Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Musings: Worth Looking Up

It’s been feeling like fall, and today it’s official, with the equinox occurring at 6:09 p.m. HST. That’s right about the time the moon, which reaches fullness at 11:17 p.m., will be rising in the east, followed shortly thereafter by bright Jupiter. Meanwhile, Venus will be setting in the west.

It’s definitely worth looking up to see a celestial pairing like that, and if you miss them on the rise, you can see them hanging around together all night long.

Dr. Becky Rhodes, director of the Kauai Humane Society, will no longer be hanging around, according to an article in today’s The Garden Island. The weird part is the mysteriousness surrounding it:

“Upon advice of my attorney I cannot comment on my separation from the Kaua‘i Humane Society,” she said.

Her departure, like that of longtime director Sherry Hoe’s before her, came suddenly, without notice or explanation to the public.

I don’t know why, as I severed my involvement with the Humane Society (I was doing PR and grant writing for them) when Sherry was driven out in a vendetta led by Board President Laura Wiley. As a result, Sherry was never given credit for all the work she did to fund and build that really nice shelter at Haiku. In fact, that shelter would never have happened without Sherry and Raymond Hoe. Worse, it was made to seem like she had engaged in some sort of malfeasance, which was a real slap in the face after all the work she did. In short, it was an incredibly crappy way to treat someone.

I don’t want to rehash that sordid mess from 10 years ago, but it did serve to sour me a bit on Dr. Becky, who came in and was treated, and acted, like she was the savior of KHS, without anyone giving due credit to Sherry for all she had accomplished. In fact, even in today’s article Dr. Becky was quoted as saying:

“I’m very proud of the new humane society that we created and making it a true community resource for animals,” Rhoades said.

And now Dr. Becky is out, and apparently it’s not a smooth transition or the Board would be saying how great she is and she wouldn’t have an attorney on hire.

So maybe now folks might want to look a little deeper and see if perhaps the problems might lie with the Board leadership, and not the executive directors of that organization.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although Sherrie Hoe was the "tour de force" of raising the money and energy to build a great facility and deserves acknowledgment for it, she was guilty of nepotism, and possibly dipping in the funds.

I was on the board during those times and Laura Wiley was the Treasurer.

Money and power make good people do stupid and bad things.

Dr Shibai

Anonymous said...

The people of Kauai deserve to know what happened. The taxpayers fund the Kauai Humane Society so we should know. May she can't say anything but the County should let us know. Was it criminal? I think we deserve to know.

Anonymous said...

Re; Dr Shibai
No one can be guilty of "possibly" doing something. If you don't have proof you shouldn't make such allegations.

Anonymous said...

Yes we should have the right know what the specifics are.
For too long this animal shelter has had the appearance and operating style as if it was a private organization.

It is not. But what do you expect from a lingle appointment. Hey look at R. Valenciano- who would have put a robe on him other than Lingle.

Iʻm glad Rhoades is gone. She killed too many of our animals. She was of a nazi standard oh but the rules never applied to heir rhoades.

Whoʻs next? Wiley? Yeaaaa!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Whoʻs next? Wiley? Yeaaaa!!!!!

I'll never forget the day I saw the wileys walking their dogs.

Where's my camera?

Both humans with extreme grimace on their face.

Fodder for Ceaser Milan.

Dogs were the pack leaders.

Anonymous said...

After years of reading snide slurs against Ms. Rhoades on this blog, I would have thought she had done something more objectionable than "was treated, and acted, like she was the savior of KHS."

Joan Conrow said...

What makes you think everything was covered in this particular post? And btw, it's Dr. Rhoades, not Ms.

Anonymous said...

What makes you think everything was covered in this particular post? And btw, it's Dr. Rhoades, not Ms.

Ick.