The TMT, the Woodland Center, and Public Frustration

It's been a busy week. I'd just completed a story about the Puna Woodland Shopping Center controversy for the Honolulu Weekly, when I got the go ahead from the Big Island Weekly to cover Protect Pahoa's protest near the shopping center site on Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, I went to a briefing for bloggers and a public hearing, both on the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope. Now I'm working on a Sunday, trying to wrap up stories on those events.

Stories about the Woodland Center controversy are out in the Honolulu Weekly and upcoming in the Big Island Weekly. I'm working on a piece about the telescope for the Hawaii Independent.

One thing that impressed me about both issues is how many well-intentioned people, no matter which side of the issue they stand on, simply don't understand how the system works or how to intervene effectively.

Take the Woodland Center controversy. The permits to build Woodland Center were issued years ago. The contracts have already been signed; the bulldozers are already in motion. About all that the protesters can hope to accomplish, at this point, is "raising consciousness" for other small towns. The only hope that the public ever had of stopping that center or shaping it, really, was back before the zoning approvals and grubbing permits were issued.

Nor was either side very likely to sway the question of whether or not the Thirty Meter Telescope was going to come to this island, based on their testimony at the hearings on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Both sides seemed to be offering statements beginning with "I support the TMT" or "I oppose the TMT." But that just isn't what an EIS hearing is for. In the 20 years that I've been attending EIS hearings on the island, I've never seen an EIS rule in favor of the "No action" option--the option that would kill the project. EISs are paid for by the developer. Their purpose is not to stop a project or to give it the green light; they're meant to examine impacts and propose methods of mitigation--in other words to make the project better, not to kill it. The only time I've ever seen public input stop a project on this island, it was through lawsuits, administrative hearings, or public hearings held by lawmakers.

Still, EIS hearings are a popular method of venting about a project and a way to allow lawmakers and reporters to get some sense of the public's sentiment. That's probably why the holders of EIS hearings have been actively seeking ways to make the hearings less of a bully pulpit in recent years. First the armed forces started holding their hearings in "open house" format, inviting the public to look at informational booths but accepting testimony only in written form or in a private session with a court reporter. That backfired at one hearing, where angry protesters brought their own microphone and cameras, held a noisy demonstration at the hearing with plenty of speakers, and then gave the army a tape afterward as "testimony." The TMT people tried a new variant on that strategy. There were the informational booths first, then presentations by telescope officials, then an open mike--but those who spoke at the open mike were told that their testimony would not go into the record unless they also submitted it in writing or dictated it to a court reporter. A lot of people got up and spoke anyway--and only a couple bothered with the court reporter. So they got their rants in without the TMT people having to dignify those rants with a response in the final document.

In short, the system really is rigged toward the developer, and sign-wavings and EIS hearings aren't likely to change that fact. If people really want to be effective in shaping this island's future, they need haunt the Planning Department and the newspaper's public notice sections so that they know when a new development is proposed; then they need to hit the meetings of the Planning Commission, the Board of Land and Natural Resources, the Land Use Commission, the County Council and other deliberative bodies that actually make land use decisions. And they need to give generously to the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund so that when a court battle needs to occur, the ammunition is available to win it.

Big Tobacco Article Out

The article about Big Tobacco and local politics is out in the June 10 issue of the Big Island Weekly--and it's featured on one of the more disgusting, but effective, covers they've done, complete with an outline of Hawai'i Island crammed full of cigarette butts. Upcoming is one last campaign spending piece (for now, anyway), about a convict and some of the politicians who have accepted money from him....

A Personal Note

The tobacco story (see below) will be coming out while I'm gone to the mainland. I'll be spending a couple of weeks there with my 12-year-old son, whose mom, Susan Decker, is in the terminal stages of bone cancer. (Some of you may remember Susan; she had a private family law practice here, years ago, that specialized in helping famly violence victims. It of course went broke, because there was a huge demand for her services but the ones who needed it most couldn't afford to pay. But it was a noble effort.) While in Missouri, I'll be meeting with my son's school councilors and physician, in preparation for bringing him over here to live.

That's scary, because while this is happening, my unemployment benefits are running out (They got extended for six months, thanks to the Obama Administration, but the Hawai'i Island Journal has been gone now for nearly a year), my savings are exhausted, and the general economy and the newspaper crisis have made job-hunting in my field a masochistic exercise. Between now and when I leave, I'll need to do enough freelance work to pay my July rent when I get back. And then, somehow, I'm going to have to earn enough from freelancing to not only pay my rent and utilities, but to build up the money for plane tickets and moving expenses when the time comes to bring Aidan over.

On the good news side, I'll no longer be operating under the restrictions that the State's Unemployment Division was placing upon me (I could only do freelancing if it didn't affect my ability to accept "real" employment--i.e., from a company that pays wages, rather than awards a contract--if it happened to come along--which sort of works for where you sit in a union hall and wait for a ship to come in, but does make not much sense when the only "real" jobs available in my field have been 99.9 percent off-island.) I found that more than about eight hours a week of freelance work raised alarm bells and caused delayed unemployment checks. Now I can work 40 hours a week, or more, on freelance jobs if they're available, instead of 4-8.

All this will mean some changes with this blog--probably either moving it to another location or giving it up. Frankly, I've not gotten a single check from GoogleAds since I started this thing--and even if they actually had a check for me, there would be problems, because Google won't send a check to a P.O. Box and there's no home mail delivery in Volcano. I gave them the street address of a friend in Hilo who'd agreed to accept any checks for me, but she's now moved to Volcano, too.

From now on, everything I do has to pay--maybe not very much, but it has to pay something. So I'll be looking at other hosting sites and the possibility of selling local ads. If anybody has any suggestions, please let me know.

I still think it would be a great idea if all of us Hawai'i Island bloggers could unite under a single site, and hire a couple of the Journal's former ad sales reps to sell local ads for all of us.

Upcoming in Big Island Weekly: Tobacco and the Legislature

The tobacco story is finished, and sitting over at the Big Island Weekly. Jed says it will probably come out in two weeks. I don't want to give away the ending, but suffice it to say, I found a lot of money flowing into the legislature from America's tobacco companies, and some big rewards for them, hidden in the legislature's cost-cutting bills--but I also found out that there's a potent counter-force at work that's keeping Big Tobacco from getting its way all the time: Big Health....

Upcoming at Honolulu Weekly: GMO money at the State legislature.

The next installment of my research on who's funding our legislators' campaign races should be appearing this week in Honolulu Weekly. This one deals with agribusiness corporations such as Monsanto and Syngenta, which have heavy investments in both genetically modified crops and our legislators.

I've got a couple more campaign funding articles to spring after that. Nearly completed is a story about tobacco money in the legislature, which is already promised to Big Island Weekly. And then I've got a couple more pieces that I haven't finished researching yet and don't want to reveal until I've asked a few pointed questions of some specific legislators. After that, I'm going to be ready to take a break from the subject for a while. Anybody got something else they want investigated?

Chevy Bites the Dust on the BI

Big Island Chevrolet is no more. Both the Kona- and Hilo-side dealerships have been taken over by GMAC, General Motor's finance wing, after the business's owner couldn't pay for the vehicles he'd purchased, in the wake of sales that had dropped over a third in the past year.

This touched me personally, unfortunately. I'm the owner of a 2000 Chevy Prizm. A Prizm is essentially a Toyota Corolla with a Chevy bow tie on the front, but some of the parts are just different enough from a Toyota's that you have to go through Chevy to get them. The tail lamps, for instance. I'd recently damaged a tail lamp, and after a fruitless search for a used one at local parts houses and on the Internet, I finally ordered one from BI Chevrolet for $216. That was last week. They said it would take about ten days to arrive. So when I heard on OC-16 last night that this would be the last day the dealership would be open, it was a call to action, even though I'm down with a bad respiratory infection.

This morning, I tried calling the Parts Department; no answer. So I jumped in the Prizm and, four cough drops later, walked into the department in the back of the dealership's sprawling Hilo complex.

The displays were already packed up, and the floor was strewn with boxes. There wasn't an employee in evidence at first, but after a few minutes' wait, one appeared from the back.

He told me that GMAC was taking over the the dealership and would probably call me when the part came in. In case they didn't, he gave me toll free number to call. Those of you who also are stuck with a GM product on this island should probably also save this number: 1-800-323-9935.

GM announced on May 8 that it would not be renewing the contracts of 1,100 dealerships nationwide when they came up for renewal in 2010. But Big Island Chevy was not on that list. It's demise was really a mass repo job: the local owner Alan Clark told the Tribune Herald that when he couldn't come up with enough capital to keep the business afloat and couldn't close a deal to sell the business fast enough for GM, GMAC seized all the company's assets, which had been used to collateralize the cars currently on the company's two lots. That doesn't seem to add up; the cars should be worth what Allen paid GMAC for them--or less, given that the company's good name has been sullied by its own instability, and very people on this island is going to buy a car that they have to take to O'ahu for service on the factory warranty. But I guess the furniture, computers, phones, and outstanding accounts are going to cover GMAC's interest.

That, of course, leaves all of us other creditors, such as me, at GM's mercy. I suddenly have a $216 stake in whether or not GM itself declares bankruptcy.

I wonder how many other dealerships across the country are simply being seized, as Island Chevrolet was. Those 1,100 whose contracts aren't being renewed may just be the tip of the iceberg.

All in the Family

If you think running for office on the Big Island is expensive, try running on O'ahu. While $2,000 or so would be a high-end donation for a Hawai'i Island legislator or councilmember, O'ahu officeholders often get the legal max of $4,000 per person (especially if the donor is a lawyer or contractor). Or, in some cases, more.

According to state law, campaign donations are limited $4,000 per candidate for each “person” donating; a "person," is defined as "An individual or any general partnership in which the individual belongs." But there are some big loopholes. Apparently, for instance, there's an exception for family members.

Take the case of Ann Kobayashi, for instance, who resigned her Honolulu council position last year in order to run for mayor.

Having the last name of Kobayashi can be pretty expensive at election time. Kobayashi got $8,000 out of Honolulu housewife Dawn Kobayashi, and another $4,000 out of financial advisor Dale Kobayashi of the same address. Mellon Capital Management portfolio manager Susan Kobayashi of San Francisco gave $10,000 to the cause. Honolulu Real estate Developer Burt Kobayashi added another $1000--but then, real estate developers commonly drop that much money on officeholders, whether they share the same last name or not.

Of course, small family fortunes like this are only a few drops in the bucket for a full-fledged O'ahu campaign these days. But it’s also possible to tap other families for more than the maximum donation, if you divide the donations between family members. Honolulu Attorneys Patricia and Arthur Park of Park, Park, Yu and Remillard, for instance, anted up $4,000 each for Kobayashi. So did J Frances E. and Francis Y. Toyama, who both reside at the same Nu’uanu address, and John and Charlene Flynn, who share an address in Nevada, Missouri. Honolulu Accountant Betty Lou Stroup and retiree Edward Stroup, also both of the same address, chipped in another $4,000 apiece--and so did Betty Lou’s employer, Princess Abigail Kawanakoa. President Joseph Pickard of Community Planning and Engineering, Kaneohe, dropped in $4,000, and Melissa Pickard, who shares Joseph's address, added $3,000 on the same day. Wagdi A. Guirguis and Peter Melnyck, who are both listed as “President” of GMP Associates on Kobayashi’s campaign reporting forms, also put in $4,000 apiece.

Kobayashi donated $10,512 worth of postage stamps to her own campaign, but that apparently wasn’t enough, so Honolulu housewife Jane Kumabe to chipped in more stamps worth $3,825. Lawrence Kumabe, an attorney for the city’s Corporation Counsel office who shares Jane’s address, donated in another $800, boosting the Kumabe household’s contribution to $4,625. (Kobayashi also got $2,199 worth of postage stamps from City and County of Honolulu legislative aide Karen Yorimoto.)

One would think that, if the intent was not to skirt the $4,000 contribution limit, one also would also see members of the same households putting in smaller amounts. But in fact, I found only one couple on Kobayashi’s list who shared an address but whose dual contributions totaled less $7,000.

Kobayashi also hit up all the usual donors: labor unions, lawyers, developers, insurers, construction firms. Among other members of her “$4,000 club” were manager Teri Otani of the Honolulu structural engineering firm Mitsunaga & Associates; Hilo attorney Terence Yoshioka; Pueo Trucking Company owner John F. Souza III of Kapolei; Sheet Metal Worker's International Union Local 293; United Airlines manager Valerie Van Buren; Honolulu attorney James Wright, Island Title escrow officer Chin Davone Tan, and the Realtor's Political Action Committee,. The campaign committees of Scott Nishimoto, Scott Sakai and Romy Cachola gave $4,000 each from donations collected for their candidates. The Ironworkers Local added $3,775 to the kitty. All told, Kobayashi reported raising $637,490.84 during the 2006-2008 election period.