Editorials
Thursday, October 3, 1996
A failure to respect
public's right to know
THE need for more information for the public is glaringly evident in separate sexual abuse cases reported in the Star-Bulletin. In one case, two lawsuits allege that dozens of women on the Big Island were sexually harassed or assaulted over a 15-year period by a state housing inspector. The defendants are the Hawaii Housing Authority and the inspector, Bernard K. Sagawa.
Sagawa was terminated by the housing agency after facing criminal charges in 1994. But a grievance seeking his reinstatement is being pursued by his union, the Hawaii Government Employees Association. A spokesman for the Department of Human Resources Development declined to disclose Sagawa's status because the case is in arbitration and is considered confidential.
State law prohibits most disclosure of the status of complaints against public employees until all administrative appeals have been completed. The policy could have injured some of the victims in this case by denying them information that could have led them to protect themselves against the accused. The state is protecting employees' privacy rights at the expense of potential victims.
In the other case, police are investigating reports that a 56-year-old man who previously served six years in prison for sexual assault in Nevada had assaulted six children in his Moiliili apartment. Residents of the area complain that they should be informed when convicted sex offenders move into their neighborhood.
A state law that went into effect Jan. 1 requires convicted sex offenders who have been released into the community to register with the local law enforcement agency where they live. However, the law does not require authorities to notify neighborhood residents.
Congress this year passed a bill requiring states to inform communities when dangerous sexual offenders are about to be released from prison. Dubbed Megan's Law, the bill was named after 7-year-old Megan Kanka, who was raped and murdered, allegedly by a man who lived across the street in a suburban New Jersey neighborhood. The man had been convicted of molesting children twice before, but the neighborhood had not been informed of his record when he moved in.
The Moiliili case provides a local example of the need for such notification. Parents must have this information to protect their children from sexual deviants. That need overrides the offender's right to privacy.
Yugoslav sanctions
THE situation in the war-torn former Yugoslavia took another step toward normalcy when the United Nations Security Council ended trade sanctions against the Yugoslav republics of Serbia and Montenegro. The sanctions had been imposed in 1992 because of the republics' roles in fomenting the war in Bosnia. They had been suspended by the council last November as a followup to the Dayton peace accords, with the stipulation that they would be lifted entirely after the Bosnian elections, which were held last month.
However, at the insistence of the United States, the council did not end the suspension of the rump Yugoslavia from the U.N. General Assembly and made no provisions for Yugoslavia to rejoin the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other financial institutions.U.S. Ambassador Madeline Albright said Washington supported the progress made to date but more had to be done to comply with the peace accords.
Until full compliance is achieved, the United Nations should keep some sanctions in place against Serbia and Montenegro in order to retain leverage.
State Con Con
THE last state constitutional convention was held in 1978, and the question of holding another one in 1998 will be on the ballot in November. The League of Women Voters of Hawaii has surveyed nearly 100 community leaders and government officials and concluded that a convention should not be held two years hence. We agree.
The most compelling reason is the issue of Hawaiian sovereignty. The Hawaiian community is trying to reach a consensus on sovereignty and has just voted to elect delegates to a convention to address the subject. It would be sensible to hold off on a state constitutional convention until the sovereignty convention has been held and produced concrete proposals. A state convention might then be appropriate to consider what response should be made to those proposals in the form of amendments to the Constitution. To hold a state Con Con before the sovereignty convention would be premature and wasteful.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor