Web ilind.net

September 29, 2005 - Thursday

Whoa! No wonder the Star-Bulletin was late with today's online edition. Starbulletin.com appears to be getting a major redesign and facelift, although I'm having trouble loading it right now. I'll definitely be checking back just a bit later to see the new look. [Later: The new look is quite clean. So far, I like it, although I haven't had a chance to explore or to get a sense of its speed and functioning. Any other reactions to makeover?]

And here's your morning hot flash: Harbin for Governor! This new web site trumpets a simple message: Here's a candidate who has proven she can stand up to Linda Lingle.

Here is a candidate with stick-to-it persistance worthy of Abraham Lincoln. Under attack from all quarters, she has resolved to stay the course no matter what.

You can even, should you be in the mood, suggest a running mate. Check it out.

Bev Creamer has a story in this morning's Advertiser about the possible land swap that could result in a new campus for Kaaawa School. It became "news" for the Advertiser because it was finally discussed during a public meeting of a Board of Education committee.

Of course, it was already news before this formal debut. I wrote about it back in April's version of Kaaawa News, and added an update earlier this month as part of another story about Kaaawa School. At that point, though, it wasn't yet part of an "official" discussion at a public meeting.

This illustrates one of the problems of daily journalism. Attention is very slow to focus on new issues. Once you've got their attention, the dailies can throw resources at a story. But all too often, before an issue is property recognized, it's easier for reporters to cover their beats via official pronouncements than to always work to keep that critical step ahead. Editors let it happen and, unfortunately, there isn't always enough competition for the news "market" to force things at a faster pace.

In the case of the possible land swap involving Kaaawa School, the rest of the story involves the question of what would happen to the existing school site, prime acreage across from the beach. According to some accounts, the site would revert to Kualoa Ranch if no longer used for educational purposes, setting up a battle between the Kaaawa community and the ranch over potential development. Of course, this wasn't discussed at the BOE committee meeting and so could't make its way into the Advertiser story. So it goes in the news world.

I was bored yesterday and spent some time just browsing. Would you have guessed that Sen. Coleen Hanabusa is one of only two members of the State Senate who fails to display any personal information on her official legislative web page? While other members list their dates or place of birth, family status, educational and professional backgrounds, and community activities, Hanabusa discloses only her official legislative information ("name, rank, and serial number"). And the link to the "Senator's News and opinion page" comes up, well, empty.

Hanabusa also stopped filing her reports to the Campaign Spending Commission in electronic form back in July 2003, putting her campaign reports out of public reach without a visit to the commission office downtown.

It seems a bit odd for a candidate with her ambitions for higher office to disappear from public view, but such is the strange world of politics.

The only other senator with a similar information void is political novice Clarence Nishihara, who is probably still surprised by his 2004 upset of veteran Cal Kawamoto.

September 28, 2005 - Wednesday

Okay. Here's the deal. We're captives of Sheraton for another 30 hours. Meda is conferencing here at a hotel in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. Our arrival was somewhat delayed after our United flight made an unscheduled landing in Denver due to a medical emergency on board, but we made it to O'Hare airport safely.

"Arlington Heights" must have been the product of an earlier real estate scam designed to lure out-of-state buyers, sort of like giving undeveloped lots in a lava field a name like "Paradise Acres". There are definitely no "heights" anywhere in the vicinity, except perhaps from flights of advertising fancy. We walked for an hour this morning and found freeway entrances and parking lots, lightly populated office parks, and roads sans sidewalks, full of busy commuters heading elsewhere. In fact, there doesn't appear to be anything useful within walking distance of this Sheraton hotel, which is quite heavily used for small conferences. Hence my description of being trapped.

While spell checking, my software recommeded replacing "Sheraton" with appropriate spaces, resulting in "She rat on".

So it goes.

Editors Weblog reviews this past disastrous week in the newspaper business, with cuts being announced by many of the major players. This time it's newsrooms taking the hit, it seems. E&P reports on the Newspaper Guild reaction. And the American Journalism Review takes a long look at the experience of the San Francisco Chronicle since the end of the JOA in that city.

So Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is on the hot seat over his stock holdings., and Media Matters points out some glaring holes in the coverage of the issues so far.

You probably read about the release of New York City's emergency services dispatch tapes from 9-11. Now you can hear them in mp3 format courtesy of The Memory Hole, which has converted all from the original CDs released by the city.

This cat photo isn't mine, but I'm including it just for fun.

It was very weird to look up while brushing my teeth last night and see a long row of me doing the same thing. I'll have to fiddle with the camera angle to recreate the experience, but here's a quick look down the rabbit hole.

Reflections

September 27, 2005 - Tuesday

Sorry for the late hour of today's entry. Occasionally things just don't work out as planned.

Richard Borreca nailed a good story in today's Star-Bulletin, noting that Bev Harbin, Gov. Lingle's choice to fill the vacant house seat representing downtown Honolulu, had been convicted previously of passing bad checks. The convictions were not found in a criminal history check by the Department of Public Safety because they were in Harbin's former married name.

So we not only have further embarrassment for Lingle, but new questions about screenings done by DPS. Thanks for the news, Richard.

Is it time, in the president's choice of rhetoric, to cut and run? I found this blogger's reluctant move towards support of immediate withdrawal instructive and thought provoking. And, as my old friend Noel is probably saying after reading the entry, "how about that Eric Blair!" Because George Orwell was, of course, a pseudonym for young Eric. And how frighteningly prescient he turns out to have been.

Pacific Business News reports that John Heckathorn, former Honolulu Magazine editor and fledgling Star-Bulletin columnist, is now director of integrated media for aio Live! and will steer IamHawaii.com (which right now says "site coming soon").

Okay, dog lovers, it's your lucky day. Another round of Kaaawa's finest dogs, like the smiling Mr. Sonny, await your attention, including several never before shown on these pages. So just click on Sonny's photo and enjoy September's morning dogs.

Sonny

September 26, 2005 - Monday

So now we know Evan Dobelle wasn't one of a kind. Ben Ladner, president of American University in Washington, D.C., was suspended last month and barred from the campus after the board of trustees challenged a Ladner's lavish spending. According to the Washington Post, about $500,000 in expenses have been questioned, including first class travel, lavish meals, and several trips to Europe for the family's personal chef, apparently billed as "professional development". Ladner's saga is remarkably similar to that of Dobelle, who was ousted by the UH board of regents based on similar concerns. Like Dobelle, Ladner claims a group of trustees have violated his rights, while trustees say he abused their trust, but the Post reported today that the trustees are themselves deeply divided.

Although Ladner has been suspended, the American University web site still features his "president's welcome". But an independent web site, BenLadner.com, has been compiling published information about the scandal.

A story in Pacific Business News on the record number of gun permits being issued in Honolulu was being run today by MSNBC.

The Observer (UK) reports that dolphins trained by the Navy to attack "terrorist" divers and swimmers are loose and may be armed and dangerous after their enclosure was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. This report follows the "rescue" of eight dolphins that were "lost" in open ocean after the oceanarium in Gulfport was destroyed.

Checking on a link back to this site over the weekend, I discovered an entry about the old Kaimuki Theater at CinemaTreasures.org that includes a link to my photos of the theater's demolition in January 1982. You can search for theaters in Honolulu or any other location. After free registration, you can also add your own comments or add theaters missing from the list.

September 25, 2005 - Sunday

Early this year the Honolulu Ethics Commission, charged with assuring the public that city officials adhere to the highest standards of conduct, quietly and somewhat casually swept away a conflict of interest policy that for nearly 40 years has barred law enforcement officers, including police officers and liquor inspectors, from holding active real estate licenses. In lieu of a ban, the city will now simply require law enforcement officers to sign a statement indicating they are aware of and will comply with conflict of interest laws.

The new policy is laid out in the commission's Advisory Opinion 2005-1, signed on January 31, 2005 but approved at the commission's regular meeting a month earlier. The case involved a liquor inspector who, according to the commission's opinion, said "that he was never informed about the prohibition when he was hired as an investigator and that requiring him to de-activate his license and give up his supplemental income as a realtor would impose a great financial hardship on him."

Neither the commission's minutes nor the opinion itself cite any evidence of compelling circumstances in this case to account for the decision to abandon decades of precedent dating back to the commision's very first advisory opinion dated June 7, 1967.

Instead, the commission was advised by outside counsel Matthew J. Viola, meeting minutes show:

Mr. Viola noted that the likelihood of actual conflicts occurring is probably very slight, and, in fact, some of the advisory opinions acknowledge that no complaints involving actual conflicts have ever been filed.  Further, some of the hypothetical conflicts posed in the various advisory opinions appear to be more theoretical than real.  Thus, it is likely that most city law enforcement personnel who hold (or would hold) active real estate licenses would not encounter actual or potential conflicts of interest. 

Nothing more is known about the basis for Viola's assertion that "the likelihood of actual conflicts...is probably very slight".

The liquor commission and its staff have certainly not enjoyed an enviable record when it comes to matters of ethics and conflict of interest, as evidenced by last year's successful prosecutions, a highly critical city audit, and ongoing probes of additional misconduct. Police officers have had their own problems in the last several years.

The commission does not appear to have considered the need to restore public confidence in the system after this string of scandals. However, that missing element is precisely what earlier rulings viewed as critical.

Advisory Opinion No. 119, dated March 7, 1983 discussed some of the types of situations in which conflicts are likely to arise and then observed.

The police officer may question the hypothetical situations on the basis that their occurrence will be unlikely, but from the public's perception regarding City employees with off-duty activities relating to real estate, the hypothetical situations reflect occurrences that are more the rule than exceptions to the rule.  Such perception is bolstered by instances in which State and City officers and employees have had financial interests in private land development and ventures.  Further, the public is aware of the selective enforcement practiced by State and City officers and employees who have enforcement powers.  Moreover, the public is led to believe that such selective enforcement is done to enhance the personal financial interests of such officers and employees.  Therefore, the general perception of the public of a government officer or employee with a license plus enforcement powers is that this combination provides opportunities – often taken advantage of – for the officer or employee to enhance his private financial interests to the detriment of the public interest.  In short, the public views the situation as being ripe for abuse and assumes the abuses occur not infrequently.

In that earlier decision, the commission concluded:

The Commission's position is that a City officer with enforcement powers is in a particularly sensitive position in terms of potential for abuse of standards of conduct.  Consequently, he should avoid any condition which may place him in a compromising position, a position incompatible with discharge of his duties or in which the opportunity for conflict of interest or appearance of conflict may exist. Such a situation is the combination of enforcement power plus possession of a real estate salesman's or broker's license. [Advisory Opinion 119, March 7, 1983]

The commission's recent change in policy appears to me to be ill-advised and far too casually adopted. I think it's a move that will eventually be regretted.

To be fair, the commission suggests that individual city departments are free to adopt codes of conduct with higher standards than applied more generally to all city employees. The public would be well served by just such a move.

Previous week • Other