• A question of ethics • We are your public workers • Dam break, Kaua‘i, 2006 A question of ethics In my opinion, the ethical issue that should appear on the Board of Ethics’ agenda for Thursday, but does not,
• A question of ethics
• We are your public workers
• Dam break, Kaua‘i, 2006
A question of ethics
In my opinion, the ethical issue that should appear on the Board of Ethics’ agenda for Thursday, but does not, is the responsibility of government agencies to admit mistakes and make appropriate corrections.
Many of the items on the August agenda would be unnecessary if the board had correctly applied Charter Section 20.02D in its response to Jonathan Chun’s request for an advisory opinion in March 2008. Current requests for an advisory opinion and for discussion and decision about releasing executive session minutes and for information about how someone’s name became public, three executive session items, and possibly a new ethical complaint have all arisen in the wake of the board’s failure to correctly apply 20.02D in March 2008 and the failure of the county attorney to provide appropriate legal guidance.
I was among members of the public who argued to no avail that the board should find Chun’s activities to be in violation of 20.02D. As it turned out, three months previously the board had ruled in a case involving similar circumstances without even mentioning 20.02D, so a correct ruling in the Chun case would have involved a tacit admission that the board erred three months earlier.
When the board turned to the county attorney’s office for assistance in the Chun case, that office had an opportunity to provide sound legal advice but instead chose to produce what an experienced attorney now sitting on the board called a “fatally flawed” opinion. The board used the opinion to justify its decision in the Chun case even though the opinion provided no such justification and even though its decision contradicted the board’s own published guide to ethical issues.
This year both the board and the new county attorney have had ample opportunity to correct the past mistakes. In its defense, the board has waited for months for a legal opinion that competently addresses 20.02D, County Code section 3-1.7, and the March 2008 legal opinion and has left up in the air what the board will do if, as the agenda indicates, the opinion is available on Aug. 13.
Meantime, the board occupies the unenviable position of having dismissed in June three complaints based on 20.02D (listed on the August agenda as “completed”) pending receipt of a legal opinion that may or may not justify the dismissals and while it ponders the aforementioned attorney’s public statement that he made a mistake in voting to dismiss one complaint.
Horace Stoessel, Kapa’a
We are your public workers
I am your public worker, and what I have been reading and hearing in the news reports lately has pained me.
I don’t believe that we deserve this and it saddens me. We are here to serve you, the public, and we are your neighbors and friends.
Who are your public workers? We are the ones with whom you leave your children Monday through Friday, at his or her school. We are the ones who care for them by teaching them, providing clean classrooms and restrooms, and cook and feed them.
We are the ones who pick up your trash in the morning after you put it out on the street the previous night. When you need help with housing we are there to assist you.
We are the ones who provide you the service whenever you need a driver’s license. We are the ones who provide you and your family with clean, fresh water. When you are finished using the water and it becomes waste, we process it and make it safe once again.
When you drive to work each day and the contra flow allows you to move quickly and safely, it is the public worker that provides this convenience, even in the worst weather conditions.
When winter storms arrive with powerful rains and high winds and you are warm and dry in your home, we are out clearing fallen trees and mudslides so you have a safe road to drive to work. When visitors come to Hawai‘i, they arrive to find the airports clean and in good repair by public workers who provide a comfortable visitor experience, ensuring even more tourist dollars to our communities on their return to the islands. We provide the needed repairs to our harbors so that food and supplies can arrive smoothly and safely from ship to shore to our stores.
We are always understaffed, underfunded and are always asked to do more with less. We realize the economy is bad right now but the demand for our service has not diminished — if anything the demand has increased.
The governor wants to cut state workers’ hours and slash the underfunded services to balance the budget; however, there are other ways to do this.
Perhaps the state could apply a temporary 1 percent increase in the general excise tax that would stay in effect until the economy improves. We could have a state lottery with funds earmarked for education. This lottery program is being used by 48 other states and would greatly relieve our budget.
The governor must come to the negotiation table with the public worker unions to work out an equitable solution to the budget crunch. The governor, mayors and the unions must meet at the negotiation table with mutual respect and honesty.
Edward Lantry, Kapa‘a
Dam break, Kaua‘i, 2006
They were water’s children
come to the garden
and in due time
called mothers and fathers, come.
All dressed for ritual
where air and rain became one,
a mountain of water,
a river of earth.
Water broke
and they were water’s children again,
filled with the sacrament.
What should our blessing be
for the silent groom,
the bride with unlifted veil,
innocent again as,
cradled in her holy water
in continuous baptism,
her water baby?
Schubert Moore, Pacific City, Ore.
