Good story by Rob Shikina in today’s Star-Bulletin reporting on the tension between Mayor Hannemann and Gov. Lingle over the direction of contract talks.

Hannemann is effectively portraying Lingle as detached, isolated, and out on her own.

“How is it that four county mayors and four state employers all agree?” he said, referring to the state Department of Education, the University of Hawaii, the state Judiciary and the Hawaii Health Systems Corp. “She’s only choosing to be left out.”

It seems to me that none of this is good news for Rep. Neil Abercrombie’s gubernatorial campaign. Hannemann, his presumptive Democratic opponent, is taking full advantage of this opportunity to cement relations with organized labor, an important political base, and to be seen by the public as an official who is effective and gets things done while others wring their hands.

That seems to me to be a huge advantage for Hannemann if he indeed moves ahead with a campaign for governor.

Will Hoover’s story in today’s Honolulu Advertiser on an illegal Waianae dump also caught my eye this morning for two reasons. First, it involves apparently organized criminal activity involving trucking and construction companies, as well as potentially DHHL staff. And, second, it reports that when people suspected the illegal dumping, they didn’t contact either of the newspapers or call a reporter directly with the news, as might have happened in the past. Instead, they called another environmental activist who has a track record of getting the attention of the news media. It seems to me an indicator of the increasing distance between the public and the press.

A Florida Attorney General’s opinion issued earlier this year says the use of Facebook by public agencies may be subject to that state’s Sunshine Laws.

It cites an earlier opinion referring to use of computer bulletin boards or other systems to circumvent the intent of the Sunshine Law.

“While there is no statutory prohibition against a city council member posting comments on a privately maintained electronic bulletin board or blog, . . . members of the board or commission must not engage in an exchange or discussion of matters that foreseeably will come before the board or commission for official action. The use of such an electronic means of posting one’s comments and the inherent availability of other participants or contributors to act as liaisons would create an environment that could easily become a forum for members of a board or commission to discuss official issues which should most appropriately be conducted at a public meeting in compliance with the Government in the Sunshine Law. It would be incumbent upon the commission members to avoid any action that could be construed as an attempt to evade the requirements of the law.”

Such concerns would appear to be equally applicable to the issue at hand. While there would not appear to be a prohibition against a board or commission member posting comments on the city’s Facebook page,[19] members of the board or commission must not engage in an exchange or discussion of matters that foreseeably will come before the board or commission for official action.

Observers in other states, including California, are tracking the potential impact of this opinion.

At the same time, I notice New Jersey’s Judiciary is using Facebook to share public information.

And here’s a report late last from Australia on a case where legal documents were allowed to be served via the active Facebook of one of the party’s to the case.

It seems crazy to me to limit use of a system that offers a means of sharing views that can be wholly open to the public, like Facebook or similar social media, and instead force all discussions back into physical meetings, which are actually harder for many people to track, observe, or participate in.

Perhaps it would make sense to add a definition of “virtual meeting” to the Sunshine Law that would allow ongoing public discussion of issues in an open, online forum accessible to all.

Thanks to Warren for pointing me to this brief discussion of Parkinson’s Law from The Economist.

I captured this view of our house on a recent morning. It’s the view looking up from Huamalani Road, which runs from the Kaaawa Fire Station up towards the mountains.

The photo does lose the sense of scale. The lower rock wall is at least seven feet high, and the upper wall about six feet, but they seem compressed in the photo. And, of course, there’s the reality that it costs a lot to maintain the trees and try to keep the plants under some semblance of control.

But, from this angle, it looks like we live in a tropical paradise of sorts. Maybe we really do!