Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Musings: Curious Alliances

Round white moon on one side, pink streaks shooting from a glassy sea on the other, and in between a flock of fat ruddy turnstones, running along wet sand as fast as their little legs will carry them until they lift off in fluttering flight.

Seems like a lot of mainland reporters are taking flights to Kauai these days, and apparently even more are planned. The Media Consortium has launched a “two-year collaborative project involving ten news organizations that will send reporters to Kauai to cover issues regarding pesticide-based pollution, GE food, corporate influence and other important topics,” according to an announcement by the Food Integrity Campaign. The release goes on to state:

This effort mirrors FIC's mission, which seeks to enhance overall food integrity "by strategically working to alter the relationship of power between the food industry and consumers; protecting the rights of those who speak out against the practices that compromise food integrity; and empowering industry whistleblowers and citizen activists."

It's sponsored by the Media Consortium, whose website maintains: 

Millions of Americans are looking for honest, fair, and accurate journalism-we’re finding new ways to reach them.

I'll be curious to see how the Media Consortium manages to satisfy both its mission and FIC's agenda.

I've also been curious about the fascinating alliance that formed between the biotech industry, the federal government and environmentalists, leading to a push for ethanol as part of the “green energy” movement to slow global warming.

As a lengthy Associated Press piece reports, ethanol has been extremely effective at boosting corn prices — which in turn drives up food costs — and selling lots of GMO corn and soy seeds. Those are the two crops most commonly used to produce ethanol in the U.S.

Though it's been great for biotech seed sales and corn farmers, who planted 15 million more acres of corn last year than before the ethanol boom, it's had devastating ecological impacts:

As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they wiped out millions of acres of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies, an Associated Press investigation found.

Five million acres of land set aside for conservation — more than Yellowstone, Everglades and Yosemite National Parks combined — have vanished on Obama's watch.

Landowners filled in wetlands. They plowed into pristine prairies, releasing carbon dioxide that had been locked in the soil.

Sprayers pumped out billions of pounds of fertilizer, some of which seeped into drinking water, contaminated rivers and worsened the huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where marine life can't survive.

Hawaii imposed an ethanol mandate supposedly to boost biofuel production in the state, but as we all know, there is no local production. Which means we're importing GMO-based ethanol to add to the gasoline here. Kinda crazy, huh?

As Henry Curtis of Life of the Land notes in a blog post::

Ethanol is green in the sense that, after factoring in all of the generous state and federal tax breaks and subsidies, a lot of money could be made.

It's time to end the ethanol mandate for gasoline — if the Hawaii Legislature is willing to tackle the issue. Sounds like a natural cause for the pro-2491 movement to take on, another way to hit biotech in the pocketbook.

And finally, Mayor Carvalho has responsed to Councilman Gary Hooser's allegation that his staff — namely communications director Beth Tokioka — was texting Councilmembers “in an attempt to influence the vote and actions of members of the Council on Bill No. 2491, Draft 2.”

Though Carvalho acknowledged some texts were exchanged between Beth and Councilmembers JoAnn Yukimura and Nadine Nakamura, he said there was no attempt to influence their decisions.

Both JoAnn and Nadine ultimately voted to approve the bill, though the mayor had sought a deferral.

The mayor went on to note that the County Attorney had checked with the Office of Information Practices and was told it's not a violation of the Sunshine Law for texting to occur between members of the Administration and the Council during meetings. Furthermore, texts sent from a personal phone are not considered public records.

Council Chair Jay Furfaro also announced at last Saturday's meeting that texting is not prohibited by the OIP. Furthermore, texting is not prohibited by Council rules – the same rules Gary used to recess the vote on the 2491 override and bring in a new member to vote his way.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gary is such a loser. Really? Sending a memo to the Mayor to justify texting during a meeting? LAME.

at least now i know if i see someone wearing a support bill 2491 shirt to hide my phone because obviously they have no respect for privacy.

cant they be charged criminally for invasion of privacy?

WHAT LOSERS!

Andy Parx said...

1) The legality of councilmembers texting during session was never questioned but the ethics of the situation in the texting of a future employee of the mayor's by his chief political advisor in order to influence deliberations was. It could be seen as a violation of the "use of position to obtain special benefit" (the CM job) section under Article 20.02(d) of the charter.
2) I'm not sure the question asked of the OIP was asked correctly. I don't think it was posed as a matter of conducting official business on a personal device being a public record subject to the UIPA (Hawai`i open records law). I understand OIP has said that such emails are subject to disclosure.
3) What was of questionable legality is the possibility of violation of the "serial communication" rule. According to the sunshine law only two councilmembers are permitted to confer and "deliberate toward a decision" (but not to commit to a vote) on a matter before or likely to come before the council. This rule may not be violated by having a third party communicate between more then two councilmembers, thus allowing the law to be circumvented. Although only two members- Yukimura and Nakamura- were observed to be in communication with Tokioka if there was a third and they deliberated toward a decision via Tokioka, that would be illegal.
It should be noted that by observation, it was apparent Nakamura and Yukimura were each others "one other" for 2491 with Bynum and Hooser being another "two" and Rapozo and Kagawa being a third.

Anonymous said...

"
Both JoAnn and Nadine ultimately voted to approve the bill, though the mayor had sought a deferral."

But that is not the point here.

The point is was she being influenced to rush out of council and into the mayorʻs office. And that definitely could have affected the outcome

Anonymous said...

So what is it? The caʻs interpretation/or lie on texting from the OIP or Jayʻs interpretation?

huh?

Anonymous said...

Curious alliances, yes, especially the newly formed ones.

Anonymous said...

Texting might not be prohibited as such, but communications and debate before votes are supposed to be in public. Whether they use texts or back-room whispers to debate issues outside of the public's scrutiny, it is wrong.

Its all to familiar in this county, when government types are doing malfeasance that they say "call my personal cell phone for this one." They routinely misuse text and personal cell phone for doing government business - and its going to stop when private cell phone records start getting subpoenaed. So if you use your private cell or texts to do County business - so that your call won't log into the County's I.T system, just remember your privacy in that device is gone. - for your personal sh&t as well.

Anonymous said...

12:56/58


CA and Jay are both saying the same thing. Gary claimed they were trying to push for a deferral not rush it into the mayor's office.

maybe you need to work on reading comprehension???

Anonymous said...

You folks clearly don't know Nadine. She is smart as a whip. To think that she is being manipulated by the Mayor's office or anyone else is just plain dumb.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for dueʻg the diligence on the very likely undue influence, Andy.

Got to remember that it is often referenced as the ʻappearanceʻ of impropriety for government officials.

I just hate referring to them as government officials.

Anonymous said...

Andy has not done any due diligence. he didn't even call OIP. he just throws s*** out and hopes something will stick.

Anonymous said...

hmmm, yes you can see the slick media campaign

Anonymous said...

I think most environmental justice proponents are aware of the massive carbon footprint required for industrial farming to produce ethenal from corn. Some models show it far greater than fossil fuel. Brazil with their cane ethenal may be on to something. Lipids from pond algae or hemp seed oil show promise as diesel fuel substitutes

Anonymous said...

kinda weird, if you are working for the county on county business and on the county payroll clock, in the middle of a meeting no less, why are you allowed to do 'personal' business on county time....if its just because its your 'personal' phone that means no sunshine violation, then if they were talking face to face what is the difference? the personal phone? the communication is the same no matter the method, seems like a step into the twilight zone for the OIP.....seems like if you are communicating something concerning the county on county time, that should be part of the 'sunshine' no matter what medium....am i missing something? sorry if i sound dumb....i neva graduate HS...aloha Dean

Joan Conrow said...

Dean, according to the OIP opinion:

Sunshine law only applies to members of the body. The Administration is not part of Council so it's not a violation if they text Council, or Council texts them.

The personal phone issue addresses whether the texts are considered private, or public record. OIP says they aren't public, unless county is paying for the phone.

Also, a guy contacted me in regard to a comment you left a while ago, about controlling weeds with diesel fuel. He said don't do that, as the fuel can leach into groundwater.

Anonymous said...

4:06 Brazil is cutting down rain forests to grow sugar cane for ethanol. Talk about big carbon footprint!

Anonymous said...

thanks, that diesel fuel comment was total sarcasm, thot it was obvious!!!....as far as the personal phone, is that considered personal business? and if so, then are we paying someone for doing that personal stuff when they are supposed to be doing what they were paid to do, like county business? i can see that if on break or lunch they can use their personal devices for personal use, but for county business concerns it seems that if there were 'sunshine' it would be w/ a 'sunshine' method....such a loophole, and i have no doubt that it is a tactic to get around the rules...imagine a county employee on their personal cell all day..unaccountable to disclosure just because its not a 'county' phone .....are we paying salary for that personal use??...when i was an employer, i told all my crew to put away their phones while you work for me on my time, your attention to the task shall not be interrupted..aloha Dean

Anonymous said...

Joann has no ethical or moral compass. She will say and do anything to get her way. She supports ag condos, vacation rentals and realtors. She is a career politician whose time has long since passed.

Anonymous said...

Andy Pricks said:

"1) The legality of councilmembers texting during session was never questioned but the ethics of the situation in the texting of a future employee of the mayor's by his chief political advisor in order to influence deliberations was. It could be seen as a violation of the "use of position to obtain special benefit" (the CM job) section under Article 20.02(d) of the charter."

But Andy forgets that Nadine already had the job. What a fucking dumbass. And Mr. Welfare has no problem with Hoser, Bynomogmo, Yukillme, or Furtherfromthetruth manipulating the process after publicly stating that they wouldn't select the new councilman until after the veto vote. Ah, just like his "it's okay to pass a bill at 3:00 a.m. with no chance for public comment on the major amendments". What an asshole.

Anonymous said...

Andy Prick also said:

"3) What was of questionable legality is the possibility of violation of the "serial communication" rule. According to the sunshine law only two councilmembers are permitted to confer and "deliberate toward a decision" (but not to commit to a vote) on a matter before or likely to come before the council. This rule may not be violated by having a third party communicate between more then two councilmembers, thus allowing the law to be circumvented. Although only two members- Yukimura and Nakamura- were observed to be in communication with Tokioka if there was a third and they deliberated toward a decision via Tokioka, that would be illegal."

What Mr. Sunshine (or is it Purple Haze) fails to mention is this provision in the Sunshine Law:

§92-2.5 Permitted interactions of members. (a) Two members of a board may discuss between themselves matters relating to official board business to enable them to perform their duties faithfully, as long as no commitment to vote is made or sought and the two members do not constitute a quorum of their board.

The Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals has interpreted this provision as follows: Although subsection (a) does not expressly preclude city counsel members from engaging in serial one-on-one conversations, when council members engaged in a series of one-on-one conversations relating to a particular item of council business, under §92-5(b), the spirit of the open meeting requirement was circumvented and the strong policy of having public bodies deliberate and decide its business in view of the public was thwarted and frustrated.

In other words, if Yukimura and Nakamura were in meeting and working on a bill and obviously deliberating, it's still a violation of the Sunshine Law. But Andy is a fucking hippie haole always trying to tell people what's what and misconstruing shit to fit whatever bullshit position he's staked out. What a dumbass.

Anonymous said...

Nothing like transparency and open government. Hahahahahaha!

Anonymous said...

wow, lawyers swear a lot,,,potty mouth ,,aloha Dean

Anonymous said...

Cover your eyes if it offends you.

Anonymous said...

Can you imagine what would happen if all members of the council decided to text at the same time during a meeting? I personally think it is disrespectful both to the other council members and to the testifying public to text during council meetings ....the exception being a true emergency. The only difference in texting from speaking on the phone is - speaking is louder and texting requires us to look at the text instead of paying attention to the meeting and whoever is speaking. Both are a distraction from what is actually happening in the meeting and many would consider this rude. Don't need rules or regulations- just a little courtesy and respect for others. Just turn the phones off and keep them off.

Anonymous said...

Common courtesy is all that is required. Members should not text or use the phone when the council is in session. It is not polite and shows disrespect for those who are speaking at the same time. It is better to listen well and pay attention to those who are speaking.

Anonymous said...

what happened to the ipads the taxpayers paid for the council members. the ipad should be the only tech equipment allowed during the meeting.

Anonymous said...

They're receiving instructions from their puppet masters. Do you think they speak their own thoughts? Those cellphones are teleprompters.

Anonymous said...

TO 3:56 PM.

With respect to Andy "just throwing s...t out and hoping it sticks" Iʻd say from the quality of your ʻcriticismʻ he just proved his validity.

Anonymous said...

Good point Dean @ 4:16 PM.

Anonymous said...

All you losers crying about using a cell phone during a meeting are MORONS! try not using your cell phone for one whole day.

county employees use their PERSONAL cellphones to do COUNTY WORK! they don't get money to pay for their cell phone bill.

stop your bitching and moaning about the stupid cell phone uses. should the council staff stop using their cell phones during the meeting too? i'm sure they texting people from the administration how stupid the council members are and informing them about who is going to vote what...is that a problem?

WHO CARES ABOUT THE DUMB TEXTING!