing. He is 100 percent correct
• Manager system better than most • Measles outbreak not just fault of unvaccinated kids
Manager system better than most
Mr. Machell’s letter in TGI, “City manager system not perfect,” raises some excellent points that need addressing.
He is 100 percent correct that such a system would not be a panacea for all the ills of this island or any other municipality where it is used. There is no “perfect” system now in use.
But this manager system, as now used all over the world, brings a far better democratic form of government to the people than any other system.
Other people than Mr. Machell have raised the Bell, California, scandal as an example of why the manager system would not work. Ironically, Mr. Machell very well answers the point when he says, “the fault lies not in our system, but in ourselves.” Exactly right.
The citizens in Bell paid no attention to where their tax dollars were going and thus the people running their government, including the city manager, were overpaying themselves millions of dollars and have now been prosecuted for their crimes. It was the people who failed and not the system.
It is nice to hear that Mr. Machell would not be adverse to vote on such a system and at least give it a try.
Thanks to Walter Lewis, the proposed details exist for implementing the council/manager system for Kauai. All that is needed is for the council to review them and to put the manager proposal on the ballot for our vote.
The council recently had to “receive” (kill) 36 issues (some 20 years old!) that our current form of government couldn’t address. Isn’t this just one more reason to change directions and stop doing wrong things over and over and expecting positive results?
Remember, if we had experienced, qualified people running our government we wouldn’t need change. But the laundry list of problems that the public complains about from the past and into the future calls for change and we offer change that has a positive track record wherever used.
And, Mr. Machell, regarding your final remark, “I would love to see what scandal lurks behind the outrageous auditor situation.”
We have been pursuing this ugly situation from the start and are trying to find out why a qualified person the council appointed as our county auditor, Ernie Pasion, must be fighting to keep his job simply because an audit he did incriminated a top official.
Glenn Mickens
Kapaa
Measles outbreak not just fault of unvaccinated kids
The mainstream media has treated us to a narrative about the recent measles outbreak in two parts: 1) It appears to have started in Disneyland near Anaheim, California, because lots of kids go there, and 2) lots of people are not protecting their children by refusing to vaccinate them for measles.
Neither of these narratives holds water.
Disney has other parks, not just in Anaheim. Other companies have similar parks across the country. Why aren’t they all responsible for measles outbreaks?
Second, the angst about vaccine dangers has been going on for as long as I can remember but no one has offered evidence that the percentage of unvaccinated children is bigger than in years gone by.
So what is different this year? Last year, we were flooded by tens of thousands of young people who crossed our porous southern border.
Many were from Central America but no one in the administration thought to detain them in a safe location for quarantine.
They should have determined if the kids needed medical attention or were carrying dangerous diseases. Ellis Island, where were you in our hour of need?
Instead, the feds rounded up groups of these kids and scattered them across this nation. It was done mostly in secret and often without notifying local authorities.
Did any of these kids end up here on Kauai?
The Centers for Disease Control must know where all these kids ended up. If not, shame on them and on President Obama.
The CDC should get cracking and do their job lest we, as a nation, find a few more nasty surprises. I did hear one news commentator mention tuberculosis in an offhand comment he tried to walk back immediately.
Best wishes to our friends and neighbors here in Paradise West.
John Love
Kapaa
