Musings: In Case You Missed It

I arrived way late at the “Lawmakers Listen” thing, but as I pulled into the Wilcox School parking lot, I thought, wow, plenty cars. The cafeteria was packed, just like the last time I was there, when the billing was “Feds Listen” to what people had to say about moving monk seals down from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. And the time before that, when it was “KIUC Listens” to the members' views on the FERC process for hydroelectric.

But though people are always talking at these things, the listening part is questionable. Per usual, I saw a lot of folks checking their phones, or standing outside, talking to each other.

I stood at the doorway and scanned the room. The Democratic Party-county government-nonprofit crowd was out in force: mayor, some department heads, county prosecutor, a councilwoman, hmm, David Pratt, haven't seen him in ages. But not Mel Rapozo and KipuKai Kualii, because I'd passed them driving over here, coming out of the county building after a Council meeting.

“Did I miss anything?” I asked a friend.

“Well, Shaylene got into the food before anybody else,” he answered. “What's up with that?”

I glanced at the stack of white take out boxes, all closed, sitting on a table in front of me. They smelled good. And no way would they come close to feeding this crowd. I wondered who had brought them.

“Really? What else?”

“They talked about SB755 for a long time. They all voted for it. Derek said it's jobs and they still have to comply with state and federal permits.”

Well, except for that pesky special management area permit, and those cumbersome shoreline setback variance requirements. "Did very many people ask questions?”

“You know, these guys, it takes them 15 minutes to ask a question and then it's 15 minutes to answer, so we've only had like five speakers. But Felicia Cowden asked about the GMOs, and Jimmy Tokioka went on and on, about how Rodney Haraguchi had come into his office and was saying the only reason he wanted GMO was because what if some disease came along that wiped out the taro and Jimmy said they both started crying and how he goes back and forth on this issue, he's torn up over who he's supposed to represent. Come on, like we don't know who he represents. And he was going on and on about how Rodney grows more taro than anybody else, but he lives in a small house, these guys don't make any money.”

“Uh, huh, yeah,” I said, nodding and smiling to Rodney as he walked past.

“And that one aunty, I forget her name, the one with the really pretty silver hair – you know who I mean, she was all active in the Superferry."

"Nani Rogers?"

"Yeah, when she started out talking she did this really beautiful pule. And she said, it's kinda late you know, for you guys to be coming out to listen to the people, now that the session is almost over.”

“She's got that right. Were there very many names on the sign up sheet to speak?”

“I don't know. But Randal Valenciano is sitting right up there, he's got the list.”

“Randal's doing the speaker sign up? Did they have any handouts?"


[Update: It wasn't Randal Valenciano, but Randy Francisco of Chamber. Now that makes more sense...] 

He passed me a blue folder. "It's from Derek's office. You can have it."

I looked inside. A 17-page document, “2012 Mid-Session Snapshots,” outlined “some of the accomplishments” of the state House to date, using headings like “spending wisely” and “maintaining public order and safety."

There was a single sheet that showed the bacon our guys would be bringing home to Kauai: six capital improvement projects totaling $5.5 million. Interestingly, it had only the names and contact info for Derek Kawakami and Dee Morikawa at the bottom. Hmmm... are those two distancing themselves from Jimmy, as any intelligent person would?

Just then Ed Coll got up to ask a question, but the microphone wasn't working, so I couldn't hear it, and Jimmy was answering, going on and on, and then they were going back and forth, but I couldn't catch what they were saying. Then Sandra Kato-Klutke got up to ask about the status of a bill. 

Time to go.

On the way home, I called a friend who I knew had been there.

“So what did you think?” I asked.

“I showed face. That's what tonight was all about: to see and be seen.”

Ah yes, public meetings as public theatre on Kauai.

Later, at home, I checked Facebook. And it was so cute, Justin Kollar had done a mobile posting from the meeting, a photo of the lawmakers sitting at a table, with the caption: Democracy in action!