Election at-large would be better
It was 2.5 years ago (July 19, 2015) when I sent the below email to all Kauai County Council Members which at the time included Mr. Hooser.
“As discussions start by our elected Kauai County Council members would like to push forward the following proposal for Council Districting: Effective 2018, shall six of the seven council members be elected by districts, with two members residing in and elected from each of three districts that shall initially be established using the State of Hawaii Districts 14, 15 and 16, and one of the seven council members elected at-large. The three districts shall be reapportioned in 2019 by an apportionment commission and every tenth year thereafter shall be a reapportionment year?
This would be easy to initially implement as it follows the current State of Hawaii Districts 14, 15 and 16. It would ensure that there is representation on the County Council from all three districts. This proposal may need some fine tuning but would be appropriate to help the county be responsive to the vast differences in these districts. Request one or more council members place this on the agenda to listen to the response from the community both positive and negative.”
To my knowledge neither Mr. Hooser nor any other council member placed this on the agenda. It needs some adjustment to include perhaps requirement that they live in the district a minimum of one year before filing and remain living in the district throughout the elected period.
This could be done as either three or six from districts but would favor six with the at large being elected as the Council Chairman. Maybe one of the two who will not be on this year’s ballot for county council can get this moving forward and place on the ballot as a charter amendment.
Bruce Newport, Kekaha
Demand responsibility for safety
Fine article in TGI Feb. 3 “Button Pusher Devastated Over Alert.”
Ironically the fired state worker who mistakingly pushed the “missile is coming” button should have been complimented for his wrong action.
What his mistake did was highlight the grossly inadequate shape our missile defense system is in or, any imminent disaster that could hit us.
We heard that people should put their children in storm drains as cover or if in a car pull over to the side of the road and get on the floor — great directions for disaster preparedness!!!
Maybe this devastated individual “mistakingly” did every every man, woman and child in Hawaii the biggest favor of their lives by pushing a wrong button that gave our “protectors” a wake up call that neither they nor the people would have received except for the mistake that he made.
Everyone makes mistakes and it is scary to think that this one could have started a war that ends life as we know it. But gratefully it did not and hopefully turns out to be a positive by showing that the system was far more flawed than to blame one or more individuals for its happening.
Let’s demand that those responsible for our safety do a lot more to protect us than just getting a few people fired for a flawed system that this button pusher has now uncovered. If he and the others who were fired are competently qualified individuals then give them their jobs back and fix the problems that start at the top, not the bottom.
Glenn Mickens, Kapaa
