County

Peak Oil 2006: Economy Declines as Oil Production Declines

kauaibrad — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:20:01 -0800

Monday, January 5, 2009

Peak Oil 2006: Economy Declines as Oil Production Declines 1:1 and vice-versa From: http://www.drmillslmu.com/peakoil.htm

County moves ahead with Water Plan 2020

SaveKauai — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 08:43:18 -0800

County moves ahead with Water Plan 2020

First of 5 planned rate increases takes effect tomorrow
By Dennis Fujimoto - The Garden Island
Published: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 1:10 AM HST

KAPAHI — The early morning rains created a bog, but work continued at the site of a new water storage tank this week on the Eastside.

“They were going to have a rainout, but felt that the project they were working on needed to be completed,” said Dustin Moises, a county Department of Water engineer.

The bog was at the site of a new .5 million gallon water storage tank in Kapahi.

Once completed, Moises said the new tank will supplement the existing 1 million gallon tank that is in place in upper Kapahi.

In addition to the new storage tank, a sign announcing the project states that there will be a “hardening of generator shelters for Makaleha tank and Pump Station, Wailua-Kapa‘a Water System.”

The generator will be housed between the two tanks and will be used during power outages to minimize the disruption of water service to customers.

The project is expected to take about a year to complete and is labeled as a Water Plan 2020 project, Moises said.

The department and members of the Water Board created the plan to ensure that it continues to provide safe, affordable and sufficient drinking water in the 21st century for Kaua‘i, according to the Department of Water’s Web site.

Current State of Visitor Occupancy Numbers in Hawaii...More Trouble Ahead

kauaibrad — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 19:25:21 -0800

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Report on the Current State of Visitor Occupancy Numbers in Hawaii...Trouble Ahead Every year during Christmas and New Year's, Hawaii usually gets a surge of visitors that bring almost all of the hotels to 100% occupancy levels. We in the visitor industry always look forward to it. Traditionally it is a fun time with lots of visitors; actually, usually too many for the facilities and infrastructure, but it usually only lasts 2 weeks, so we go with the flow and enjoy it.

Committee reorganization on council agenda

andrea — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:12:51 -0800

http://kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/12/17/news/kauai_news/doc4948acd051b...
Committee reorganization on council agenda

Resolution seen as step toward better collaboration
By Nathan Eagle - The Garden Island
Published: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 1:12 AM HST
After a rocky start last month, the Kaua‘i County Council plans to vote on a resolution to restructure its committees today at the Historic County Building.

If approved as expected, the move would signal an improved spirit of collaboration and fairness among the recently elected seven-member legislative body, officials said yesterday.

The proposed resolution resulted from a vigorous lobbying effort led by first-term councilmember Dickie Chang.

After learning there was a “wish list,” he said he volunteered to step down as a voting member on the Planning Committee to accommodate first-term councilmember Lani Kawahara’s desire.

She, in turn, agreed to a similar move with sophomore councilmember Tim Bynum. Under the proposed resolution, he will become a voting member and she an ex-officio, or non-voting member, on the Economic Development/Housing Committee.

“I just thought that was the fair thing to do,” Chang said yesterday. “When I saw there was a possibility to make everyone happy, I wanted to do that.”

The council, particularly the three members who backed Bill “Kaipo” Asing as chair, has been criticized over the past few weeks for alleged back-room dealing and playing “good ol’ boy” politics. Asing could not be reached for comment at press time.

Interest Rate Cut, Dollar Troubles, Hawaii Tourism Opportunity

kauaibrad — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:25:54 -0800

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Interest Rate Cut, Dollar Troubles, Hawaii Tourism Opportunity Couple of good video links below on the shift in sentiment on the Dollar that has been taking place for a few weeks now and which accelerated with Fed actions today. With near 0% paid on on short-term U.S. Treasuries and only slightly more paid on long-term U.S. Bonds, as of today the Dollar is now losing value against all major currencies, not just the Yen and Swiss franc. This could end up having counter-productive results on the U.S. economy in the intermediate to long-term, but for the short-term this is a marketing opportunity for Hawaii visitors bureaus in almost all major currency markets for the coming Winter and Spring seasons. Nevertheless, so far there has not been much visitors bureaus action on this opportunity. It almost seems like they've given up. Two good video links follow along with news from today:

Council Meeting: Resolution to re-arrange council committees

andrea — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:17:46 -0800

Start: Dec 17 2008 - 1:00pm

End: Dec 17 2008 - 1:59pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-10

This coming Wednesdayʻs council meeting includes a resolution to re-arrange the committees slightly (after the public outcry at the obvious formation of a hui). The proposed resolution is not online, but it is available at the county clerkʻs office. According to one source, Dickie Chang has pushed for this resolution, and is giving up his seat on the planning committee so that Lani Kawahara can be included. According to this same source, Derek and Darryl both have NOT stepped down from any of their (all seven) committees to accommodate for those that were marginalized.

See the attached agenda, especially:

C 2009-16 Communication (12/08/2008) from Council Chair Bill “Kaipo” Asing,
transmitting for Council consideration, a resolution amending
Resolution No. 2009-03, relating to the appointment of the
Chairpersons, Vice Chairpersons, and several standing committees of
the Council. (See Resolution No. 2009-05)

Anonymous letter to the editor:

Fair is Fair
I understand that Councilman Dickie Chang is responsible for trying to correct the disproportionate committee assignments that were put in place at the first meeting of the counsel-elect.

On December 17, Council members will vote on Resolution No. 2009-05 which proposes to distribute the committee appointments more fairly. Although the reso is introduced by Kaipo Asing, the impetus was Dickie Chang and his perseverance to make things right.

Now, if only Derek would graciously give up one of his 7 seats to Lani, then every council member will equally hold 6 committee seats.

Oahu Sewers Still Not Fixed

kauaibrad — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:36:59 -0800

From Hawaii Reporter http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?3370651a-5499-40d3-b92a-07ac2220f7cf

Nine More Wastewater Overflows on Oahu Due to Heavy Rains
By Marcus Owens, 12/12/2008 8:49:56 AM

Crews from the city’s Department of Environmental Services responded to nine more wastewater overflows on Oahu today.

The National Weather Service reports many areas of Oahu received between 10 and 14 inches of rain in the past 24 hours, surcharging collection systems from Kailua to Waianae.

The list of overflows is as follows:

Council Meeting Lacked Aloha

kauaibrad — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:47:54 -0800

From: http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/11/26/opinion/letters_to_the_edi...

Letters for Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Council meeting lacked aloha

How unfortunate and sad for all of us that the organizing meeting for our new council seemed so lacking of “lokahi” (unity expressed with harmony) and “akahai” (kindness) and “aloha” (love and consideration for each other).

The method of selecting its leaders and making committee assignments used on Tuesday was “old”: whoever gets four votes controls the show, the minority be damned. Hopefully that is not the sign of things to come because such a method will not make for the best public interest decisions. Nor does it reflect aloha.

There is another way. The newly elected council could have gathered around the table with a temporary chair. The temporary chair could have opened the nominations for chair of the council. Each person who wanted to be chair could have stated why they wanted to be chair and what they would do, if elected. Council members could have asked questions of the candidates for chair, asking about how, if elected chair, the candidates would conduct business, treat the minorities, allow for information flow between staff and council members and from council services to the public. Then the council could have voted for the chair. The result in terms of who was selected chair might have been the same as Tuesday’s meeting, but what a difference there would have been in feelings and relationships.

First Council Meeting A Lotta Rocky

kauaibrad — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:50:48 -0800

http://kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/11/25/news/kauai_news/doc492ba602e01...

"First council meeting a little rocky"
By Luke Shanahan - The Garden Island
Published: Tuesday, November 25, 2008

"Councilmember Tim Bynum said he hoped yesterday’s Kauai County Council organizational meeting would reflect the voters’ desire to see change, and that the members would respect one another’s aspirations for committee assignments.

Judging by statements made by several members of the council, and by the reactions of the people looking on from the gallery, Bynum’s hopes were not realized.

After a brief public comment from Kekaha resident Bruce Pleas in which he complained that the caucus meeting should be televised, rather than just being open to the public, the committee got down to the business at hand, determining who would chair the council for the next two years.

First, there was the small matter of appointing the temporary presiding officer of the meeting, or presiding officer pro-tem.

Kaipo Asing was elected to the pro-tem position by a four-to-three vote, with Derek Kawakami, Daryl Kaneshiro, Dickie Chang, and Asing voting in favor, and Jay Furfaro, Tim Bynum and Lani Kawahara voting against.

After that, Furfaro, seated at the head of the table, withdrew his nomination for chair, saying that it was evident that the votes for council chair would produce the same four-to-three vote.

Council Meeting: Chairs, Committees and Da Hui

SaveKauai — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:00:24 -0800

Today showed the true power of running a hui on council. In a rare occurrence (first time ever?), the council was exposed to a public mtg when making their choice of chair, vice-chair and all committee members. It was stunning to watch Kaipo Asing take over completely with a predetermined hui of four and proceed to announce the new committee structures, committee chairs, vice-chairs and new members all with four members completely aware of the decisions and three others left with lots of questions.

Those on the outs: Bynum, Kawahara and Furfaro (top vote getter islandwide and now Vice-Chair) were, at times, completely awestruck as Kaipo continued to move past any and all calls for more dialogue on position choices with a, "If there is no more discussion, roll call".

The hui consists of Asing (Chair), Kaneshiro, Kawakami and Chang and every vote after chair and vice-chair at the mtg was 4-3.

The committee structures and members:

- Preprinted papers were handed out showing the new structures, which was voted on 4-3.

- Same paper but with chairs and vice-chairs filled in were handed out, then voted on 4-3.

- Same paper with all committee members filled in was handed out, then voted on 4-3.

In all committees there are at least three members of the hui and two not in the hui, meaning, that the hui retains a complete voting block on all committees and at the council as a whole.

Committees were (chair, vice - members)

- public safety/energy/igr (kawakami, kawahara - furfaro, chang kaneshiro)