June 26, 2004 - Saturday

The Star-Bulletin's Craig Gima had an excellent story yesterday based on interviews with former members of the University of Hawaii Board of Regents.

One particular incident described to Gima by former regent Billy Bergin caught my attention because it points to the first conflict between Dobelle and the board, which had not previously been made public.

Bergin, who left the board in June 2002, said his concern with the former president began on Dobelle's first day on the job.

At a press conference announcing his hiring, Dobelle, with the regents standing behind him, announced several high-level personnel appointments.

Board members were stunned because personnel appointments have to be approved by the board, and no one had been given advance notice, Bergin said.

The incident Bergin describes was actually at the press conference when Dobelle officially took over as UH president, not when his appointment was announced.

The situation repeated itself at the end of 2001 when Dobelle announced his selection of two vice-presidents, Wick Sloane and Paul Costello. This time around, Dobelle got in trouble with the regents for signing unusually lucrative employment contracts with both Sloane and Costello without board approval. In this case, though, the regents reacted by refusing to rubber stamp the contracts when they were finally sent for their review months after the fact.

Although Dobelle signed off on both contracts around the start of 2002, the regents refused. The final versions of the contracts--after substantial rewriting of terms--did not receive final board approval until they quietly appeared on the regents' agenda for February 21, 2003, BOR minutes show.

During the year the contracts were under review, regents turned to outside counsel--they hired themselves a private attorney--to handle the review and negotiations, perhaps because the university's top lawyer, Walter Kirimitsu, had been named Dobelle's chief of staff, creating a possible conflict of interest.

Sloane's contract--both the original and final versions--can be seen by clicking here, because I happened to upload it before leaving home. Costello's contract, which went through a more radical rewrite, won't be available until I got back to Honolulu mid-week.

So where in the heck are they? I already gave you one red herring--it turns out the free "daily" that I mentioned yesterday is really only published on Tuesday and Friday. So you can quit scouring the net for free dailies. But here are several visual clues, and I'll provide a few more tomorrow. Just click on the photo for the more.

June 25, 2004 - Friday

An article in the Journal Inquirer of Manchester, Connecticut likened Dobelle's situation to that of CT Governor John Rowland. How apt the parallels remains to be seen.

Another cat tip from a reader:

you've probably seen this, but in case you haven't ... mycathatesyou.com is absolutely hysterical. If you click on "your cats," it brings up dozens of kitty pics, with a brief description of each one's particular hatred. It's really funny.

Who would have thought that Honolulu would be rated highly as a city safe for asthma sufferers? That's what this best-worst city listing claims.

Okay. I have to admit that we snuck out of Dodge early Wednesday morning and were at our destination before sunset. Where are we? Well, it's a one-newspaper city in traditional terms, 35 cents for the daily edition. But there are two competing free weeklies, a free daily, and at least a couple of what look like weeklies aimed at ethnic audiences. More later, with photos.

June 24, 2004 - Thursday

It was a day for cat-related links. One tip led me to the Infinite Cat Project, a bit of a mind-bender. And, if you can hold on through the infinte advertisements, there are some wise cat thoughts buried here.

News from Olelo, Oahu's public access provider...Kealii Lopez was named CEO at Tuesday night's board meeting. And about the same time Mayor Harris used his veto to cut the contract for Olelo's broadcasts of the City Council. First they eliminate the daily reporters, then they come for the public access producers...and soon the pros have city hall to themselves without the pesky public or its surrogates watching. Danger, danger.

Pat Bigold wonders why there's been so little critical reporting on the decision to license Mike Tyson to fight here in Hawaii. This wouldn't happen in any mainland city at this point in Tyson's public and criminal career, it seems. Why here?

June 23, 2004 - Wednesday

My mention last week of the redesigned state web portal got a quick response. A reply from Russell Pang, the governor's chief of media relations, arrived just seconds after 8 a.m.

Your posting today (Thursday) about the new state government web portal was forwarded to me.  I wanted to let you know that there is a link to the State Legislature.  

On the home page, click on the "Government" box.  Next, find the "State Government" box, where you can select from a listing of all government branches, departments, agencies, etc., including the Hawaii State Legislature.  You can also get to the Legislature's site by selecting "Contacting Elected Officials".

Hope this helps.

Russell

I replied:

The previous version of the portal linked to the legislature and executive at the top (I would throw in Judiciary to have all three main branches of gov't up high) and then listed individual agencies and offices below that. Placing the legislature's main site way down that scrolling list is quite a de-emphasis. I don't know if that's appropriate in terms of traffic stats, but it still strikes me as odd (politically speaking).

I have to say that Russell and others didn't appear defensive about the changes and our dialog continues.

June 22, 2004 - Tuesday

[Ooops. This was carefully prepared but, in the early morning mental fog, not posted. Better late than never, though.]

Another week, another power outage and road closing. This time it was an accident over towards Crouching Lion that knocked out the power for a couple of hours, leading to closing of Kamehameha Highway. It's been a more frequent event recently than I recall in the past. I hope it's coincidence and not a trend.

Yesterday was the Summer Solstice, and it was a lovely morning in Kaaawa. As usual, just click on the photo for a larger version.

Whoa! Take the media's attention off the City Council for a while and you just never know what's going to pop up next. Now that frisky bunch is trying to lighten up on its rule restricting the hiring of relatives, which as I recall was adopted after Council member Andy Mirikitani had hired his girlfriend's son, who also lived with him. Resolution 04-182 would lift the restriction unless the person being hired is directly related by blood to a city official. Hiring relatives of their "domestic partners" would be allowed once again. And I thought politicians never forget. It seems I was wrong. The measure will be heard by the council's Executive Matters Committee on Thursday.

The accreditation team report which discusses the relationship between the Board of Regents and Dobelle and is featured in lead stories in both the Star-Bulletin and Advertiser this morning is already available for download at the UH web site.

June 21, 2004 - Monday

Ann Wright, a former U.S. career diplomat who resigned last year to protest President George Bush's policies on Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, North Korea, and curtailment of civil liberties in the U.S. itself, will make a public appearance in Honolulu tomorrow (Tuesday) night, according to an electronic press release emailed overnight by the Oahu Democratic Party. Wright will be at Church of the Crossroads, 1212 University Avenue, beginning at 6 p.m.

For what I believe is the first time, the Advertiser swept up significantly more awards than the rival Star-Bulletin in the annual competition sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, according to stories published this morning. Overall, the Advertiser earned 22 awards including 12 first place, while the Star-Bulletin had 16, with 10 first place. The Star-Bulletin account includes the complete list of winners and finalists.

Meda added her 2 cents worth to the Dobelle debate with this note dashed off Sunday afternoon to an unnamed newspaper columnist:

By way of introduction, I've been in the UH system since 1969, and in my time I've known and worked with five presidents [Harlan Cleveland, Fujio Matsuda, Al Simone, Ken Mortimer, and Dobelle]. Obviously, I worked with some more closely than others, but I was on the Senate Executive Committee of the UHM Faculty Senate when President Dobelle was first on the campus. I recall the excitement and all the hope that we had about his presidency.

I also recall the deep disappointment that began, for me, some months into his tenure. I'll spare you the details, except to say that after saying he was a "bottom up," "faculty driven" administrator, we hardly ever saw him again; his talks announcing major new University initiatives were all off campus. Ultimately, he barely avoided being censured by our senate (and that was avoided only because he threatened to make Deane Neubauer resign if we went through with it). After the first year, filled with cronyistic hiring, excessive and expensive foreign and domestic travel, and grand schemes, he sort of disappeared. Candidly, most of us felt that he was phoning in his performance for much of the last year.

One additional comment: about a year ago I made a presentation to a group of Women in Higher Education Administration. I tried, sadly with only limited success, to get press coverage of it, only because I went on record as saying that in all my years at the University, I'd never seen an administration that treated women and minorities so badly. Dobelle's top administrators at the time I gave the talk were all white males. Moreover, he made no secret of his disdain for the Asian women (and other women) in the previous administration. All of them were encouraged to retire or faced demotions. Even the one local woman he hired was paid far less than the male she replaced (despite the fact that she had far more credentials than he for the position). Obviously, I could go on at length, but you get the point.

Suffice to say that those of us who care deeply for the University, and who have spent our lives building it and sustaining it (through good and mostly bad times), will not miss him. In fact, we feel hopefully that all of the wasteful spending in Bachman might finally be reigned in before more of our classes and programs are cancelled.

I hope this helps put our silence in perspective...I agree that this case needs openness, but I doubt that what will be ultimately revealed will say much good about Evan Dobelle,

warmest regards,
Meda

Enough said for today

June 20, 2004 - Sunday

Don't miss the fascinating story in yesterday's Washington Post which digs into the Coalition Conditional Authority. While no one was looking closely, they were doling out patronage by hiring people with Bush or Republican ties instead of development specialists, and "working to advance a conservative economic agenda of tax cuts and free trade instead of focusing on the delivery of basic services."

Toby had a young visitor the other afternoon. Well, we had a visitor and, like most kids, she immediately went after the cats. Most ran for cover. Toby was the only cat even willing to consider the possibilities. Eventually a cat toy was put into play and Toby decided he didn't have to flee right away, and a good time was had by all. As usual, just click on the photo for a larger version.

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