Thursday, May 16, 2013

Musings: Heroes

Given the reactions, you would've thought the Kauai County Council had proposed The Inquisition rather than an investigation into just how, exactly, the vacation rental issue got so damn messed up.

I mean, nobody was gonna be burned at the stake or anything. Just a few subpoenas, some interviews, a little fact-finding, perhaps a wrist-slap, or in the best county tradition, an assignment to another job where your incompetence isn't quite so noticeable.

Absolutely no investigation is needed, but if one must be done, let the Administration do it, pleaded HGEA union rep Gerald Ako, who admitted he had not even read the resolution he was testifying against.

Aw, come on, give the Administration another chance, begged managing director Gary Heu. We'll get it right this time. After all, the mayor has formed an “oversight committee at an executive level...to get our arms around this issue.”

When was it formed? Oh, about two weeks ago.

“We should really pull back and take a much broader look at the issue,” Heu advised.

You mean as in whether we want Mayor Bernard Carvalho to represent us for another four years, seeing as how all this ineptitude and inaction happened under his watch? Or just who, exactly, does benefit from blanket approvals of non-qualifying TVRs? Or how much this boondoggle has — and will — cost the taxpayers?

What the county really requires is a re-engineering study, “a big picture, long-term kind of thing,” Heu said. But the Administration knows nobody wants to wait around six months to a year for that. So instead, “a short term plan is being developed, such as taking some of these [years old] violations into enforcement.”

Be still, my heart.

The planning department has actually formed a four-person task force “to take a look at a few of these violations and a find a way to move them forward,” Heu said.

Can we expect in three months to see at least one case brought to a hearings officer, civil or criminal charges, fines? wondered Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura, ever the optimist.

“We would like to move as soon as possible,” Heu hedged, following the county maxim of never let yourself be pinned down.

By the afternoon, that “few” had somehow mushroomed into 30 cases that Planning is investigating or enforcing against, or maybe looked at the files or something. It wasn't totally clear, but the number sounded big. Or at least, bigger than “a few,” and hopefully big enough to head off a Council investigation at the pass.

More obfuscation was provided by County Attorney Al Castillo, who was flanked in this most serious matter by deputy county attorneys Maunakea Trask and Ian Jung. The three of them offered a lot of mumbo jumbo about adjudication, due process for TVR owners, county rights, 20 contested cases, Council overstepping its bounds, duplicate investigations. It all boiled down to the same message: butt out and let the Administration handle it.

“I would've liked to be able to review the resolution first for its legality,” Castillo sniffed. No one sent it to his office with that specific request, though surely he knew about it, since it was publicly noticed a week ago, and he could have shown some initiative in checking it out.

But then, initiative is apparently not  a county value, or we wouldn't have a planning department that waits until it receives a formal complaint before investigating, even when it has been made publicly aware of zoning violations.

“Can we get an attorney who can help us?” asked Councilman Mel Rapozo in frustration.

One thing the Council and Administration did agree upon, aside from wanting to “get to the same place” — a destination that was not precisely defined, and appears to have several routes, depending on who is steering and how much they wish to keep hidden— was the county's tremendous liability exposure. Then there's its unspoken counterpart: how much that exposure might increase if the county's dirty laundry is hung out on the line.

Caren Diamond, a longtime beach advocate and member of Protect Our Neighbor Ohana, discussed the dangers of allowing visitors to keep sleeping in ground floor units within the flood zone.

“Every morning that visitors wake up in these units exposes the county to liability, especially  that morning when a tsunami comes,” she said. 

After her testimony, Councilman Ross Kagawa praised her contribution to the investigation and evidence laid out in the 16-and-counting “Abuse Chronicles” series on this blog: “You and Joan and Barbara Robeson [Caren's fellow PONO member] are heroes.”

“You are only heroes if the Council takes action to rectify,” said Councilman Gary Hooser, who with Rapozo introduced the resolution to investigate.

About seven hours later, the Council voted to defer the issue for a month.

Oh.

Well, as David Bowie would sing: “We can be heroes, just for one day.”

And maybe in a month or so the Council can be, too.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe I won't be voting for any of the existing council people because of their lack of courage in addressing these seriously egregious violations of the county's administrative policies and their incompetent employees.

Anonymous said...

Time to get rid of Carvalho, Heu, and Planning obstructionists Dahilig, and Milnes. Same for Castillo, Jung, and Trask. All these clowns do at Planning and the County Attorney Office is kow-tow to wealthy land owners who bribe them into allowing unsafe rental units and allowing the wealthy to steal public property such as trails. These county employees are all committing PUBLIC FRAUD which is one of the primary investigating missions of the FBI. If the so-called council investigation being proposed had any substance, the council would forward its resolution, and the complete results of its findings, to the FBI Public Corruption Unit in Washington with a request for arrests and prosecutions of not only the illegal TVR owners but the above-najmed county fraudsters. And Ian Costa too.

Anonymous said...

hooser, rapozo and bynum pushed for investigation. Others not.

Anonymous said...

The truth is the PD was afraid of lawsuits by the wealthy if they were denied permits and now they better be prepared for the lawsuits by those put in jeopardy in illegal rental units...idiots.

Good to know that incompetent people hire more incompetent people with lackluster education and no actual land use skills.

Anonymous said...

Deferred for another month? They won't get it until there is another tragic ending say like the drowning of a man who jumped off the deck of a questionable tvr into the river. I mean WTH is it going to take to move this County into action? Everybody just going around covering their asses...sickening. I never voted for Bernard, nor did I vote for most of the council who deferred action on Hooser's resolution. I hope Tim and Joann are owning this situation because they supported/pushed the grandfathering bill. Come on Joann, based on Planning's track record, did you really think they would enforce anything? Reflect on your history with Ian, and tell me you really thought he had what it took to do the job effectively, ethically? Today, this situation has blown up in our faces and the only people to feel consequences are the local residents who have been denied public access, loss of beach and changing the character of quiet neighborhoods into mini-resorts. On a personal note, my daughter and her husband came home to Kauai for a visit. They attempted to go to Ke'e Beach on a weekday and couldn't get close or find parking anywhere. They turned around and left. My son-in-law was left with the impression that the north shore had too many tourists and didn't care for his experience there. How many tourists are left with this same impression? How many locals like my daughter are deprived of the ability to enjoy our beaches? The north shore is out of control and our government officials have allowed it to happen. Its time for residents to force the County to take back our public lands/beaches/neighborhoods now, not later after some long drawn out study.

Anonymous said...

anyone seen the horrendous condition of the parking lot up there? EVERY single rental car that parks there leaves with damage to the undercarriage of the car unless it's a jeep or truck - State Parks Department's responsibly and no plans to fix it unless it's under their master plan and then it will probably be years away...

Anonymous said...

Love HGEA jumping out ahead and trying to prevent a scandal by trying to prevent the exposure of their incompetent civil servants and their forever jobs.

bet many couldn't get a real job if they tried, especially the ones with criminal records...

Anonymous said...

Joan

with a months notice how many people can we get to flood the email system and get together and show up at meeting?

Anonymous said...

Joann is absolutely useless. She can talk the moonbeam talk about sustainability and energy efficiency and clean streets and safe routes to school and she can study and talk and study and talk and then study and talk somemore. Incredible. She has her moonbeam friends who think she walks on water but she does nothing except talk and talk and talk and talk.

Anonymous said...

Now the permitting department is saying it is OK for anyone with Ag zoning and a garden or grazing a few animals can open a restaurant and or store on that Ag land, just like Common Ground has been doing these past years. Check out the 5/14/13 Planning Commission meeting.

Anonymous said...

planning commission puppets - appointed by the puppet master - to serve those who donate to his re-election campaign.

great - more development of agricultural land.

Anonymous said...

this common ground issue deserves a thorough investigation as ka'aina hull and dahilig were so biased for jaeb at the hearing it was disgusting. actually, the commissioners asked good questions but dahilig and hull kept backing and filling for the applicant.

Anonymous said...

You can delete. any comment......why would you delete posts by those that don't agree with you ? You speak of respect however you don't respect differing opinions. I notice several that are posted but shortly after they are gone ? Please explain yourself

Anonymous said...

I agree with 1:50 pm. Enough already with all the workshops and consultants! Put the money where the public can see some outcome. What good is all of the learning when no one is ever "punished' for all the dirt that's been uncovered! Kauai has so many open sores and no outside consultant can fix her, let's start with just one, isn't that a good place?

Anonymous said...

Response to 2:54 PM - please watch the 5/14 hearing as you will be surprised at the deliberation that this commission exercised before arriving at their conclusion to delay any decision on the pro-developer
recommendations by the planning dept.

No argument about the "puppets" term, only that I don't think it applies to all the commission members. I happened to watch Hoike. Now you know how exciting my life is!

Anonymous said...

Watched the broadcast of this meeting today and was DISGUSTED by the weasling and double-talking by all the administration folks. They're all more concerned with their paychecks than anything else.

Anonymous said...

With regard the Planning Commission, no one who has the potential to benefit financially from the requested Common Ground expansion, should be allowed to testify "in support".

I really liked the neighbor who really listed how INTRUSIVE Common Ground is for them. How the heck did Jaeb get away with growing that little Guava Kai snack bar, into a full-fledged restaurant?????

Anonymous said...

If and Only If Kauai had a commission against corruption.


The commissioners should not be born, raised, or related to anyone on Kauai.


This is the only way Kauai can take down Kauai's Cosa Nostra.

Anonymous said...

http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/policelogs/arrest-log-for-wednesday-may/article_1759d058-b22a-11e2-a2a9-001a4bcf887a.html

It's true.

Anonymous said...

7:32 -- thanks for posting. we learn more about the slimeballs working on "our" behalf

Anonymous said...

Working is a subjective term, IMHO...

Anonymous said...

Joan, can you elaborate more on why council (more specifically, Mel) did not send the resolution to the county attorneys office for review.

you barely touched on that which one can only assume that you are backing the council regardless just because they are pushing for the investigation of the planning department.

if you are going to report, report on all sides including the side you favor in this topic so that we can get a complete circle of information.

by the council not sending the resolution to county attorneys for review (regardless if mel hates the county attorneys office), he should have known better. It because the resolution was not reviewed by the CAs that Chair decided to defer, which he has every right to do as the Chair.

Mel didn't want the attorneys to review it because he knew there are some provisions on how the resolution is "currently written" that are too vague or broad.

Like Chair told Mel, Council only has "legal analysts" that cannot give council members legal advice or dish out any type of legal opinion, they are just legal analysts. so even if mel worked with the analysts on writing the resolution, an ATTORNEY should have reviewed it for the proper legal advice.the attorneys are at the county attorney office that CAN give legal advice and opinion.

im still trying to get all the facts so that i can form an educated opinion on all this, but if you want to blame someone for prolonging this, blame mel because he purposely did not send it to the attorneys...

Anonymous said...

at 11:01 am

haha!! good point!! council pointing fingers about "process" and they don't even follow "process" themselves!! LOL. thats why the resolution is being deferred.

good catch

Anonymous said...

Didn't council just recently hire an attorney, one that was previously with OPA?

Joan Conrow said...

11:01 -- All of your assumptions are incorrect. It's the Chair's kuleana to run stuff by the County Attny.

Anonymous said...

A "Resolution" and does not carry the weight of law which may be one reason the CA was not asked to look at it. The Resolution is simply a statement from the Council to the Council telling itself to do the investigation under the guidelines presented. Sure the Resolution could be edited and probably improved as they always can be. But as far as I can tell there is no requirement that the CA review and approve, but it is an easy excuse for those who want to dance around the decision, to defer the decision and feign outrage at the audacity of Rapozo not to run this by the CA. They could have amended it right there if a majority wanted to, but it is clear from my watching of the meeting that a majority did not want to. Thus the deferral using the CA as an excuse.

Anonymous said...

Jay is the one who wants to delay it. Not Mel.

Anonymous said...

I agree but you missed out on some of the council members who are in seat to sabotage such an investigation.

Anonymous said...

Jay manages the agenda. He has a check list that includes "sent for CA review". He knew it had not been reviewed when he feigned surprise. County Attorney and Bynum wanted to talk it out and fix it right then and there. No need for executive session. Bynum had the amendment CA wanted. They should have discussed amendments and voted that day.

Anonymous said...

Except if they voted that day they wouldn't have a month to figure out how to gut it or kill it.

Anonymous said...

Council, your duty to this community is to be responsible and do a full investigation.

Otherwise, we the people of this community will not be voting for any of you to return to office.

Anonymous said...

Kauai cannot let our public officials keep on getting away with collusion. It's time for these officials to get sent to prison.

They don't give a damn about the people or the laws of our county, state, or country so why should we care about them.

Send them all to federal prison and make examples out of them like Blagojevich.