Musings: Monday Mixed Plate

Bill Tam, deputy director of the state Department of Natural Resources, recently opined in a meeting that substituting imported foods is so important, the state should not lease lands to any growers who export produce to the U.S. mainland.

Mmm, maybe the state should start by looking at ways to help Hawaii farmers succeed in producing for the local market. Like addressing one of the big problems farmers face: the high cost of importing animal feed, fertilizer and soil inputs. And that leads us to the Jones Act and the shipping monopoly it perpetuates. As a friend noted:

Hawaii became viable for sugar planters when they got a Reciprocity Treaty. That remains our problem today -- reciprocity with a great and powerful continent doing business with the most isolated island archipelago on the planet. Don't expect any help from our congressional delegation. They're in bed with A&B, Matson, the ILWU and the League of Conservation Voters.

And so the dysfunctional state staggers on....

In related news, a senior United Nations official is predicting that all of the world's topsoil could be depleted within 60 years if current rates of soil depletion and degradation continue.  Soil destruction accelerates as the world gets hotter and the population grows, creating a vicious circle. But hey, let's not dwell on this heavy, doomsday stuff. Isn't Kim Kardashian wearing a new dress or something?

Speaking of money, the county is in the market for a new Finance Director, since current Director Steve Hunt is returning to his former position as head of the department's real property division, effective Jan. 1. According to county spokeswoman Beth Tokioka, the move is coming at Steve's request, since he always intended to serve only through the mayor's first term.

 Hmmm. Will former director Mike Tresler, now with Grove Farm, be returning to his old post?

Meanwhile, Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.'s veto of the “agronomics” bill, which would have created a special real property tax classification for the seed companies, will be laid on the table at a special Council meeting on Wednesday. However, no vote will be taken at that time on whether to override or sustain the veto.

The “agronomics” bill was approved at the last meeting of the old Council, along with the amended shoreline setback bill, which includes the “brightline exemption” added by Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura. The exemption inexplicably allows certain properties on rocky coastlines, such as Omidyar's Hanalei Ridge project, to skip the shoreline review process.

The mayor did sign the shoreline bill into into law, even though it's sloppy, contradictory, confusing and arbitrary — yet another Kauai law that is a litigating lawyer's dream. In this day and age, any reduction in coastal setbacks is crazy — unless the lure of new real property tax revenues blinds county officials to the hazards they're creating.

The shoreline bill was pushed hard by current and past employees of Sea Grant, whose previous head is a close friend and prior colleague of Eric Crispin, vice president of Ohana Hanalei, the company developing the Ridge project. Sea Grant also required its own employee, Adam Asquith, to help with the Ohana Hanalei fish pond design. Something sure smells stink...

In a classic case of manipulated circular thinking, Councilman Gary Hooser fed discredited blogger Andy Parx bad info for a post criticizing Council Chair Mel Rapozo's rule changes. New blogger Loren Kohnfelder then used Andy's erroneous post a source for his own post, which Gary is now promoting. Spin, baby, spin.

The Garden Island has its own credibility problems. In an article and opinion piece on the $10,000 it's contributed to the monk seal murder reward, TGI laughably lauded itself for “editorial excellence” before stating:

A newspaper’s job is to report the news.

Indeedy. So why are TGI's pages packed with fluff and puff, while the real news is typically MIA? For example, TGI has yet to write about the formation of the GMO/pesticide fact-finding group, even though the issue is one of the biggest in the state, the story has been picked up by Honolulu media and group members are now being vetted.

As for the sicko monk seal killer, while most of us do want to see him apprehended — yes, I'm certain it's a “him” — and money can make people talk, TGI would serve the community far more by spending that $10,000 to upgrade its editorial efforts.

Fern Rosenstiel — amusingly identifying herself as an "environmental scientist" — has a letter to the editor properly blaming ignorance and false information for the polarization over the seal. Ironically, she lacks the insight to recognize how that also applies to the disinformation campaign she and her allies mounted to turn folks against the seed companies. 

Too bad Dustin Barca — Fern's Ohana O Kauai cohort — didn't use his mayoral run to advocate protection and respect for the seal, and instead of nearly running one over as he launched his canoe. Wonder what's happening with the NOAA investigation into that incident, which is considered a "take."

Kudos to reporter Darin Moriki, though, for reporting on a critical issue: the successful efforts of southside residents, many of them elderly, to prevent the proliferation of vacation rentals in their neighborhood around Whaler's Cove.

Meanwhile, prepare for the next wave of resort housing in residential neighborhoods as illegal TVR owners attempt to convert their properties to B&Bs. First up, that poor lil' diamond merchant Eddie Ben-Dor, whose sad plight will be detailed in tomorrow's post.