LIHU‘E — The lack of some services caused by the closure of the governor’s liaison’s office on Kaua‘i is causing some residents to voice their frustrations. With the transition from Gov. Linda Lingle to Gov. Neil Abercrombie on Monday —
LIHU‘E — The lack of some services caused by the closure of the governor’s liaison’s office on Kaua‘i is causing some residents to voice their frustrations.
With the transition from Gov. Linda Lingle to Gov. Neil Abercrombie on Monday — combined with a clerk in the governor’s liaison’s office in the Lihu‘e State Building on maternity leave and another having left for another job — that office is closed until further notice, a sign on the office window states.
Laurie Yoshida, Lingle’s liaison for the past eight years, finished her last half-day of work Monday and plans to take some time off before looking for another job, she said over the weekend.
It could be February before the office is staffed and reopened, said Donalyn Dela Cruz, Abercrombie’s press secretary.
There have been some angry Kauaians calling the O‘ahu state ID office. Four or five people were gathered outside the liaison’s office Tuesday morning wondering how they are going to get state identification cards needed for, among other things, cashing checks for those who do not have a driver’s license or other official form of photo identification.
They were told by a security guard that they would have to travel off-island either to the governor’s office in Honolulu or one of the Neighbor Island liaison offices to get the paperwork processed and pictures taken for issuance of state ID cards.
A woman in the state ID office on O‘ahu said normally one of the two clerks in the Kaua‘i liaison office would have been held over from the Lingle administration to the Abercrombie administration to process state ID cards and requests for marriage licenses, but one of the clerks is on maternity leave and the other left for another job.
Once a new clerk is hired on Kaua‘i, he or she will have to travel to O‘ahu for training before coming back to Kaua‘i to be able to process state ID cards in the liaison office, the woman in the state ID office on O‘ahu said via telephone.
The closing of the office until “further notice” also means anyone seeking a marriage license will have to travel to Wailua, Kapa‘a or Hanalei, where agents authorized by the state to issue marriage licenses are located.
• Paul C. Curtis, assistant editor and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.
