I was very interested in Chad Blair’s story, “Tourism 101 tour aims to make legislative friends“, which appeared in the November 6 issue of Pacific Business News. [I don’t know if the link will work for non-subscribers, but give it a try.]
The story describes an ongoing “series of informal briefings and Q&A’s” put on by the Hawaii Tourism Authority for state and county officials. Blair praises the program, calling it “clearly a mechanism to build bridges between the HTA and the Legislature, the body that created the HTA and controls its destiny.”
The half-dozen or so meetings that have been held since late August have been in Honolulu and on Kauai and the Big Island. A Maui meeting is in the works. Attendees included dozens of lawmakers, notably members of the House and Senate tourism committees.
Unlike legislative hearings at the Capitol, Tourism 101’s are closed. The informality, say participants, helps the discussion.
Two words you won’t find in Chad’s story: lobbying or lobbyist.
Because stripped of all the rhetoric, that’s what it is–a slick lobbying effort by a public agency trying to protect its turf during an extremely difficult budget climate. Put another way–looking forward to very lean times as the legislature tries to put together a supplemental budget, HTA is trying to sell legislators on the idea that its needs trump those of other constituencies.
The story doesn’t tell us what is being spent, either in cash or donated in-kind services, to run this lobbying effort. One is left wondering whether public funds were being expended to lobby for more public funds.
Have legislators traveled to other islands to attend HTA sessions? Does HTA cover their costs? Did they stay overnight? Who paid? How many staff or outside consultants work on organizing the sessions, preparing the lobbying materials, putting together the Powerpoints, etc? Are meals provided? Refreshments? Ground transportation? Air fares?
In the one-year period between May 1, 2008 and April 30, 2009, the Hawaii Tourism Authority reported spending $95,000 for professional lobbying services from Okudara & Associates, so the agency should have been well represented even without this latest road show.
I trust that we’ll be seeing the costs of these “Tourism 101” sessions on the next HTA lobbying expenditure forms due at the end of January.
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It’s incorrect to state that author Chad Blair “praises” the Tourism 101 program — it’s a straight news story and he’s simply explaining its stated purpose, which IS to build bridges between the HTA and the Legislature, which IS its most important political constituency. I don’t see how that comes off as “praising” the program.
Jim Kelly
Editor, Pacific Business News
Perhaps my poor choice of words. I should have said that his story is full of praise for the program, and overall was very positive.
That wasn’t meant as a criticism.
The story was well sourced and reported the very positive comments (praise?) from those who have been involved on both sides, as presenters and audience.
But building bridges between any group with a clear legislative agenda and the legislature, or with the counties on county matters, is lobbying. A simple point, which was not intended to detract from the story but to raise an issue that it sidestepped.
Maybe I’m just encouraging readers to read more into stories like this, which point the way by provocatively describing things which can be construed in different ways.
Mike McCartney jus’ doin’ his thang? I would expect a considerable amount of schmoozing from this former legislator. But for $95,000? I see Jon is still getting by with a little help from his friends. Clearly, Mike should use existing staff for these efforts. He wont. So, perhaps Mike can hire the appropriate staff with the appropriate non-descript titles — better on the appearances, of course. Take a page from UH – hire a ‘communication director’ and ‘executive assistant’. Just make sure you pay them close to 6 figures. Oh, it seems you do have $95,000 laying around for at least one position.
That’s Hawaii for ya’, folks. Here’s a perfect, perfect example of what Lingle was supposed to change – and failed.
I have always found Chad’s writing to be straight forward. He writes with integrity.