(Editor’s Note:  A much shorter version of these questions and answers from Hawaii County Council candidates appeared in the Sept. 1, 2010 edition of the Big Island Weekly.)

Council District 1

Dominic Yagong

Dominic Yagong

50

current council member and retail management

When elected, what is your first planned piece of legislation?

Introduce legislation that would un-authorize the Mayor to sell the nearly 2000 acres of Hamakua Lands situated in Paauilo.

Why should constituents vote for you?

I work very hard to understand the issues before the County Council, and I do my very best to bring forth solutions to address community challenges.  I conduct business in complete transparency and provide opportunities for the community to participate in the decision making process.  I understand that my job is to represent the voice of the people, and I do it through listening and communicating with the district that I am fortunate to represent. Read the rest of this entry »

By Rob Tucker

We’ve all heard the old axiom that politics is the art of compromise.  That in order to get something you want to have to be willing to give up something. Since the days of the Roman Forum.  Such subtleties are lost on the current council majority.  They will likely prevail – but at a cost it seems.  A very small number of amendments are contentious.  Maybe 5%.

So Monday was a Big Day for the Puna Community Development Plan.  After nearly two years of delay  (primarily due to our then newly elected Mayor Billy Kenoi failing to nominate an Action Committee for the PCDP as required by law) the amendment process finally hit center stage at the council Planning Committee in the form of J Yoshimoto’s Bill 194.

Bill 194 contains the collected wisdom and intent of former Planning Director Chris Yuen, Council members Yoshimoto and Naeole-Beason and the back room influence of Shipman Ltd. – the largest landowner in Puna.

(I don’t really want to paint Shipman really badly.  we actually agree on a lot of issues.  Just not how to achieve them.) Read the rest of this entry »

Image courtesy of Art and Perception

(Editor’s Note: The following historical perspective was written to members of Big Island Press Club leadership (BIPC) leadersjhip in a call for action to resist anti-Sunshine Law legislation recently introduced by Kona Councilman Kelly Greenwell.)

By Hugh Clark

Forty three summers ago, media leaders here decided a joint voice and focus was the best way to combat closed government and other problems facing news people. We formed a press club.

The Big Island Press Club (BIPC) took root later in 1967 and went to work to plug holes such as secret meetings, unannounced meetings, meetings with no advance agenda and meetings held in a private setting such as the back room of a bar or restaurant.

In 1968, this group aimed for an opening meeting plank in the County Charter, then being drafted by an appointed citizen committee led by business figure Fred Koehnen.

After repeated tries and many rejections, the BIPC leaders got the Charter Commission to accept the concept, and much of our proposed language was adopted — with certain additions to accommodate emergency meetings that still would be conducted openly and promotional examinations that remained closed.

The Charter was adopted overwhelmingly and took effect Jan. 1, 1969, and section 13-20 (b) has been in effect ever since. BIPC leadership then turned attention to enforcement and played a sort of perpetual watchdog role, educating each new generation of Corporation Counsel staff and new commission appointees.

In 1969-70, BIPC succeeded in overturning proposed Board of Ethics law that would have allowed secret proceedings. In his ruling, Circuit Judge Nelson Doi called open meetings the “right to know,” which he identified as the most important in a democracy. Read the rest of this entry »

This morning after seeing the headline front page above the fold in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, I couldn’t get North Kona Councilman Kelly Greenwell out of my mind.
The guy is trying out for the new lead role headlining the “We’re Walking On Sunshine” band comprised of other members of the Hawaii County Council that give a rat’s ass about the public’s right to know.
According to the Tribune-Herald report,Greenwell has introduced a resolution calling for the Council to spend money hiring legal counsel to explore a proposal to the State Legislature to exempt the Council from the state’s Sunshine Law.
That law, also known as the open meetings law, ensures the public is properly noticed about public meetings and that our lawmakers at the County level are doing the public’s business in public.
Shamefully, our State Legislature exempted itself from the Sunshine Law. Our County Council wants to follow state legislators’ lead.
This is wrong and would be to our detriment. As is, we barely know what is going on with our elected officials. They hardly communicate with the public, except to litter our mailbox with pamplets claiming term accomplishments during election season. If we lose the Sunshine Law, the dark drapes will be completely drawn and we will have no way to peer in and find out what those we elected to serve us are up to.
I don’t know what is wrong with Greenwell.
Ever since that notorious illegal Council reorganization that cost us taxpayers nearly $50,000 in legal fees (due to a challenge by West Hawaii Today), Greenwell has dogged the Sunshine Law.
Does Greenwell not recall that he once was an outsider to County government? The Sunshine Law requires accountability from our lawmakers, and apparently some of our elected officials think they shouldn’t be accountable to those who made them who they are today.
Greenwell blames the Sunshine Law on the fact that none of our nine council members have accomplished anything meaningful this term. I laughed outloud when I read that lame justification.
Please, voters, can we get serious with our candidates for public office? To have this guy waste taxpayers’ dollars trying to make a pitch for Council members to be exempt from the Sunshine Law, what a joke. What a waste of time and public resources. More meaninglessness.

Depicted is Greg Henkel’s effort to make light of Kona Councilman Kelly Greenwell’s recent run-in with a Hawaii Police officer over a speeding violation. Henkel’s cartoons and other art can be found on Punatoons.

Kelly Greenwell

By Kelly Greenwell

On Saturday, July 17, 2010 at approximately 1:00p.m., six or eight vehicles, one of which was mine, were traveling north on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway just beyond the Makala Blvd. intersection, where the speed limit increases from 35 to 45 mph (we at the County Council approved this increase perhaps a year ago). We were being scanned by a police officer parked on the rise eight or nine hundred yards beyond the intersection, near the old 35 mph sign which was supposed to be removed when the new 45 mph sign was installed. For whatever reason, he chose to focus on my car and flagged me down individually. I demanded to know what the reason was and why he chose me, and after identifying myself as the Councilmember from District 8, I attempted to get out of the car to discuss what is an apparent speed trap.

About an hour later, I’m in the police station handcuffed and being booked for a list of charges never disclosed. I’m sure they will include resisting arrest and perhaps disobeying the threats or “orders” of a police officer.

So, what happened?

Perhaps I was recognized as the Council member opposing the police for what I believe to be barbaric tactics in subduing the marijuana advocates over the last several years or for their refusal to obey the law which restricts the prosecution for possession of marijuana.

Perhaps I was recognized as the advocate for civil behavior by police officers, opposing the increasing harsh and militant tactics of the present force.

Or perhaps it was simply me. Read the rest of this entry »

By Russell Ruderman

The Hawaii County Council failed to pass the 2% Land Fund bill that would have placed the question on the ballot for a Charter Amendment.

The voters of this County already approved the 2% Land Fund in the last election, but the fund has been abused and the will of the voters ignored.

So Pete Hoffmann introduced this bill to make it a Charter Amendment, which if passed by voters, would have greater force than the simple law enacted by direct referendum.

Even though five of our nine Council members supported this bill, it was not enough because a 2/3 super majority was needed. Voting against this bill were J Yoshimoto, Dennis Onishi, and Guy Enriques. Absent from the vote was Donald Ikeda. His absence counts as a “No” vote in this case.

I’m not surprised by Mr. Onishi’s and Mr. Enriques’s votes against this bill. Disgusted, but not surprised. Mr. Enriques was quoted as saying he supports 2% for the Land Fund (Public Access, Open Space, and Natural Resources Preservation Fund), but voted against it because the existing law is sufficient. Obviously that is not true or we wouldn’t be here. How convenient to say he’s in favor of the idea, but voted against the law that would realize the intent. A true politician in the very worst sense of the word.

I’m very disappointed in Mr. Yoshimoto’s vote against this bill. Often I optimistically expect more of him, but was disappointed once again. Bear in mind, this bill would simply have given the voters the chance to approve the amendment or not. Democracy, it’s called.

But the absence of Donald Ikeda, who was not even present to vote, is intolerable. This is not the first time he has avoided controversy by his absence. Read the rest of this entry »

By Rick Gaffney

The Hawaii Fishing & Boating Association (HF&BA) drew over 350 people to its first community meeting at Kona’s Honokohau Harbor, on June 10.  By the end of that week over 600 people in the Kona community had signed a petition asking for a legislative investigation into the management of Honokohau.  Within a week, over 850 new members had joined the Hawaii Fishing & Boating Association (HF&BA).

What precipitated this boating tea party?

Following on the heels of one rate increase after another, the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation (DOBOR) decided to implement parking fees at Honokohau Small Boat Harbor.  It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Read the rest of this entry »

(Editor’s Note: Following are thoughts North Kona Councilman Kelly Greenwell expressed during council members’ discussions of the County of Hawaii’s operating budget for Fiscal year 2010-2011 in meetings held yesterday and today.  Greenwell offers his guest column for the public’s review and comment, as a follow-up to his June 5 guest column.)

 By Kelly Greenwell

"Before we concern ourselves any further with what is really the Mayor’s budget, we need to focus on reviving our county’s business climate." — North Kona Councilman Kelly Greenwell

To understand the solution to fixing our budget woes, we must first accept that we can no longer think of government as a business. Government process is not based on the typical business model. In fact, government draws on an entirely different reason for being. 

Beyond the assurance of justice, public safety, and welfare, the responsibility of government is to ensure an economic setting wherein private business can succeed. While responsible accounting is certainly necessary, balancing the county budget, which has dominated our efforts for 6 months, is merely a part of the accounting process and cannot be considered as a required goal. Read the rest of this entry »

Kelly Greenwell

By Kelly Greenwell

To begin with, the County budget is ultimately the Mayor’s responsibility, not the County Councils’. The Council’s main, and perhaps only real responsibility, is keeping our economy healthy. You do not generate an economy by removing liquidity (reducing the money supply) as is being attempted.

If the Council would concentrate on acquiring funding from the Federal Government and private investors and let the Mayor run the County, there would be no budget issue at all — and we could all get back to work.

Let’s understand a few points.

Furloughs are a form of unemployment — 10% in the proposed budget for those affected, adding to the already unacceptable 10% in this County.

Removing money from the pockets of employees translates into fewer dollars entering the economy — with the net effect being obvious. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Image courtesy of ReusableBags.com

I want to express heartfelt thanks to Hawaii County Council members Pete Hoffmann, Brenda Ford, and Emily Naeole-Beason for having enough sense earlier this week to vote in favor of Hoffmann’s legislation calling for a ban on plastic bags.  Double thumbs down to the remaining six council members who voted against the measure.  They are Chair J Yoshimoto, Donald Ikeda, Dennis “Fresh” Onishi, Dominic Yagong, Guy Enriques, and Kelly Greenwell.

Image courtesy of Staywithgreen's Blog

Those council members obviously don’t give a rip that even the Department of Environmental Management supports the ban and spends — shoots, I can’t recall the exact figure at this time — hundreds of thousands a dollars per year to clean up plastic bags that have blown off the landfill.  These council members that voted against the bill obviously don’t have the slightest regard that plastic bags make their way into the ocean and negatively impact our marine life.  And these council members obviously could care less about Hawaii being considered a progressive county that truly supports measures like sustainability and renewable energy.
Read the rest of this entry »

By Kelly Greenwell

The irony of it is that while the US continues to insist on blindly wallowing in both economic and political depression, the real horror which now overwhelms a long devastated Haiti is revealing the way out of our self imposed dilemma.

We are now presented with the opportunity to pool our resources with the rest of the world, and together reinstate a modern version of the Marshall Plan ─ and rebuild Haiti.

Rebuilding their devastated nation, which morality dictated decades ago, can now be accomplished through the cooperation of all the worlds nations. The process will not only restore Haiti, the mechanics of doing so will revitalize the rest of the world as well.

More importantly however, is the opportunity to bring us together to accomplish an unprecedented humanitarian feat. Read the rest of this entry »

Here it is, the Public Works and Intergovernmental Relations committee hearing on the marijuana decriminalization resolution broken down in 10 minute sections to fit on YouTube. There’s *a lot* of footage, so sections will continue to be added to this post until the duration of the meeting is posted.

Some highlights:

• Vol II Part 5–Tatum testimony
• Vol II Part 7–Greenwell threatens resignation.
• Vol II Part 8–Naeole-Beason tells us to “wise up”.
• Vol III Part 1–Ford asks Ashida to weigh in on Tatum.
• Vol III Part 2–Ford expresses her outrage.
• Vol III Part 4–Greenwell retracts his resignation.
• Vol III Part 6–Yagong promises to look into the Tatum matter. Committee votes down the resolution.

Volume I Part 1

Volume I Part 2

Volume I Part 3

Volume I Part 4

Volume I Part 5

Volume I Part 6

Volume I Part 7

Volume I Part 8

Volume I Part 9

Volume I Part 10

Volume II Part 1

Volume II Part 2

Volume II Part 3

Volume II Part 4

Volume II Part 5

Volume II Part 6>

Volume II Part 7>

Volume II Part 8>

Volume III Part 1>

Volume III Part 2>

Volume III Part 3>

Volume III Part 4>

Volume III Part 5>

Volume III Part 6>

Pa'o'o "Secrets" surf spot Image courtesy of County of Hawaii Mayor's Office

(Media release) — The County of Hawai‘i has been awarded a $945,000 grant from the Legacy Land Conservation Commission (LLCC) that will help purchase one of the most desirable, undeveloped shoreline access areas on the Big Island.

The oceanfront property consists of 10.61 acres within the Pa`o`o Aupua`a in North Kohala and will be purchased by the County with matching funds from the County’s Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation (PONC) fund.

The property was ranked No. 1 on the PONC fund’s priority list for open space land acquisitions in 2007 before falling to No. 2 in 2008. The property also is designated for preservation in the North Kohala Community Development Plan.

The County of Hawai‘i and the private Trust for Public Land were partners in the application for the LLCC grant. It received the LLCC’s top ranking in the competitive selection process among applications from throughout the state. Read the rest of this entry »