I've always had a good impression of Mayor Jeremy Harris. He's a hard worker. He seems to have a handle on city operations. He's a decent manager, if somewhat uninspiring as a leader. Jeremy Harris’
tacky political stuntsBut I've got to say that the mayor has been getting on my nerves lately with cheap shots at the news media and a cloying need to draw attention to himself with political stunts that should be beneath him.
My BS detector first went off when Harris waded into the Bishop Estate controversy by commenting that our big headlines have overblown the story.
I'm not cynical by nature, but I couldn't help but wonder if the mayor's real concern was the size of the headlines or the fact that so many contained the name of his political buddy John Waihee -- former governor, would-be Bishop trustee and recipient of lucrative Bishop Estate legal business.
Waihee became a big Harris fan after Gov. Ben Cayetano canceled a no-bid contract the state had generously awarded to the law firm Waihee would join after leaving office.
On Saturday, Harris was at Aloha Stadium distributing "support the coach" signs in a tacky attempt to make political hay out of the "feud" between Cayetano and UH football coach Fred vonAppen. Cayetano and vonAppen patched up their relationship despite the efforts of Harris to fan the controversy.
After doing his best to give Cayetano a political ulcer on Saturday, by Tuesday Harris was shamelessly exploiting the governor's hospitalization for a real ulcer.
The mayor announced that despite the standard city practice of releasing tapes of 911 calls, he would not release the tape of Vicky Cayetano's call for an ambulance "out of respect for the governor's privacy."
Releasing the tape would "hurt people and sensationalize the story," added Harris spokesman Bob Fishman.
There were two big stories that day -- the governor's illness and Princess Diana's death -- and Harris was horning in on both. The grandstanding mayor would play the brave knight saving Princess Vicky from us evil paparazzi.
At that point, the Star-Bulletin hadn't requested the tape. I don't know if we would have found sufficient news value to publish its contents or not.
But that's the principle here. It was our decision to make, not the mayor's. It's standard city practice to release 911 tapes because the law and court rulings require it, not because of the mayor's beneficence. The tapes are not his property to give out or not as he wishes.
If you wonder why open-record laws are so important, think about this: While the public can't hear the Cayetano 911 tape, Harris -- the governor's chief political rival -- can listen to his heart's content. His people can imply that Mrs. Cayetano said something sensational that might be hurtful to her or the governor. We have it on good authority that she said no such thing. There's no indication that the Cayetanos even asked that the tape not be released.
People grew tired of the bickering between former Mayor Frank Fasi and a string of governors. We hoped the rise of Cayetano and Harris would bring an age of city-state cooperation to solve our problems. Instead, we've gotten more bickering -- most of the silly stuff initiated by Harris, who was hinting about running for governor before he was inaugurated for a full term as mayor.
I've written that Harris has more class than his mentor Fasi and I stand by it. But I should have added that it's possible to show more class than Frank Fasi and still show very little class.