I was a bit short of ideas when I sat down yesterday to write my weekly Civil Beat column. I like to have a complicated issue or situation backed up by lots of documents that few others will spend time wading through. Then I try to digest the story and tell it in relatively concise form, adding a narrative line, and trying to link it to a broader political or social context and history. When I works, I’m happy. Sometimes the complexity gets the better of me, though, and a column will bog down or go off course.

But yesterday I didn’t have an issue lined up in advance, and I was down to less than enough time to track down something interesting.

So, left to my own devices, I decided to put several pieces together. Campaign contribution data available through the state’s data portal has been updated through August 13. And a special meeting of the Honolulu City Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee on three matters involving Haseko’s resort in Ewa, formerly known as the Ewa Marina development, had created some interest in money flowing from developers to the council.

For people who haven’t looked at these data before, it can be shocking. One friend, hardly a neophyte in how things work, had trouble believing his eyes.

“It’s so blatant,” he said, referring to how development interests dominate the money going into city council campaigns.

So with that as my starting point, I started writing.

The result can be found here (“Ian Lind: The Sound Of Money Talking“).

Check it out.