It was a legitimate public policy dispute driven in part by a political need to support the governor’s very high-profile campaign commitment to address the problem of homelessness. So it’s probably no surprise to learn that two key Lingle insiders, both members of the board of the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, pressed behind the scenes to get the board majority to approve Lingle’s plan to relocate formerly homeless families from a transitional shelter to units in existing public housing at Puahala Homes, a plan strongly opposed by some public housing residents and by the housing agency’s director, also a Lingle appointee.
E-mails released last month by Gov. Lingle’s office reveal some of the behind-the-scenes push by HPHA board members Linda Smith, senior policy advisor in the governor’s office, and Travis Thompson, public housing board chairman, Republican National Committeeman, and Maui County finance director during Lingle’s terms as mayor.
The administration’s plan involves taking over units in two buildings at Puahala Homes for families moved from a transition shelter being closed.
Some of the e-mail includes board communications that may have violated the sunshine law, which provides in part:
No chance meeting, permitted interaction, or electronic communication shall be used to circumvent the spirit or requirements of this part to make a decision or to deliberate toward a decision upon a matter over which the board has supervision, control, jurisdiction, or advisory power.
The e-mails show some of the behind-the-scenes moves during this brief four day window in early February.
From Linda Smith’s mailbox:
Page 2: Smith to Chad Taniguchi, executive director of the Hawaii Public Housing Authority. This appears to be a response to Taniguchi’s message, which follows.
Kaulana and I will be willing to step in and get this project completed. We have 8 units finished and ready for move in. Furniture has arrived and is ready to be placed in the units. There are 8 families with children who have been identified and desperately need a safe, dry place to sleep.”
Page 2-3: Chad Taniguchi to Hawaii Public Housing Authority board members and administration officials.
Dear board members:
I cannot deal with all the details involved. Too much confusion. Too many cooks. Too much else to work on. I have asked Kelfred and Derek K to handle this following principles which I will forward to board.
HPHA staff is trying to get the job done, but the structural problems caused by now expanding the number of buildings involved and intermixing of transitional and public housing is not working.
I respectfully recommend that the board revisit this issue and cancel this. I am trying to cheerfully continue, but this is causing major diversions of time by key staff such as Kelford, and causing unneeded headache for me and other staff.
The board thinks 14 units is minor; it is not.
Page 4: Clarissa Hosino, resident member of the HPHA board, to Kaulana Park, then state homeless coordinator, reporting a request to attend a neighborhood board meeting to discuss the situation at Puahala Homes.
Page 8: Chad Taniguchi to Linda Smith, with copies to other members of the HPHA board.
Linda,
You did not hire a quitter.
Please let our staff do our jobs.
Board members cannot act individually or as staff. You set policy. The problem is that after the board set July 1, in the board minutes, you and Kaulana pushed and started things moving for January, upsetting our abatement schedule, not giving us time to work with existing residents. I should have said this then, but better late than never. Please don’t interfere on the ground level. Let Sandi and Kelfred carry the ball.
I totally appreciate all board members. You are all experienced and successful. You have been wonderfully supportive. We have a long way to go to turn this agency around, but we are getting there. You and us.
Let’s do things right. I still believe scattering people around Puahala is dangerous. We would be better off forcing the existing residents to move and having 2 self contained buildings. The current policy is structurally bad.
I will ask Sandi and Kel to see if we can make it work, or come back to the board with other recommendations.
I care about homeless people too. Ask Mattie. The solution is not by turning public housing into homeless transitional housing. We are trying to restore order and regularity in public housing. Pay rent, follow rules. This is disruptive and causes residents to wonder where next, what next. Instability. We are turning things around; don’t make us detour.
Page 186: Linda Smith to Travis Thompson. Smith has seen a reference to a letter from a group of senators expressing opposition to moving the homeless families into Puahala Homes. She asks Thompson: “Does this mean Chad (Taniguchi) is now trying to get the Senator to intervene in our Puahala relocation of homeless?”
Page 233: e-mail from Travis Thompson, HPHA board chair, to members of the board, attaching a copy of the senate letter and suggesting several possible courses of action.
I request that you give me your inputs and suggestions. This is an important item, and the Legislature is very important to our agency. We are all working toward the same objectives, albeit with slightly different approaches. The communications between our Board, HPHA, and the residents and neighbors, in my mind, would not win any awards at our local state fair. Please take a few moments to send me a note, call me, and give me your suggestions and recommendations.
Is this kind of e-mail discussion among board members consistent with the state’s sunshine law which requires boards to do their discussion and deliberation in public meetings?
Page 250: Chad Taniguchi to HPHA board members.
This may be confusing. I referenced the list of principles below in my email to you yesterday, 2/1, and said I would forward for the Board’s info.
Since then, legislators wrote a letter, and Travis followed up with at least 3 options, one of which is to reconsider decision to put transitional housing in Puahala. I support the reconsideration option.
Page 287: Linda Smith e-mails representatives of three nonprofits seeking their assistance in lobbying in the Senate. She also discloses her own meetings with each of the senators who signed the letter.
Wanted you to be aware of this letter for various legislators asking to Board to change their decision on allowing families from Next Step to move to Puahala. I am speaking with each member to give them the other side of the issue since I feel they signed this without knowing what a good project this is. Your voice would help — i.e. if you can talk to each legislator and explain to them that the families from Next step will not have drug problems and we will work with them to be good neighbors.
There are many other references, of course.
Then, in the mailbox of Margaret Toba, Smith’s executive assistant, a couple of additional entries.
Toba, Page 56: An e-mail from Toba to Rep. Corinne Ching, subject: proposed letter – Puahala.
Per your conversation with Linda Smith, attached is the proposed letter.
And a reply a few hours later from Ching’s chief of staff to Toba:
Rep. Ching is deleting the second paragraph of the letter. She will sign and send it to Travis today.
Then in Toba mailbox, Page 113: This is a transmittal of the letter apparently drafted by Smith and now sent to Travis Thompson and the HPHA board over Ching’s signature.
If they spent as much time worrying about housing as they do the wording of discussions regarding housing some progress could be made. My read of this is that none of them have much of a clue as to what to do. This should be outsourced with standards. Well intentioned, yes, it it likely they mean well. But that’s how an aunt of mine would gracefully criticize someone lacking any talent at all. In an tone just slightly dusted with equal measures of droll and dismissive, she would say something like, ” sweetie, he means well.”
They mean well. Is there any part of local or state government that actually operates near competence? I’ll take my answer off the air.
Yup Steve- that’s their excuse for violating the law- “we mean well”. It’s a message of paternalism that comes from the plantation mentality they grew up with. And we all know where the road paved with good intentions goes.
I have represented individuals whose eviction from public housing was sought. the hearings were before the board. It is sufficient to say that I was unimpressed with the members of the board who actually spoke. They followed [without exception] the lead of the hearing officer [supposedly a neutral but not in fact a neutral] in every instance. It felt “kangarooish” or “railroadish” [to coin a term or two] I was unaware at the time of the constant back chatter between board members and the administration. It was too long ago to do much about it now but quasi-judicial officers shouldn’t be holding long cozy chats with members of the executive branch when it is the executive branch that appears before the judicial officers looking for a decision.
Civic lessons on separation of powers and ex parte communications need to be given. But, as the same aunt said, “You can teach it to them, but you cannot learn it for them.”
Until there is a prosecution for a sunshine law violation government employees and appointees will continue to violate them with impunity. And don’t expect an AG to do anything since they are unelected cronies of the governor.