Musings: Don't Look, Don't Find

A few drops of rain fell from a sky that was white and gray when Koko and I went out walking this morning. The fragrance of angel’s trumpet and citrus mingled with the stench of decaying rooster, and the birds, which seem always to wake enthusiastic and cheerful, belted out a rich medley of songs.

Nearing home, I found myself eyeball to eyeball with a fierce orange sun, which shimmered through thin streaks of pink and pearly white, casting the trees in gold and causing the thick clouds above Waialeale to assume the purple tones of an old bruise.

Aunty Nani Rogers is facing the prospect of some bruising court costs following a legal challenge of the unneeded and poorly conceived Coconut Plantation and Coconut Beach resorts. She and 1000 Friends of Kauai wanted the county to require the developers to do an Environmental Assessment of the projects, which together would add some 538 hotel and condo units to the heavily congested Coconut Marketplace area.

They lost, and are appealing. Meanwhile, the county and Coconut Beach have been awarded court costs of $10,187.04 and $21,466.66, respectively, and Coconut Plantation is trying to get $7,265.34. Needless to say, the situation is creating a bit of stress for Nani, a tireless advocate for iwi kupuna and the kanaka maoli culture who joined the case out of concern over how the resorts would impact burials in the area.

It’s a bit chilling to think that when citizens go to court against the government, which finances its legal defense with our tax dollars, they could end up with some serious court costs, even if their attorneys are working pro bono. But if you go through all the hearings and still hit a brick wall, as so often happens in the “process,” court is often the only option.

That’s where Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. attorney Alan Murakami will be this morning, asking Judge Kathleen Watanabe for an injunction to stop the widening of Kuhio Highway in Wailua.

He contends that an EIS and Burial Treatment Plan must be completed before construction begins because the area is a previously identified burial site. The Kauai-Niihau Island Burial Council also needs to determine the boundaries of the burial site, and how much of it should be protected.

An underlying problem is that plans to widen the highway, add another lane to the cane haul bridge and build the bike path are being viewed as separate projects. So even though they’re all impacting the same area, their cumulative effects are not being considered.

The county is taking a similar approach to the Path, dealing with each segment as if it were stand-alone, rather than related to all the others.

It’s all part of an effort to minimize the likelihood of identifying significant impacts that could force changes in the project or give interested parties more of a say in what happens. Just as the military addresses gays in its ranks through the policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” state, county and federal governments approach burials and environmental concerns and other possible hinderances through the mindset of “don’t look, don’t find.”

Meanwhile, a new report has found more questionable practices associated with Hawaii Superferry:

Between 2004 and 2009, the U.S. Maritime Administration, or MARAD, a federal agency that supports the U.S. shipbuilding industry and merchant marine, made just one loan from its troubled Federal Ship Financing Program, also known as Title XI. The borrower was Hawaii Superferry Inc., a politically connected company that hired a former chief counsel and deputy administrator of MARAD, among others, to lobby the agency. In 2005, Hawaii Superferry got a taxpayer-guaranteed loan for $139 million to build and operate a pair of high-speed ferries in the fiftieth state. Just four years later, the company filed for bankruptcy, listing assets of a mere $1 million.

The two ferries have a book value of only $2.8 million, and were delivered to MARAD. They were used recently to aid the relief effort in Haiti.

Wow, an investment of $139 million nets products worth less than $3 million. Such a deal.

A related story addresses the military component of that big boondoggle:

{T]he company’s lobbyists at Blank Rome LLP reported being paid $210,000, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, to lobby for inclusion in a Defense Department program that would pay to have improvements made to the Hawaii Superferry’s two high speed catamarans that would make them more militarily useful.

The increased lobbying activity came when Hawaii’s Supreme Court was considering a suit that ultimately shut down Hawaii Superferry on environmental grounds.

Overall, the Superferry was a highly successful scam, screwing taxpayers at both the state and federal levels. Seems some of its shortcomings might have come out in an EIS that delved into finances before we made such a big investment.

But when you don't look, you don't find.