If you have access to Civil Beat, you may want to check out my column today, “Hawaii Monitor: Ige’s Honeymoon Ended With Nomination of Ching“.
It’s my third attempt to evaluate this nomination, and benefited from the many comments left on the two prior posts here.
February 1: Let’s hear the governor’s case for DLNR nominee
Although we still haven’t heard from Gov. Ige, the administration has sent the nominee, Carleton Ching, on the road to meet with people concerned about environmental and Hawaiian issues. I was able to speak to several people who took part, or who had additional reports from people they trusted.
There seemed to be agreement that Ching was open, direct, and forthcoming. As one person told me, “I would be hard-pressed to find anything not to like about the guy.”
Ching readily admitted the many areas in which he has little or no background, training, or experience.
Unfortunately, according to those who took part, these comprised most of the major responsibilities of DLNR.
In addition, his management credentials were felt to be weak. He has been a lobbyist or “government affairs” executive for Castle & Cooke, developer of the Koa Ridge project. He apparently hasn’t been a hands-on corporate manager of complex development projects.
And then there’s this. As one person suggested to me, “take a look at the mission of DLNR, and then take a look at the mission of LURF,” the Land Use Research Foundation, a development advocacy group. “Their goals are diametrically opposed.”
All of that aside, a couple of thing seem clear. Governor Ige’s inner circle apparently doesn’t include any environmentalists or conservationists, who would likely have flagged this as a problematic nomination. And, second, the governor’s search for potential nominees appears to have ended up with a relatively shallow pool.
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
in the real world, when looking for people to head executive level positions, you don’t just put an online application on the internet and hope the right people apply. if the pool of candidates was shallow, only the governor and his staff have themselves to blame
nominate Jeff Stone. he all over the ‘aina.
t,
No need to nominate Jeff Stone. I understand his wife, Laurie, was in the inner circle who came up with Carleton Ching’s name.
Why should Jeff waste time on a lowly paid government job when he can have a friend do the job for him?
What I hear around the Legislature (well, at the bus stop across the street but close enough, yeah?) is that nobody wants an appointment to any State position that deals with development. Too much humbug they say, fighting a rising tide of anti-development public sentiment. The number and quality of candidates is pretty thin they say.
Gov should ask all the stakeholders who’s missions are actually in alignment with the DLNR mission to nominate who they think is best. There would be a good solid list overnight. There are some amazing folks out there with conservation, cultural and technical backgrounds. Certainly getting a handle on the State Executive apparatus is a challenge, but it seems the communication and outreach process of insider government is flawed. Unless the Gov is indeed fully on board with the corporatist mentality and philosophy of government and sees non-corporatist community and experts as nuisances or enemies. I hope not! We’ve had enough of that for years already.
fool me twice shame on me?
“fool me twice shame on me?”
Yes, that’s how it works.
For all the interest and crisis this nomination has induced, not one person has offered a better option and named a name. Not one! Just a lot of whining.
There have been like 50 posts to this blog concerned/complaining about it this past week. So who should it be if not Mr. Ching? Anyone?
The community should focus on solutions, not gripes.
Ian FYI: Lot’s of people on line looking for this article and Shapiro’s recent DLNR coverage are getting cut off from the Civil Beat and Star Ad pay walls. Can you ‘fair use’ your CB content here now or at some point as an alternative? Mahalo
Yeah, it’s a shame that when there’s something interesting on Civil Beat most can’t read it now.
It seems like they’ve been publishing some better stuff (along with some overwritten blustery crap).
Kind of a conundrum. The number of people who would make the effort to read CB is limited, and the number of people who would pay to read it is VERY limited. At least nice people still leave the Star-Advertiser on the bus sometimes for the next guy.
I’m not sure what Omidyar is getting for his bucks, but the business model sure seems to be a failure, at least at this juncture.
Oh well, any fair use to be had?
At least the criticism raised towards Ige’s nomination appears to be more articulated compared to much of the brain-dead comments elicited when this story first broke, much of it reading like talking points straight from some special interest group.
It’s great to hear that a candidate’s management capability is being weighed…. as long as that criteria applies to *all* the candidates. Including Bill Aila, in case anyone has the bright idea of returning him to DLNR. That man couldn’t manage a 2 car parade.
It would explain a lot if as Kolea says, Jeff Stone’s wife Laurie was in the inner circle who submitted Mr. Ching’s name. I wonder if Ige will bring back Bob Awana as well?
Ige trumpeted his integrity and honesty to get elected. Jeff and Laurie Stone’s involvement in shady real estate dealings starting from Jeff Stone’s indictment in the Broken Trust and later Ko’olina tax credit escapades and public land grab in Wailupe Valley are well documented.
It would be very interesting to learn who else our new Governor of honesty and integrity has brought in.
Cheap Charlie, learn how to clear your cache of civilbeat.com cookies and you may read whatever you like without being a subscriber.
LURF fined for lobbying violations by Ethics Commission today