Musings: Under Cover

How much would you pay to sleep in Pierce Brosnan's bed? Without him or James Bond in it, of course.

Such an experience is possible at 007's Haena vacation rental — one of two properties he owns on Kauai — and it costs $1,500 to $1,950 per night, with a $1,000 cleaning fee and $7,500 deposit.

It's questionable how Pierce actually got a TVR permit, since his property had no prior history of vacation rental, as required by county ordinance. But then, secret agents operate outside the law, right?

The planning department initially denied Pierce's request for a TVR permit after an inspection found a storage area had been improperly converted into a kitchen without permits. But the Brosnans hired former deputy county attorney Lorna Nishimitsu, who managed to secure approval from the Planning Commission, even though the application lacked the required documentation.

The three-bedroom, “sleeps 6+” house has all the usual amenities of an upscale vacation rental — teak beds, fine linens, “oversized shower heads,” bamboo floors, hand-woven silk rugs, satellite TV, European lighting fixtures — along with gated security on a five-acre oceanfront lot.

It also has a rather dubious “garage” and other facilities that speak to a multi-family rental, prompting a citizen complaint to the county planning department, which promised an inspection. Perhaps that explains why the property's ad can no longer be accessed on the Bali Hai website.

Here's a picture of the “garage:”

The ad outlines its features:

Inside the garage is a fully equipped home office with a writing desk, computer, phone, and fax machine / printer.

Attached to the garage, you will find a well-stocked butler's pantry with tablecloths and linens, fine Russian china (service for 36) and a variety of stemware, a full size dishwasher, ice maker and refrigerator, as well as temperature controlled wine cabinets.

Now if they can go after Councilman Tim Bynum for having a rice cooker in a room in his private home, certainly this commercial property should raise an eyebrow. Even if it does belong to James Bond.

And then there's the fully enclosed, 480-square-foot "dining pavilion," which curiously seats 12 — perhaps to accommodate the “+” in the “sleeps 6+” part of the ad:

And don't forget the 900-square-foot yurt to “practice yoga, or to have a massage.” Or maybe sleep another four-to-six guests...

Pierce is also one of those guys who helpfully illuminates coconut trees. You know, so the native bats and Newell's shearwaters don't fly into them:

In the evening, our stately landscape lighting embellishes the mature coconut palms and creates a majestic backdrop against the blanket of stars.

If guests get bored with all that luxury and beach, no worries. Pierce also offers access to his land on Wainiha Powerhouse Road, where he was engaged in a long legal battle with Cathy Ham-Young over whether he had the right to deprive her taro patches of water so he could maintain his landscape ponds. Now she's passed on, and those contentious ponds remain — for the viewing pleasure of the well-heeled:

Private picnics and swimming excursions to our nearby 8 acre Wainiha Valley river property (1 mile away) can be easily arranged with 24/48 hour notice.

I guess even movie stars want to squeeze every possible penny out of their investments, and the planning commission is ever so eager to oblige  Because while money talks on Kauai, celebrity and money and a well-connected attorney talk even louder.

Speaking of money, thanks so much for the donations that have made via the Pay Pal button in the right hand menu, and also sent through the mail to PO Box 525, Anahola, 96703. I'm very grateful for the support that has been shown for my work! Mahalo!

Musings: On Human Wastage

Driving over to the beach, well before dawn, I passed a young woman parked in the place where the tweakers always wait for their ice delivery. Our eyes met, and I sent her a silent prayer of hope and healing. Down at the water, I walked by a man passed out in the sand, watched his bleary-eyed companion stagger out of their tent, beer bottles strewn around the campsite.

Saddened by the human wastage, I kept walking and looked up, where the boobies and iwa were soaring overhead, heading south to fish. The sun peeked up over the horizon, and a rainbow arched through a gray cloud. And so dawned another day in “paradise.”

Remember Lance Collins, the Maui attorney who challenged the county's attempt to obtain pro bono legal services to defend the pesticide/GMO regulation bill in federal court? And when finance director Steve Hunt denied his protest, he still pressed on, demanding a hearing before a state agency, threatening legal action?

What ever happened with that? I wondered.

Turns out it was a big “nevah mind,” with Lance agreeing before the hearing to drop his protest as moot. This is just one example of how people who don't even live here waste our county's time and money to pursue their own ideological, political and publicity-seeking purposes.

Another example is Bob Yuhnke, the Colorado-based attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund who drafted the anti-ag charter amendment that folks are now trying to get on the ballot. The document, which is is actually an ordinance disguised as a charter amendment, creates an omnipotent environmental czar. Its language basically tells the county to ignore state and federal law, violates the commerce clauses of the U.S. Constitution and runs roughshod over due process:

Strict liability. Any action, activity or conduct, or failure to act, that violates this Charter Amendment is an offense without requiring proof that the defendant knew or intended that such action, activities or conduct, or failure to act, would cause or contribute to the violation.

I keep waiting for someone to stand up and speak against it, someone like a respected local attorney, or a council member — other than Gary Hooser, who endorses it, even though he is sworn to uphold the law and do what's best for the people of Kauai.

But nobody's saying nuttin', except for Felicia Cowden, who is using her publicly-funded KKCR radio show to promote both the charter amendment and her bid for County Council. I tried to call in to her program yesterday, where she was allowing Yuhnke to speak unchallenged for 40 minutes, and she refused to let me ask a question. That doesn't speak well for a Council candidate.

And it doesn't speak well for a community radio station, especially one that is in the middle of its fund drive. And it got me wondering, where is KKCR getting its money? Is it getting paid to single-mindedly advance an anti-GMO/anti-seed company message? Because we haven't heard any other point of view for well over a year.

So I checked out its 990 tax form, and discovered its most recent filing was 2011, and all the donations are lumped together. Which means we have no way of knowing whether the station sold out last year to special interests, or if its station manager and Board are simply unwilling to provide any sort of balanced programming. Indeed, four of the nine Board members used their own shows to actively lobby for the pesticide/GMO regulatory bill.

[Update: Station manager Dean Rogers kindly sent me a copy of the most recent tax returns, which are available for review at the station.] 

But aside from Ed Coll, whose Spinning Wheels Turning blog has chronicled the station's dysfunction and recent unraveling, nobody is sayin' nuttin' about the demise of public affairs programming on our community radio station. Or at least, not publicly, though I hear lots of private stink talk.

Meanwhile, I hear the state isn't going to fund any additional ag and pesticide inspector positions for the Neighbor Islands. It's apparently taking the position that if the counties want to regulate pesticides, they can pay for the inspectors.

Which is fine, except right now the county is dealing with a serious budget shortfall. And we're still facing an unknown legal bill to defend Ordinance 960 — written by Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice — and, should it get on the ballot and pass, the charter amendment, as it will absolutely be challenged.

But what do CFS, Earthjustice and Yuhnke care? They're not paying property taxes on Kauai.

As I told a friend, Kauai's smallness makes it too easy for wackos to hold sway and too hard for people to speak up who should. Which means, be prepared to pay.

Musings: To the Victor

When the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Food Safety opened up shop in Honolulu, its new director, Ashley Lukens, claimed: “The [anti-GMO] movement here is vibrant. It’s been able to achieve some victories here that elsewhere are impossible.”

With both the Kauai and Hawaii Island ordinances being challenged in court, and Monsanto vowing to wage a fight against the Maui ballot initiative, it's unclear whether any political changes will be achieved. Just as it's unclear exactly what CFS considers a victory, or how it defines vibrant, considering the movement has failed to gain traction on Oahu, the major population center.

But there is no doubt it has been able to do things here that would be impossible elsewhere, as it galvanized disaffected kama'aina youth looking for a scapegoat and newcomers desperate to belong.

First, the scapegoat. As a reader commented:

If you grew up on Kaua’i then it’s impossible to not feel the environmental decline of our island. And we all are frustrated. 2491 was the result of that frustration. For the first time people felt that they could make a difference. It was not a movement of big money. It was a movement of mostly Kaua’i youth crying out for a change in the status-quo. The details of the bill, to many involved, were irrelevant. It was standing up for the fight that mattered.

Of course, big money did enter the movement — as soon as Councilman Gary Hooser brought in the Center for Food Safety.

But what really struck me was how so many of the frustrated youth who grew up on Kauai are the offspring of mainlanders who moved here in the 1960s-80s and sold real estate to and built luxury homes for part-timers who drove up land prices and closed off accesses. They started businesses that catered to tourists; invited their friends and families to move here, too, and in other ways contributed to the environmental decline and created the status quo their kids are complaining about. But instead of going off on Mom and Dad, or, gasp, looking at their own complicity, they targeted an easy outside enemy: biotech.

From there it was a snap to find soldiers among the legions of young and old newbies who had also moved here believing they'd found paradise, and were anxious to fit into a community that is cliquish, provincial and often racist. With the community radio station pumping out non-stop propaganda on its “public affairs” talk show and the local newspaper asleep at the wheel, it was a cinch to mobilize an impassioned crowd behind the simplistic slogan, “defend what you love.”

The power of that dynamic became even more clear when I read a guest editorial in today's paper by Vesselina Jeliazkova. It was about a recent action at Kahili River to access waterfalls that have been blocked by a man who is building a lavish mansion on ag land — a practice that some of us have been fighting, and that others, including some of the aforementioned disaffected and their parents, have been abetting. Vesselina writes:

Getting to Kilauea Falls was the goal.

“By law at the end of the river, kanaka blood line decedents can continue up the river, to gather and practice their spiritual practices. This right is preserved for native people in our Hawaii state laws,” Fern [Rosenstiel] informed us.

Out of 15-20 of us, maybe two or three people fit the kanaka blood line requirements. However, we all secured our water transportation and went into the quest: To see what turned out to be one of the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen.

Kaiulani Mahuka spoke before everyone went into the water and onto our mission with all kinds of boards and canoes.

“Because you are here to do the kuleana you are the new Hawaiians!” he [sic] said. “Repeat after me: I am the new Hawaiian.”

And we did.

Three times.

It was the first time since I have been here that I was told to say out loud that “I am the new Hawaiian.” It was the first time for a lot of people. I liked it. It felt powerful. Made me stick my chest out proud. It sounded like we were all saying, “I ku mau mau! Stand up together!” from a famous Hawaiian chant shared by Pua Kanaka’ole from David Malo’s Hawaiian Antiquities.

“When you do the work to honor aina and ohana (family), even if you don’t have the Hawaiian blood, you are still thinking like a Hawaiian, where the land and stewardship of it comes first. When you step up to protect the aina that makes you Hawaiian,” Kaiulani passionately added on her farewell power speech.

Far be it from me to determine who is kanaka and who is not.

Still, I found it fascinating that Vesselina's piece followed one by James “Kimo” Rosen, who wrote about how much he hates the standard Hawaii question: How long have you lived here? He then goes on to make his case:

I was always under the impression that a person who actually moves on their own free will is actually where they want to be by choice, whereas a person born wherever and who never leaves is only there because their parents happened to live there the day they were born.

The newcomer has gone out of their way to be in Hawaii, which actually makes one a stronger Hawaiian. Like a convert to a religion, they are usually the strongest congregants because that religion is their choice, not just a religion into which they were born.

Hoo boy. 

It is easy, in this strange milieu of deputized Hawaiians, self-declared Hawaiians, locals, local haole and actual kanaka, to galvanize, polarize and otherwise manipulate a community into political actions. It's continuing now, with the push to get that clearly illegal charter amendment on the ballot.

All of which allows Center for Food Safety to proclaim its victories. But as I noted, we don't yet know how CFS, with its very specific, big money-financed agenda, defines victory.

Musings: Nature of Change

Mist crept through the valleys and mynah birds lived dangerously, scavenging road kill from warm asphalt, when the dogs and I went walking this morning. Haze had faded the mountains to pale blue and the sky was slashed with streaks of shell pink that turned gold as the sun smoldered in a bed of red-orange coals. 

Though each day begins, and ends, quite differently, it seems that some things never change at all, or in totally unexpected ways — a concept that hit home as I recently pawed through clips representing a quarter-century-plus of my reportage in Hawaii.

Like the August 2004 Honolulu Weekly piece on then-Mayor Bryan Baptiste's plan to turn the Hanapepe dog pound — abandoned as unfit for animals — into a drug rehab center for teens as part of his fight against drug abuse. A decade later, meth use is even more rampant and we're still talking about an adolescent treatment facility. This time, though, it's near the new dump.

I ran across a whole slew of stories I wrote on the Department of Hawaiian Homes, including one published on Feb. 23 1996 in the Star-Bulletin, back when Kali Watson was the chair and all giddy because for the first time in its history, the agency had money. Yes, the Lege had promised to pay DHHL $30 million annually for 20 years for past breaches of the homelands trust, and “we're just accelerating like hell on our housing program,” Watson said.

Yet the waiting list continued to grow.

Fast forward a decade, and Micah Kane was running DHHL. In an August 2006 article for Honolulu Weekly, I reported on his plan to boost revenues by issuing a bunch of commercial leases. He had grand schemes for Kauai, specifically the Wailua corridor, where DHHL was going to build 600 to 700 homes, schools, shops, a Kamehameha Schools preschool and community centers on the mauka side of the highway. To pay for it, Kane wanted to develop 600 to 800 resort units on land it owns around Lydgate Park. Work was supposed to begin by 2009. But Kane got a way better gig as a Bishop Estates trustee and all that stuff got shelved.

Now here we are, eight years later, and the agency is still wildly dysfunctional, still burning through money with little or nothing to show for it, the waiting list is still growing and folks are still dying before they ever get an award. Will DHHL ever be anything but tragic?

I found stories dating back 20 years on the traffic problem in Kapaa, with the businesses there constantly begging for relief, which was supposed to be provided first by the bypass, then by the second bypass, then by widening the highway in front of Coco Palms, then by contra flow, then by widening the Wailua bridge. Now we're told just to suck it up, cuz it's gonna cost way more money to fix than we'll ever get and besides, the state is more interested in the Lihue to Kalaheo corridor now.

Which brings me to a March 2, 2007 article I published in Kauai Island News:

Next time you’re creeping along in Kapaa’s traffic, just remember — it wasn’t supposed to turn out like this.

Back in 1972, when the island had 21,000 residents and two major employers — sugar cane and pineapple — county planners laid out zoning for the region between Nukolii and the Coconut Marketplace, envisioning a mix of small resorts and commercial centers, with worker housing sprinkled in.

“It was supposed to be like a little Waikiki, kind of low key, not the damn mess we have now,” says Keith Nitta, the county’s long-range planner, who retired last December.

No one anticipated, 35 years ago, that sugar and pine would collapse, gentleman’s estates would sprawl over farmland and beachfront property would fetch outrageous prices. That’s why the parcel across from Safeway was developed into the 190-unit Waipouli Beach timeshare resort, instead of the affordable employee housing envisioned when the land got its apartment zoning, he says.

It’s not the last resort that will be built on the eastside, either. Coco Palms is planning to reopen, while two hotel/condo projects proposed for a vacant parcel north of Coconut Marketplace would add 547 units.

Meanwhile, intensive residential development is proceeding on agricultural lands at Wailua Homesteads and Kealia — another scenario county planners weren’t expecting.

“No one thought Lihue Plantation would go belly up and Amfac would sell all its land,” Nitta says. “And look what we got: Kealia Kai, Kealia mauka, Kulana. Now we’re getting these big giant subdivisions."

I thought, gee, I wonder what we're missing now that's gonna bite folks in the ass 30 years down the road. Failing to account for climate change? Building too close to the ocean? Allowing our ag land to be gentrified?

But hey, at least the Navy stopped bombing Kahoolawe. Now practice war games are held at sea — screw the marine mammals — and amid the depleted uranium at Hawaii Island's Pohakuloa Training Area. Indeed, Rep. Colleen Hanabusa has introduced a bill to make PTA "the premier training range" in the region.  She wants to "upgrade" PTA with a runway capable of handling C-17 transport planes. And as West Hawaii Today reported:

Additionally, the military would relocate a high-speed vessel to assist with transportation. 

Hmmm. Could that be a reference to one of the two Superferry catamarans that so coincidentally, and conveniently, ended up in the Navy's fleet?

Musings: When Succor = Sucker

Woke at first light all happy, birds twittering, dogs sighing contentedly beneath my caresses, fragrance of a bedside gardenia wafting past my nose. Ahhhh. Then I picked up my smart phone, scanned The Garden Island and felt the growl rising. So I took a cue from my feathered friends, got up and started singing. And like magic, the grrrr disappeared.

Which is why I am now able to say calmly, and without venom, perhaps Chris D'Angelo's editor needs to impose a quota on the number of stories he may write each week about Surfrider and Gordon LaBedz. I mean, two front page articles in three days pushing Surfrider's political agenda? Isn't that just a bit much? Especially when one was about a non-event and the other a future non-event.

Heck, it's enough to make you wanna vote for fresh-faced farm boy Arryl Kaneshiro — even though he is a Grove Farm employee and son of six-term Kauai County Councilman Daryl Kaneshiro. And mark my words, Arryl is gonna get way more votes in the Council race than Felicia Cowden or any “red shirt” candidate.

Because a political backlash has been building here for months, and its candidates are beginning to emerge.

I noticed on Facebook that Sol Kahn and others were sharing a photo of an “Arthur Brun for Council” sign, with the message that Arthur works for Syngenta and thus “must be stopped.” Because for some, there is apparently only a single issue of import on this island: GMOs. The mainland-based, 1%-er funded Center for Food Safety has set up an Oahu office to exploit that sentiment, designating itself  “a new voice in Hawaii's food politics" and preaching there's just one way to salvation: its way.

Gee, didn't we do that missionary schtick already? 

When I think of Arthur Brun, it's about the testimony he delivered in opposition to the 2010 bill that approved vacation rentals on ag land — and allowed only the folks who had been operating illegally to seek permits. While a number of future “red shirts” were clamoring for the bill's passage, Arthur was one of the very few who spoke against this travesty of justice and misuse of farm land:

“This bill is wrong. What about the local families that had farm land for generations and followed the law? You’re making our families that followed the law suffer. I don’t think you should be punishing the people who followed the law.

Do what is right for the 60,000 people of Kauai, not the 26 people of Kauai.”

With all the many woes facing this island — ice abuse, poverty, homelessness, hunger, gentrification of ag lands, ecosystem degradation, cultural exploitation, a precariously unbalanced economy — we can't afford the luxury, the distraction, of single-issue politics.

As a wise Big Islander noted in an email the other day:

Tom Wolfe, novelist and New Journalism pioneer, staunchly believes that status is the great motivator in American life. I think he's on to something. Subcultures born of political kinship and fellow feeling nourish our yen for status and affirmation. Independent thought is much more gnarly; it veers away from easy and comfortable associations and takes a little courage.

My sense is that people grasp for these group-think communities for lack of a clear personal identity and purpose in a society — Hawaii, particularly — that does not easily afford firm footing. As for Andrew Kimbrell, Vandana Shiva, Nomi Carmona et al, the movement offers self-aggrandizement and, in many cases, a sustaining livelihood.  It's tempting to posit some grand economic determinism behind all this, but I'm inclined to think it's exactly what it appears to be — opportunists leading people who find succor in being led.

Which seems a very fitting segue to this sad-beautiful performance by sand artist Kseniya Simonova on “Ukraine Got Talent.” 

Have a great weekend, and a warm mahalo to all those who are donating to Kauai Eclectic. I deeply appreciate your financial contributions, and most especially, your words of encouragement and support for independent thought.

Musings: Dreck from the Depos, Part II

As is befitting for May Day, the many birds that inhabit the backyard bamboo — shamas, doves, finches, Hwamei and some whose names I do not know — greeted me with a sweet and flowery dawn chorus that drowned out the screams of the doomed, tethered roosters.

Say, did you hear the one about six lawyers who sat for five hours in a room with a court reporter, one questioning county planning inspector Sheilah Miyake — a political appointee of former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka — as the others raised objections? Here's the punch line: Must've cost taxpayers a good ten grand to learn Sheilah has a seriously impaired memory.

And so we continue with our review of the depositions taken in the now-settled case of Tim Bynum vs Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho, Sheilah Miyake and the County of Kauai. The questions are being asked by Bynum's attorney, Dan Hempey, with Sheilah responding as various county-paid attorneys representing all the many parties object.

Q  Please describe your educational background.

A  Two years of college.

Q  And what did you study?

A  English.

Q  And how long have you been a planning inspector for the County of Kaua'i?

A  Eight years.

Q  So what did you do at the planning department before you became supervisor in the planning department?

A  Deputy director.

Q  What, if any, experience did you have in the field of planning at the time you became deputy director in '99?

A  Planning commissioner.

Q      How did you first learn that there was a potential issue with the Bynum home that was going to involve the planning department?

THE WITNESS: A telephone complaint.

Q  Did you recognize the voice of the person on the phone?

 

A  No.

Q  Do you know if the person on the phone that told you about the Bynum house for the first time was [Councilman] Mel Rapozo?

A  No.

Q  Would you recognize his voice if it was Mel Rapozo who made that call to you?

THE WITNESS: I wouldn't know. I'll be honest, I don't know.

Q  Did the person on the phone give you a name?

A  Yes.

Q  They gave you the name of [an Anahola kid who had just been arrested on a minor charge, but claims he never made the call] did they not?

A  Yes.

Q   And what exactly did this person on the phone tell you?

A      Illegal dwelling.

Q  You recall that they said there was an illegal dwelling?

A  Yes. Illegal rental. Illegal -- I can't recall the exact words.

Q  Have you told anyone that the police came to the Bynum home to investigate a domestic dispute [involving his tenant and her boyfriend]?

A   I don't recall.

Q   Did you take part in an inspection of the Bynum property on or about April 14th, 2010?

A   Yes.

 

Q   Who decided to conduct that inspection?

MR. FUJI: It's vague and ambiguous.

THE WITNESS: Don't recall.

Q  You're aware that a criminal case was instituted against Mr. Bynum; correct?

A      Yes, yes.

Q  And in the course of the criminal complaint, Special Deputy Attorney General Richard Minatoya interviewed you; is that correct?

A  Yes.

Q  Did you answer his questions truthfully?

THE WITNESS: As best as I recall.

Q  And also, during the course of the Bynum case, you were interviewed by [former first deputy prosecutor] Jake Delaplane; is that correct?

A  Yes.

Q  And you were unaware that Jake Delaplane was tape recording that conversation; is that correct?

A  Yes.

Q  How did it make you feel to learn that Jake had recorded your conversation?

A  Exactly how I'm feeling now.

Q  How are you feeling now?

A  I'm very sad.

Q  What about this makes you sad?

MR. FUJI: Let's take a break, Counsel.

THE WITNESS: Just sad.

MR. FUJI: Sheilah.

THE WITNESS: I'm sad.

MR. FUJI: Let's take a break.

THE WITNESS: Why?

(After a five-minute beak, the questioning resumes.)

Q  And my question to you now is: Why do you feel sad about this?

A      I just feel sad that he did not inform me that I was being tape recorded. He's an attorney. He's a prosecuting attorney.

Q  Did you file any sorts of complaints against him for doing that?

A  No.

Q  Do you think you did anything wrong in your handling of the Bynum case?

MR. FUJI: Object to the form. Lacks foundation. It's vague and ambiguous. Overly broad.

THE WITNESS: No.

Q  No?

A  No.

Q      Did you discuss your decision to go onto the Bynum property before you went onto the Bynum property in April 2010 with [former planning director] Ian Costa?

A  Yes.

Q  And what did you discuss with Ian before going to the Bynum property in April 2010?

A  "How do we proceed with this?"

Q  What did he tell you?

A  "Treat it as any other complaint. Proceed as any other complaint."

Q  So your testimony is you believe Mr. Costa implicitly approved your entry onto the property by telling you to go forward and investigate; is that right?

A  Yes.

Q      Is it normal when you get a report -- a complaint like you got in the Bynum case, to go onto the property and have pictures taken through the doors of the inside of the home?

THE WITNESS: Depends on the circumstances.

Q. What are some circumstances -- what are some of the variables that cause you to take pictures of the insides of people's homes versus declining to do so?

THE WITNESS: If there's an open permit or a use agreement, we enter the property. And if we can't and if there's a transparent door and it's possible to see in, photographs are taken. And if the door is solid and we can't see in, no pictures are taken.

Q  So when you go to inspect a citizen's house based on a complaint from someone who wishes to remain anonymous, is it fair to say that the only thing that keeps you guys from taking pictures of the inside of their home is how well they protect or cover the doors?

THE WITNESS: Possibly.

Q  Who, if anyone, taught you that practice?

MR. FUJI: Same objections.

MR. NAKAMURA: Also vague and ambiguous.

THE WITNESS: All the inspectors that I have named that I have worked with.

Q  Have you ever taken pictures of the inside of citizen's homes without their permission or without a warrant?

MR. FUJI: Let me object to the form of the question. Vague and ambiguous.

THE WITNESS: Not that I recall.

Q  Have you ever seen people that work at the planning department taking pictures of the insides of people's homes without their permission and without warrants other than in the Bynum case?

THE WITNESS: I don't recall.

Q  Sitting here today, you cannot recall a single other case where someone at the planning department took pictures of the inside of someone's house, can you?

MR. FUJI: That's a different question.

MR. HEMPEY: That's a new question.

THE WITNESS: Just 'cause I don't recall -- oh.

MR. FUJI: Sorry, I didn't hear that. Did you respond?

THE WITNESS: Yes, I said, "I don't recall."

Q  When you looked into the home, what did you see, if anything, that caused you to believe there was a zoning violation?

A  It looked like a separate dwelling.

Q  Okay. And what specifically did you see that led you to that conclusion?

A  A living room and a kitchen area.

Q  What was in the kitchen area that led you to conclude it was a kitchen area? [Henriquez had previously testified they saw a rice cooker.]

A  I observed a refrigerator, a toaster oven-like thing, broiler/toaster, whatever you call that. Boxes of food, possibly like cereal. That's what I recall.

Q  You recall seeing a toaster oven?

A  Yeah, a small compact like -- it looked like that.

Q  Do you recall discussing -- do you recall that when you discussed this with Mr. Minatoya saying that there wasn't a toaster oven?

A  I don't recall that.

Q  Do you recall saying to Mr. Minatoya something to the effect of, Don't ask me if there was a toaster oven?

A  I don't recall that.

Q  Are there any pictures of the toaster oven that you remember seeing?

A  I don't know. I don't know. I don't recall.

Q  Hempey shows Sheilah an email sent from her county email account.  Did you send an e-mail to [former county clerk] Peter Nakamura with the subject line, "For your eyes only"?

A  Not that I recall, ever.

Q  Did you give anyone permission to send an e-mail from your computer to Peter Nakamura on April 15th, 2010?

A  Not that I recall.

Q  Do you have any idea why the April 15th, 2012 e-mail titled "For your eyes only" was sent to Peter Nakamura?

THE WITNESS: I have no idea.

Q  And is it fair to say you cannot say if it was you and you cannot say if it wasn't you?

A I believe it wasn't me.

Q  Did you ever discuss the Bynum matter with Peter Nakamura?

A Never.

Q  Did you ever discuss the Bynum matter in the year 2010 with [former Council Chair] Kaipo Asing?

THE WITNESS: I don't recall.

Q  Would it have been improper for a planning supervisor to send, based on your understanding of the rules and practices of the planning department, would it be improper for someone to send a notice of -- a copy of a notice of zoning violation to the county clerk before it was served on the person who's getting the violation?

THE WITNESS: I wouldn't know.

Q  So is it accurate to say Ian Costa told you that you have to answer to the council chair?

A  Correct.

Q      Isn't it true that you discussed the Bynum zoning matter with Kaipo Asing while he was council chair?

A  Yes.

Q  What did you guys discuss?

A  Compliance and the due process.

Q  And what, if anything, did he ask you about the Bynum case?

A  "Is compliance being met?"

Q      And do you know whether it is proper for a county council chair to be asking a planning inspector about compliance issues in a particular zoning case, do you know?

MR. FUJI: Objection. Vague and ambiguous. Requires speculation.

MR. OLSON: Join.

MR. NAKAMURA: Join.

THE WITNESS: I wouldn't know.

Q  And did you, in fact, receive the cc that appears in the heading of this e-mail from Ian Costa to Shaylene?

A  Yes. Okay.

Q  Let's move up to the top of the e-mail now, Ian's reply to Shaylene. And the first thing he says, "The CZO really doesn't prohibit renting portions of structures." Would you agree with that statement?

A I agree.

Q So even if a house is on ag. land, can a person rent out a room?

Various objections are voiced.

Q  Go ahead.

A  Yes.

Q  Based on your training and experience as a planning supervisor and before, is it also true that the CZO does not dictate where locks are permitted and not permitted?

More objections are voiced.

Q  Go ahead.

A  Yes.

Q  Did this Bynum matter get off track as far as you're concerned at some point?

MR. NAKAMURA: Objection. Vague and ambiguous.

MR. FUJI:  Vague and ambiguous.

MR. OLSON: Join.

THE WITNESS: Yes.

Q  How did the Bynum matter not follow the normal course?

A  He had special treatment.

Q  From whom?

A  From our department.

Q  From who in your department?

A  I guess all of us. The whole department. From whom? The case was turned over to our deputy director, Imai Aiu.

Q  Do you think Imai Aiu gave Mr. Bynum special treatment?

A  I don't know. I can't answer.

Q What is your reason to believe that Mr. Bynum requested special treatment?

A  He never called Patrick.

Q  Okay. And so what would normally happen if a citizen who gets a zoning compliance notice who doesn't respond in the 15-day window? What's supposed to happen then?

A  Send them a notice of violation.

Q  So that second zoning compliance notice that went out, was it written by Director Costa?

A      Yes.

Q   Did Mr. Costa ever tell you that he first heard about the zoning matter at the Bynum property from Kaipo Asing?

A  No.

Q  Would it surprise you if you learned that Ian Costa told Special Deputy Attorney General Richard Minatoya that he first heard about all this from Kaipo Asing?

A  Very much so.

Q  Is it accurate, then, that Ian Costa told you that if Kaipo asks about the Bynum investigation, that you provide Kaipo Asing with the information he's requesting?

A Yes.

Q Did Kaipo Asing ever ask you about the Bynum case?

A Yes.

Q What did you tell him?

A To please ask Ian Costa.

Q Did you ever provide him any copies of the zoning compliance notices, either one of them?

A Yes.

Q Did he tell you why he wanted a copy?

A No.

Q Did you lose any power in your job by virtue of the fact that Kaipo Asing no longer was council chair?

A From then to now, I lost no power.

Q You've lost no power?

A I've stayed in the same job, same position.

Q You thought you might lose power but you ultimately didn't; is that accurate?

A  Yes.

Hempey went on to ask Sheilah about various comments she made on the secret Delaplane recording, including “It's all political, but I will never say on stand that it is political. It will be my demise," and that Costa pursued the zoning violation, against advice from deputy county attorneys, “because Kaipo wanted it. Kaipo was asking. And I gotta answer to the Council Chair.”

But she simply couldn't recall making any of those recorded statements, or what she might have meant by them.

Q  If you just kind of read down through Jake says, "He's starting to shake over here." He talks about Patrick shaking as you guys talk about Shaylene. Do you remember that interchange?

A  No, I don't.

Q  Do you remember Patrick shaking?

A  I don't even recall Patrick sitting next to me.