The Lingle administration has requested an exemption to enable purchase of $2 million of interisland airline tickets during 2010 without going through a competitive bidding process.
According to the exemption request filed with the State Procurement Office, state offices can get lowest rates by shopping for “seasonal rates, web specials, or corporate rates” on an as-needed basis rather than through a contract with a specific carrier.
“SPO checked with the major interisland carriers, Hawaiian Airlines and Go/Mokulele, and under the current environment contract fares would be higher than on-line (web) specials and seasonal rates.”
The request also seeks approval for departments to “contact the airlines directly, one or more travel agencies, or any online travel agency to provide the service.”
Sounds like it could yield lower cost tickets, or open the door to favoritism in the choice of travel agencies or services. So far, a procurement office decision on the exemption request is pending.
The Capitol calendar is starting to get busier in advance of the 2010 legislative session. Among the upcoming hearings:
• The Senate Ways and Means Committee is holding an informational briefing on January 4 to assess whether the State Office of Elections is able to conduct a special election if Rep. Neil Abercrombie resigns to campaign full time for governor, to assess available election options, and to hear from the AG on any legal issues.
• House and Senate Human Services Committees will hold an informational briefing January 8 “to discuss the state of youth services in Hawaii and the future of the Office of Youth Services.” According to the hearing notice, “All providers of services, former and current OYS employees and all others interested in this issue are welcome to participate.”
However, the hearing notice then states “no public testimony will be accepted”. What in the world does that mean? Anyone interested can participate but testimony not accepted?
I have a feeling the “no testimony” part is boilerplate for informational briefing notices and should probably have been edited out of this one.
The full list of scheduled hearings can be found on the Capitol web site.
Noted: Star-Bulletin owner David Black has given $500,000 to the BC Cancer Foundation, according to published reports. Black’s wife died of cancer three years ago. Good on you, David.
I still haven’t seen any coverage about the decision by the Hawaii Tribune-Herald to terminate its contract with the Newspaper Guild, apart from a PBN story and several Big Island blog entries. The Newspaper Guild’s own web site links to a report by Big Island Video News.
While looking for those stories, I ran into the news that Editor & Publisher will cease publication at the beginning of the year, with a final issue set for early January.
Somehow that feels like it marks the end of an industry, not simply a publication.
Here’s a bit of this morning’s sunrise as seen from the beach in Kaaawa.
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With all due respect Ian, why in the world would you think the general readership of either Honolulu daily would be the least bit interested in a 5 year battle with Guild in Hilo??? I suspect the Editors there are just making a news interest level decision and not anything more sinister. It is especially true with the news content shrinking more and more to save money….other then a few die hards in local media, who really cares??
WAM and FIN get their first shot at Linda’s final budget on December 29 as Georgina is asked to provide information on the following topics:
State Investments in Auction Rate Securities
General Obligation Bond Sales and Debt Refinancing
Collective Bargaining Agreements and Anticipated Savings
Reduction in Force (RIF) Process and Anticipated Savings
Status of Exempt Positions Subject to RIF and Furlough
Departmental Budget Restriction Amounts
Monthly Vacancy Reports
Even money that Georgina and her cohorts will avoid providing much information.
Nikki – thanks for the info.
Pardon my ignorance, but will any of these hearing topics cover (theoretically) the $1 billion tied up in frozen investments with Salomon Smith Barney?
Realistically Speaking, the situation in Hilo is outrageous from a labor standpoint, and it is certainly newsworthy.
It may not be big, earthshaking news, but it’s a helluva lot more newsworthy and relevant than a lot of the meaningless crap that’s routinely packaged as news around here every day of the week.
wlsc: The Salomen Smith Barney accounts, I believe, are related to the State Investments in Auction Rate Securities — the money that B&F “parked” in a safe investment as did many other state and municipal governments.
Back in the early Territorial days the Coast & Geodetic Survey learned it was cheaper to haggle over price in Chinatown on an individual basis than require formal bids following a procurement manuel from Washington. In government, decentralized decision-making can sometimes outweigh “economies of scale.”
Wouldn’t said fare shopping incur its own labor costs?
When you work in a shop with little or no admin support, it not only becomes a necessity to do it ones;ef, but cheaper, too. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve fouind a cheal fare in minutes only to be told must go thru more expensive contractor. Form over substance, that one.