• Manager system would be best • Conserve, take care of our precious aina • KIUC and choices Manager system would be best Some recent letters to the Forum regarding our county auditor, Ernie Pasion, indicated just how well the
• Manager system would be best • Conserve, take care of our precious aina • KIUC and choices
Manager system would be best
Some recent letters to the Forum regarding our county auditor, Ernie Pasion, indicated just how well the public is aware of the way our county government is run.
So much hype and spin trickle down from our administration and council cloud the real actions that they are taking.
In his fine editorial (TGI, Jan. 3) Walter Lewis also illuminates the many shortfalls of our government including but not limited to the council’s violations of the Sunshine Law.
The council illegally gave our auditor a one-week suspension with pay and “a probation without any defined restriction.” Under our Charter, the council has the right to hire and fire the auditor but not to suspend him.
Are these the type of people who you want to run our government or, as Ellen Garcia said so well in her Forum letter of Jan. 1, “County needs manager system.”
Under that system, the mayor would sit as one of the seven council members and that body would task a hired manager to do the operations of the government. Knowing that his/her job is on the line if they fail to properly accomplish their duties they would have capable, experienced people around them.
The Kilauea Gym roof leak debacle would not be on going for 20 years; our solid waste program would not be costing taxpayers $9 million a year with no solution in sight; the Kauai bus, the municipal golf course, our in-shambles roads, low-ncome housing, the homeless people and on and on.
With the wrong people at the top, under a strong mayor-council system, no one will ever be held responsible for these ongoing problems.
But under the manager style of government, that one person is where the buck stops and he/she knows their job is on the line and problems would be solved.
Peggy Hara
Hanapepe
Conserve, take care of our precious aina
My parents were first generation immigrants from Poland. My father, a World War II vet, my mother worked in machine shops. I was brought up recycling, even though that word didn’t exist. Fond memories of church youth coming to our home for newspaper drives (2 cents a pound). Scrimp, save, do without, or make do was the conservative way I was brought up. I’m grateful, realizing how fortunate I was to learn this common sense lifestyle.
It pains me that at the school where I work, there isn’t a mixed paper bin and breakfast and lunch food waste is being put on our brothers and sisters at Kekaha dump. We all contribute to the (draft permit comment deadline: Jan. 30, 2014,) vertical expansion, 120 feet above mean sea level at Kekaha.
Incentives for mandatory recycling should immediately be implemented. Enticement to spur recycling ought to have happened decades ago.
Recently TGI published an article that Hawaii Tourism Authority gives massive money for cultural stuffs to promote the visitor industry. It would be pono that HTA contribute to Kauai County for the tons of rubbish that’s generated by the millions of people who come here annually.
In the fall, I took time off from work to attend a County Council meeting where a senior scientist from the Natural Resources Defense Council told council members that mixed paper is a gigantic money making endeavor. Was anyone listening?
Jan. 16, King Kaumualii Elementary School at 6 p.m. is where the public can voice input, that a new dump and resource recovery park will be built nearby, Wailua Falls. This proposal is archaic, as it sits on wetland delineation and rubbish will be pushed/piled up against glorious Kalepa Ridge. Maalo is ceded land, aina held in trust for the benefit of Native Hawaiians and the general public. Putting a dump there for the next 300 years is prostitution of the public land trust.
The wisdom of making money off our rubbish escapes the county administration.
“The Emperor’s New Clothes,” a classic by Hans Christian Andersen, must be required reading for them to try and grasp the concept that the stunning splendor of majestic, beautiful Kauai doesn’t exist for their arrogance, conceit and the disenfranchisement of the people who truly love her. Let’s not trash the legendary exquisiteness of Kauai.
Bonnie P. Bator
Anahola
KIUC and choices
Throughout life we are faced with choices. Sometimes these choices affect our health, livelihood, our safety or finances. Some choices don’t have many consequences but some do. If we choose to drive an expensive car because we perceive it to be safer we can’t expect the dealer to charge purchasers of less expensive cars more to make our purchase cost less. Some people eat only organic food to the extent they can because they feel it’s better for their health. Organic food is more expensive to purchase. The people who purchase it should not expect the grocer to charge purchasers of non-organic food more so they can sell the organic food to them for less.
Such is choice before KIUC members concerning smart meters. A small percentage of people feel that analog meters are a safer choice for them. That choice has a higher price and just like the above examples they should be willing to pay for it.
Some people argue that smart meter users should pay less because they don’t have to be manually read. They don’t consider that had the switch to smart meters not taken place there would have been an increase in rates. KIUC is wisely taking steps to prevent that from happening.
Some people feel everyone should pay for the few. If it makes you fell better to pay costs for others just have KIUC bill you for the extra charges. Just don’t tell me to pay for them. Vote yes.
Gene Quint
Kapaa
