• Letter was a fan favorite • Manager would help with accountability Letter was a fan favorite Thumbs up to Jaleah Rapozo-Carveiro for a creative expression and fun way to get folks to read your message! I have filed this in my
• Letter was a fan favorite • Manager would help with accountability
Letter was a fan favorite
Thumbs up to Jaleah Rapozo-Carveiro for a creative expression and fun way to get folks to read your message!
I have filed this in my LTE favorites folder.
Susan Oakley
Wailua Homesteads
Manager would help with accountability
TGI Other Voices article by Lee Hamilton (April 19), “Beyond transparency, we need accountability” really caught my eye.
Though Mr. Hamilton was talking about the national scene, his words and criticisms fit Kauai like a .400 hitters batting glove!
Basically Mr. Hamilton only wanted to know who was responsible for certain decisions or actions taken that affected the people in a negative way. No big deal, right? But the answers he got were almost never straight.
Here in paradise we are but a microcosm of the national scene but nonetheless the accountability problem is one that certainly needs addressing and solving.
Think about the issues that have faced us over the years that are still prevalent like, traffic, solid waste, curbside recycling, roads resurfacing, a new landfill, unabridged development without first getting infrastructure in place, the homeless, affordable homes and rentals, and many more.
As all these problems go unsolved, who do we hold responsible? The mayor and his minions or the council? It is easy for each of these departments to point the finger at each other, but no one ever accepts responsibility.
Thanks to Council Chair Mel Rapozo, his committee and hopefully a total of five members of the council, we are on the verge of getting a county manager.
The council along with the mayor who sits as one of the seven members of the council (possibly the chair) gives the task (roads, traffic, etc.) to the manager and it is his/her job to solve the problem in the most efficient, costs effective way — using their experiences to rely on instead of our “ready, fire, aim” methodology. Now we have a real person to hold responsible for doing the job and that person can be fired if the job is not done, unlike the system now in place.
Whether it is the budget or the above listed problems, the manager will be held responsible. The council, along with the mayor, will still be running our government but by adding the experience of a manager, responsibility and transparency will be added, the factors that ail our government now.
This system of government has proven to be successful all over the world, so let’s at least give it a try.
Glenn Mickens
Kapaa
