Capitol View
By Richard Borreca
Wednesday, April 17, 1996
He was one of too few experts on the local economy who could actually translate numbers into meaningful trends and convey a level-headed analysis to reporters. Usually, the result was more instructional than polemic.
When Pai wasn't nosing around the numbers he was following his other muse: music. Beside being a hard-hitting economist, Pai is also a professional jazz drummer.
This renaissance man was one of a handful of appointed state employees who survived the switch of administrations from Waihee to Cayetano. Not only did Pai survive, he got promoted - and was named director of the Office of State Planning.
This year Pai was named by Governor Cayetano to the state Public Utilities Commission, one of those sleeper positions of power that hardly anyone ever thinks about, except when the electric bill comes in higher than usual.
But after meeting with three state senators, Cayetano uncharacteristically withdrew Pai's name without a fight. With little fanfare and none of the bombast that usually surrounds struggles for his appointees, the governor did a retreat.
"He apparently did not have the support in the Senate that I thought was deserving, and that's the way it goes," Cayetano told reporters after yanking Pai's nomination. "Greg is a very valued employee. I did not want him to go through a process where he had no chance of being confirmed."
It is a strange statement for a usually combative Cayetano, who just last year was ready to fight to the death for all of his appointees and this year is locked in battle with Sen. Malama Solomon over the nomination of Joe Blanco, his executive assistant, to the University of Hawaii Board of Regents.
Perhaps Pai was the victim of a sea of political cross-currents.
The rumors started even before he was nominated. First there was discussion that whoever was nominated should have telecommunications experience.
Cayetano, in one of his more characteristically candid moments, laughed at limiting the commissioners to only those with telecommunications background.
"If you review the people who have been appointed to the PUC, you're going to find that telecommunications background has never been a condition of appointment," the governor said.
"We have had people serving on the PUC who would have to go to the dictionary to find out what telecommunications means."
PAI himself won't say anything about the political retreat except that the Senate's apparent displeasure with him was "unfortunate" and that he had been looking forward to the challenge.
Cayetano has promised him another position within state government, even if the Office of State Planning is eventually phased out.
A PUC commissioner has an important job. Every day Hawaii becomes more of a player in telecommunications with long distance telephone competition and information networks spreading across the Pacific. Setting the rates and fees will be a large part of what the PUC does to shape Hawaii for the next decade.
Unknowingly or not, the Senate has spiked a worthwhile nominee without the decency of giving him a public hearing.