Ka`u News Briefs June 18, 2011

Classic cars are a popular entry in the Independence Day parades this July 2 in Na`alehu and July 4 in Volcano.

COUNTY COUNCIL MEMBER PETE HOFFMANN said he is disappointed with Mayor Billy Kenoi’s veto of the Council version of the county budget this week. Hoffmann said he hoped the mayor would be satisfied with the council approving 97 percent of the mayor's $367 million budget. Hoffmann said the budget “presented itself for establishing a cooperative relationship,” but instead wound up with "political theater once again to resolve relatively minor budget changes." 

Pete Hoffmann

     Hoffmann also responded to the county Corporation Counsel’s and mayor’s contention that the council's new version of the budget has illegalities: “At no time during the budget discussion did I or other Council members believe what we were doing was illegal, nor did we ever hear from the Corporation Counsel that such actions might be in violation of the charter.” He pointed out that Corporation Counsel is the lawyer for the mayor, administration and the County Council.
     “I have always wondered how you can serve the proverbial two masters at the same time, and this is an instance where this might lead to real/imagined difficulties,” said Hoffmann.
     “Whether the Council votes to override the mayor’s veto or not, county residents are being treated to another in a series of political dramas that tend to reflect badly on all participants,” said Hoffmann.

THE DEADLY ACCIDENT at mile marker 35 on Hwy 11 between Volcano and Pahala is still a mystery to investigators, who are suspecting that car racing was involved in the tragedy. The accident took place on a strip of Hwy 11 that is apparently used by young people who commandeer the straightaway on the public highway for a drag strip, particularly on Saturday nights after midnight. The accident, which left one young man dead and his companion with reportedly serious brain and spine injuries, apparently took place at about 1:30 a.m. last Sunday along the illegal raceway. Investigators are asking any witnesses to come forward to confirm or debunk the story that this was a racing accident. The car apparently flew off the highway, and the two occupants were ejected into the lava. An ambulance transporting a patient from Ka`u Hospital to Hilo happened onto the accident, and paramedics called for help.
     Sometime this week, someone sprayed paint across Hwy 11 near the accident site that says R.I.P. – standing for Rest In Peace.
     Hawai`i Police Chief Harry Kubojiri has asked the community to help stop the car racing, as it is deadly not only to participants but could involve innocent people driving home from work and visitors driving back to accommodations after seeing the volcano late at night.

More seniors will have to make
their own co-payments.

SENIORS DEPENDING ON STATE CO-PAYMENTS at the pharmacy will have to look elsewhere. The state Department of Human Services will discontinue its Pharmacy Assistance Program for 43,000 low-income Medicare recipients on July 1, since the Legislature repealed the program. This will not affect eligibility for Medicare Part D. It will make the seniors responsible for their own co-payments. 

THE HAWAIIAN FOOD STAPLE, THE BREADFRUIT, will be depicted in works of art to promote its qualities. Artists from Ka`u and abroad are invited to submit their breadfruit creations by July 25 in advance of the Breadfruit Festival at the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in South Kona on Saturday, Sept. 24. The competition is also supported by the Hawai`i Homegrown Food Network, Breadfruit Institute of the National Tropical Botanical Garden, and Donkey Mill Art Center. 

Breadfruit photo courtesy of Hawai`i
Tropical Botanical Gardens

     Breadfruit regions were an important source of food on the island, including a band of `ulu trees one-half mile wide and 18 miles long called kale `ulu that produced as much as 36,000 tons of `ulu fruit per year. Today, few of these trees remain. 

     Ho`oulu ka `Ulu is a project to revitalize `ulu as an attractive, delicious, nutritious, abundant, affordable, and culturally appropriate food which addresses Hawai`i’s food security issues.
     All Hawai`i Island artists are invited to submit original 2D media artwork to the art contest. Semi-finalists will bring original work to the Donkey Mill Art Center on Thursday, Aug. 11 for an artist’s reception and final judging. One winning piece will be selected to be reproduced into a collectable poster commemorating the Ho`oulu ka `Ulu project, which will be sold at the Breadfruit Festival and beyond as a fundraiser for the festival and project. See www.breadfruit.info.

THE DEADLINE TO ENTER the Na`alehu Fourth of July Parade had been extended to July 1. `O Ka`u Kakou is sponsoring the parade on Saturday, July 2 at 11 a.m. Patriotic citizens, businesses and organizations interested in participating or donating can call Debra McIntosh at 929-9872. Residents are also invited to join the Fourth of July Parade in Volcano Village on July 4 at 9 a.m. Call 967-7800.

THE MISS KA`U COFFEE PAGEANT airs on Na Leo O Hawai`i Community Television tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. and on Wednesday, June 22 at 6 p.m.

KILAUEA MILITARY CAMP CELEBRATES Father’s Day with a brunch tomorrow from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and a Surf ‘n’ Turf special from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Crater Rim Café in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Call 967-8371 for more information.

Ka`u News Briefs June 17, 2011

Kawa with its surfing beach and one of its estuaries during a busy surf weekend.  Photo by Julia Neal

THE COUNTY HAS THE RIGHT TO STEWARD KAWA and to purchase an additional 550 acres there, according to a ruling by Judge Joseph P. Florendo, Jr. yesterday. He ruled that the owners selling the land to the county for wildlife and beach preservation showed clear title. The ruling helps the county meet a June 30 deadline to avoid losing $2.5 million in federal and state funding for its second purchase there. Another $1.4 million is coming from the county’s two-percent land fund. 

     Abel Simeona Lui, who has lived at Kawa for more than 20 years, claims ownership of the land under Hawaiian law and said it was handed down through his family but taken away illegally. The judge disagreed. 

Campers have flown Hawaiian sovereignty flags at Kawa for years.
Photo by Julia Neal

     In his order, Florendo wrote, “Even when construing the defendant’s pleadings liberally, and in light most favorable towards them, defendants fail to set forth a sufficient basis to find that title to the property is in question. First of all, the 1840 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawai`i no longer governs the Hawai`i State Legislature, and the various constitutions of the Kingdom do not bind the government of the state of Hawai`i. Secondly, any defect in the process of conveyance pursuant to the laws of the Hawaiian Kingdom were subject to review and objection in Okuna v. Apiki et al. Finally, defendants have failed to present any other material facts in dispute to plaintiff’s assertion that plaintiff is the owner of the property.”
     The land being purchased includes a stretch between state lands next to Punalu`u and the Apiki family lands and the section of Kawa south of the surfing area, which includes estuaries and a shoreline fishing area. The county is purchasing the land from the Olson Trust, which bought it originally to prevent it from being sold off to developers by its former owner.
     The county purchased the land that includes the heiau, an estuary and land adjacent to the surfing beach from a hui involving former Ka`u realtor Marcia Johnson, who had advertised it in real estate magazines as the last bay for sale on the Ka`u coast.
     Kawa has long been a fishing and surfing place for local residents who went to court in the 1970s to open up access to the beach for the public.

Albert Ha`a (middle) asks Ka `Ohana O Honu`apo executive director
 Lehua Lopez Mau to consider the opinions of Hawaiian families
 whose heritage is connected with Honu`apo. Photo by Julia Neal

HONU`APO EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Lehua Lopez Mau met with Albert Ha`a, Jr. and his supporters this week to listen to concerns about Hawaiian history and genealogy connected with Honu`apo. At a gathering around a picnic table at Whittington Beach Park at Honu`apo, Ha`a said his family is from there and lost their lands unfairly in the court system during days when sugar plantations and others leased lands from Hawaiian families and paid the land taxes to the government. These perpetuators of adverse possession, he said, took title of the land in the courts. They put obscure notices in the legal section of newspapers asking heirs to come forward if they wanted the land and could pay back the taxes on the land. Many of the Hawaiian families never saw the notices, or were unable to afford legal representation and the money to settle the cases. The practice is called quiet title. Ha`a said he still sees his family as having an interest in Honu`apo and is concerned that there are plans to make changes in the landscape, develop it into a recreational park for visitors, and put up fencing to protect wildlife in the estuary. He claimed that the planning is without the input of the Hawaiian families connected historically with Honu`apo. He also said that he believes that ali`i are buried at Honu`apo, including Kamehameha I. “Why not work with the real `ohana?” he asked Ka `Ohana’s executive director. 

Abel Simeona Lui  contends that wildlife is being killed by spraying
  poisons and use of rat poison at county parks.  Photo by Julia Neal

     Abel Simeona Lui, who is fighting his own battle against establishment of a park at nearby Kawa where he lives, said he objects to any plan that would allow bulldozing and taking out coconut trees and milo trees around the wetlands at Honu`apo. He also said he believes that the county is using rat poison in the area and that poison could be killing native owls. He showed photos of dead owls.
     Ka `Ohana O Honu`apo is working on a wetlands plan for the park with the county, which acquired Honu`apo lands after a successful fundraising effort by the community to buy it from real estate investors who were planning to sell it for development.

CONGRESSWOMAN MAZIE HIRONO won bipartisan support yesterday in saving federal funding for agricultural water development and flood protection. While not slated for Ka`u, the amendment to the federal ag bill saves the 60-year-old Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program from being totally eliminated. “This program supports our state and local governments’ ability to improve agricultural water delivery systems for farmers in Hawai`i,” she said. “Diversified agriculture is important to Hawai`i. I’ve met with farmers across the state and support this program because of them.”

Rep. Mazie Hirono with Korean Veterans in Hawai`i.

FUNDING FOR VETERANS was also supported by Hirono this week as she applauded passage of the Military Construction-Veterans Appropriations Act by Congress. It provides $129.7 billion for medical services, disability payments, pensions, survivor benefits and educational benefits to veterans. She said she represents more than 50,000 vets living in rural Hawai`i “who have shared with me their difficulties in getting medical care, especially when treatment requires travel to Honolulu from the neighbor islands. The bill provides $250 million to improve health care access for vets in rural communities. 

THE KA`U CHAMBER OF COMMERCE met yesterday and named interim officers president Dallas Decker, secretary Marge Elwell and continuing treasurer Karen Ingraham. The re-organization follows Dr. Rell Woodward stepping down due to illness. The Chamber is getting ready to launch its membership drive and publication of the 2012 Ka`u Directory.

KILAUEA MILITARY CAMP CELEBRATES Father’s Day with a brunch on Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and a Surf ‘n’ Turf special from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Crater Rim Café in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Call 967-8371 for more information.

Ka`u News Briefs June 16, 2011

Mayor Billy Kenoi defends the Two-Percent fund in his veto message. The fund was used to buy land at Kawa, in part, according to the county, to help conserve its estuaries.  Photo by Julia Neal

VETO THE COUNTY BUDGET is what Mayor Billy Kenoi did yesterday, charging that the County Council illegally changed it. He said that the council illegally reduced the Two-Percent land fund that puts money into the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Fund in order to purchase land for conservation, protection of natural resources, historic sites and creation of parks. The Council attempted to lower the income of the fund to 1.5 percent of county tax revenues. In his budget veto message, Kenoi said that Hawai`i County Code “clearly requires that two percent of county tax collections must be deposited into the PONC fund annually. Corporation Counsel therefore advises Finance Director Crawford that this council budget amendment appears to violate the County Code.” 

Mayor Billy Kenoi Photo by Julia Neal

REFUSING TO INCREASE BUDGET RESERVES is another charge against the County Council made by the mayor in his budget veto message. “We recently witnessed dire events overseas with impacts that rippled out to affect our local economy, ranging from the Great Recession of 2007-2009 to the tragic March 11, 2011 tsunami that devastated parts of Japan. Those events dramatized the need for a budget reserve fund to stabilize county finances during challenging economic periods. With those risks in mind, our administration’s budget set aside $2.8 million in anticipated labor savings from collective bargaining to build up the county’s budget reserves. The Council disregarded that proposal, and instead amended the budget to spend the entire $2.8 million immediately, saving none of those funds for later. This is unwise because it fails to set aside additional reserves for what may be challenging times ahead. It is also risky, because this $2.8 million the Council proposes to spend may not materialize. Depending on the outcome of statewide collective bargaining later this year, the labor savings could be smaller than we have projected. That is one important reason we urged the council to be cautious, and to place these funds in a reserve fund for the future. Unfortunately, the Council refused,” Kenoi said. 

COUNCIL ACTIONS VIOLATE SEPARATION OF POWERS, the mayor’s veto message claims. He said the Council’s budget would increase overall county spending “beyond what our administration proposed.” He said the Council shifted spending rather than cut it and “fabricated” a Council Adjusted Expense Account, and he called it unprecedented in state and county government in Hawai`i.

Kenoi says he wants to keep a reserve in case HGEA
negotiations require more money for county employees.

DEFERRING PAYMENTS FOR HEALTH OBLIGATIONS FOR COUNTY RETIREES was defended in the mayor’s veto message. He said that the payments have been made for four straight years ahead of time “like prepaying a mortgage.” Deferring the payment until it is due would not make the county late on any bills. The state does not pay ahead, and the City and County of Honolulu is also deferring the payment, he pointed out. The Council objected to deferring payments and changed the budget in order to make the payment, the mayor stated. 

AT ITS MEETING YESTERDAY, the County Council authorized the acquisition of private property by eminent domain for the Ocean View Recycling and Transfer Station. The property contains 21.6397 acres just off the makai side of Hwy 11, on the Kona side of Kona Drive and across from Iolani Lane. It is currently appraised at $248,000.

THE COUNTY COUNCIL also approved the establishment of a sister-city relationship with Ormoc City in the Philippines. Mayor Kenoi and the mayor of Ormoc City are expected to sign the agreement in September. Council member Brittany Smart, who proposed the program, is interested in the island’s use of geothermal and hydroelectric energy. “There is a lot to learn from our Filipino friends,” she said.

THE MISS KA`U COFFEE PAGEANT airs on Na Leo O Hawai`i Community Television this month on channel 54. It will air tomorrow at 2 p.m.; Sunday, June 19 at 9:30 a.m. and Wednesday, June 22 at 6 p.m.

THE KA`U CHAMBER OF COMMERCE meets today at 5 p.m. at the Na`ohulelua historic garden on Kama`oa Road. The Chamber will be accepting applications from potential board members, especially from people who own or operate businesses in Ka`u.

A TOUR OF THE KEAUHOU BIRD CENTER takes place tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The Friends of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park sponsor this tour of the center, which is not open to the general public. Pre-registration is required by calling 985-7373.