Gary Varvel cartoon

(Media release) — Hawaii County Council Members, having run roughshod over the Sunshine Law in the last year, earned the Big Island PressClub’s 13th annual Lava Tube award in recognition of the year’s most notable offenses against the public’s “right to know.”

The County Council disregarded the Sunshine Law when reorganizing last June, sparking a lawsuit between the Council and West Hawaii Todaythat produced a restraining order against the Council and an order for the county to pay $23,000 in attorney’s fees to the newspaper. In the restraining order, Judge Ronald Ibarra barred any further Council action until council members reversed the reorganization and gave proper notice of the matter.

“It is clear that a quorum of councilors discussed resolutions regarding selection of board officers pending before the board, prior to and outside of, the June 16, 2009, public meeting, in violation of (the state Sunshine Law),” Ibarra said. Throughout the course of the lawsuit, council members spoke publicly of the inconvenience of the state’s Open Meetings Law. Read the rest of this entry »

(Media release) — In a topic timely for the upcoming election season, CBS News Pollster Kathleen Frankovic will speak on the methods, history and the challenge of getting accurate information without slanting facts when conducting polls. Frankovic will speak at the Big Island Press Club annual dinner, Friday, January 29, 2010, at the Coconut Grill Restaurant (The former Hukilau) in Hilo.

No Host Cocktails 5:30p.m.

Dinner:  6:15 p.m.

Price $25 per person (includes tax and tip) (Menu:  Mahimahi, hibachi chicken, Kalua pork, lomi salmon, poi, rice, Pineapple upside down cake)

Reservations:  Call Rod Thompson, 982-6631 or e mail bearinpuna@yahoo.com

Frankovic, one of the world’s leading experts in public opinion polling, recently retired from CBS News, where she was the network’s Director of Surveys and Producer, with major responsibility for the design, analysis and broadcasting of results from CBS News and CBS News/New York Times polls.  She remains an election and polling consultant for CBS News and other public opinion research organizations.

In 2008, Frankovic received the American Association for Public Opinion Research Association’s lifetime achievement award given for an outstanding contribution to the field of public opinion research.  Frankovic earned an A.B. from Cornell University, a Ph.D. in political science from Rutgers University.

Dave Corrigan (L), T. Ilihia Gionson, Bob Duerr, Rod Thompson, Alan McNarie, Janice Crowl, Pat Tummons, and Opal the Chocolate Laborador

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Image Courtesy of Patch Place

 By Hugh Clark

I feel like a kid who discovered Christmas has come four months early.

It arrived in Tallahassee, Fla., where a state judge ruled Thursday the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the big-bully sports governing agency for colleges, must disclose public information.

As best I know this is first time in nearly five decades the NCAA has been called to answer for itself.

I have had a private war with this autocratic, bureaucratic group when I called them to task for cancellation of a tiny football bowl game in northwestern California benefiting crippled kids. I testified (by letter) in the Congressional record before the late Sen. Warren Magnuson’s committee as a small town editor in Ely, Nevada, before ever arriving in Hawaii. Read the rest of this entry »

Mayor Billy Kenoi

Just in from Big Island Press Club (BIPC) Gleanings Editor Rod Thompson: Mayor Billy Kenoi will be the featured speaker at BIPC’s annual Scholarship Dinner in two weeks. 

I write this as a commentary because 1. I am biased in favor of BIPC being a  member myself 2. I want to complain about the cost of the event set for 5:30 p.m., Friday, July 31, 2009.

Granted, $28 accesses you to a smorgasbord of mahimahi, chicken, kalua, pork, lomi salmon, poi, rice, and cake at the Hilo Seaside Hotel’s Coconut Girl and the pleasantry of Mayor Billy Kenoi.  

Big Island Press Club has been protecting the public's right to know since 1967

“Kenoi hasn’t said what his topic will be, but do we need to ask?” Rod Thompson wrote. “The mayors of all counties, plus the governor, have been deeply involved in trying to figure out how to keep the state and county governments at least partly operational, while cutting back on government employee incomes in one manner or another.  Some questioning from the audience may also be directed toward the mayor’s feelings about the recent County Council reorganization… Read the rest of this entry »

The Big Island Press Club is the oldest continuously active media organization in Hawaii.

Big Island Press Club, of which I’ve been a member since 2001, has changed and modernized its website, thanks to fellow member Wayne “Big Dog” Joseph and Puna blogger Damon Tucker.  The pair has changed the website to bigislandpressclub.org; gave the site a new, more modern look; and has allowed for the public to interact with the press club by offering comments on entries. 

“I was hoping that we could make the new site interactive with members making contributions on various issues from time to time,” said Wayne Joseph. “Since the new site is so easy to post things, we can update on a regular basis, not like the dot com site, which had BJ Penn up for nearly 18 months with no movement or traffic. Also, with this new site we’d like to link members’ blogs, have photo/bio’s of the board, link to .org press clubs throughout the country. So much more can be done.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Big Island Press Club has selected Noelani Whittington, public information officer for the Hawaii County Department of Public Works, as the unfavorable recipient of the Big Island Press Club’s Lava Tube Award, given annually to highlight the worst violation of government openness in the state.

The Torch of Light Award, awarded for the best example of open government, goes to Gov. Linda Lingle and the Hawaii State Legislature for passing a law to protect newsgatherers from revealing confidential sources.

Whittington “wins” this year for a memo she wrote in mid-November directing employees how to handle media requests. The memo directed employees not to speak to the media, not to discuss the causes of problems and how to stop the photographing or videotaping of baseyards and road projects.

The since-rescinded memo named several individuals — video producer Dave Corrigan, and bloggers Aaron Stene and Damon Tucker — who are not to receive any information from the department. This is despite the Hawaii County Charter requirement that “all persons shall be treated in a courteous, fair and impartial manner.” Read the rest of this entry »

(Rod Thompson, the Honolulu Star Bulletin Big Island Bureau chief until his retirement on Friday, Feb. 27, 2009, is treasurer of the Big Island Press Club (BIPC) and the editor of the BIPC newsletter, “Gleanings.”  Below is the latest edition of the Gleanings, which is packed too full of news not to publish.)

 Let me – your editor, Rod Thompson – start with a personal note. As some of you already know, all of the neighbor island offices of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, including the Big Island office, are closing effective Feb. 27. I will be laid off. Read the rest of this entry »