Big Island Mayor Stephen Yamashiro decided upon assuming office in 1992 that he would privatize the construction and operation of the Puuanahulu landfill. The 10 county employees at the landfill were given the option of working for the private company or transferring to other civil service positions. But their union, the United Public Workers, challenged county government's authority to contract out the landfill work.
Hawaii's Constitution requires that "employment of persons in the civil service . . . be governed by merit principles." The Constitution doesn't define "civil service," but a state law interprets it broadly as "all positions in the public service of each county." It exempts only persons hired by contact to perform "special or unique" services that can't be done by normally recruited civil servants.
In its unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that state and county services "that have been customarily and historically provided by civil servants" cannot be contracted out to private companies. "Given the importance of these policy concerns (of privatization and the attributes of civil service) and the potential conflict between them," Justice Mario Ramil wrote in the court's decision, "clear guidance from the Legislature is indispensable."
The ruling provides public-employee unions a powerful tool in blocking virtually any attempt to privatize government services, including prisons and schools, which have been top items under consideration for privatization. If allowed to stand, the decision could be a huge obstacle to efforts to make the provision of public services more efficient.
The state Legislature should amend the laws at the earliest opportunity to allow the option of privatization where it promises to be beneficial.
There the problem has recurred - nonpayment of the electric bill. The Marcos estate has been assessed billions of dollars in damages for victims of human rights abuses, and even more for the alleged discoverer of a gold statue of Buddha. The fact that the Marcoses are dragging their feet on paying an electric bill - even one of this size - may be an indication of how difficult it will be to collect those much larger sums.
A casual disregard for the legal niceties appears to have permeated Clinton's fund-raising activities. This is the reason that the Democrats are now being forced to return millions of dollars in contributions that appear to have been illegal because they came from foreigners. But the amounts returned thus far may be only the tip of the iceberg, if it can be shown that the president, the vice president and other Democrats were illegally using government property in their fund-raising.
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