Editorials
Thursday, April 9, 1998

It’s no time to raise
public employees’ pay

AT a time when the state economy is languishing in the doldrums, the Legislature is wrestling with big tax and spending cuts and the city has announced plans to lay off 94 workers, it would be crazy to agree to a pay raise. United Public Workers director Gary Rodrigues says Mayor Harris has reneged on an agreement for a 2 percent raise for 8,000 workers that the city approved last month. In response, Rodrigues said, the union is canceling a pact to expand automated trash collection.

Harris denied that the city ever agreed to the raise and maintains that the trash agreement was never linked to the contract terms. City Personnel Director Sandra Ebesu said from the beginning of the negotiations the mayor made it clear that the city did not have the $14 million needed to fund the pay raise.

The trash pact calls for converting to automation eight Oahu routes serving 22,700 homes by the end of the year, at a saving of $1.1 million. Previously service to about 40,000 homes was automated. Under the agreement, displaced workers would be reassigned.

In addition to canceling the automation pact, Rodrigues has filed a complaint with the Hawaii Labor Relations Board charging that the city illegally pulled out of the pay raise agreement. This smacks of a situation that could wind up in the courts.

However, if the city did agree to the pay raise, as Rodrigues claims, it was a mistake in view of its financial problems and the mayor could have been justifiably been criticized for it. Similarly, the state should not be granting pay raises when it is slashing programs and laying people off.

Gays in uniform

LAWSUITS against the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding homosexuals in the armed forces have been turned away by the courts, but the policy remains controversial. Problems arise when commanders approve investigations that try to uncover instances of homosexual conduct by first seeking to determine a service member's sexual preference. Such inquiries violate the policy and should be brought to a halt.

A Defense Department report shows that the number of people discharged for homosexuality increased from 850 in 1996 to 997 last year. That compared with nearly 2,000 in 1982, before the military adopted the policy prohibiting commanders from asking about the sexual preference of service members, and providing that those who disclose their homosexuality face discharge from the service.

However, after the policy was adopted, commanders were accused of continuing to "ask." The Air Force reportedly inquired whether airmen had been seen at a Waikiki bar popular with gays and asked for the membership list of a Waikiki church that ministered to gays and lesbians. The Pentagon report said the policy had not been properly enforced in only three cases, but it did not reveal which investigations were improper.

Defense Secretary William Cohen warned that commanders who engaged in witch hunts will themselves "be the subject of their own investigation" and could be charged with sexual harassment. Cohen also recommended that commanders check with their superiors before embarking on investigations of suspected homosexuals, gain approval from service secretaries before investigating so-called "coming out" cases and undergo more training about the policy.

The policy continues to discriminate against homosexuals. Any act of sodomy violates the military code of justice, but heterosexual conduct not characterized as adultery is condoned. Even under those rules, commanders should require evidence of homosexual conduct -- not merely homosexual preference -- before authorizing investigations.

Hilo courthouse

A spokeswoman for the state judiciary has objected to our criticism of the judiciary's decision to build a court complex at the site of the former J.C. Penney store in Kaiko'o Mall in Hilo -- a building that the county has purchased and is preparing to remodel for its own use.

We called the situation a flagrant example of government stumbling over its own feet -- probably at the taxpayers' expense. Our editorial said the county moved first to acquire the property and the judiciary should have found another site.

To this, Marsha E. Kitagawa, judiciary public affairs director, responded that the judiciary had solicited public opinion on sites for a judicial complex and that the Penney site was one of those that emerged from the effort. She added that Mayor Stephen Yamashiro had discussed the Penney site with Chief Justice Ronald Moon and supported his choice.

But the rest of the county government was left in the dark. Finance Director Harry Takahashi said two years of planning by the county had been wasted, in addition to the money spent. County Chairman James Arakaki said, "This is like a bomb thrown at us...We are being muscled (by the judiciary)."

Yamashiro explained that he hadn't informed his staff because the judiciary project was still in a preliminary stage. Apparently he wasn't about to complain because the Big Island construction industry could use the work the judiciary project would generate. And, of course, the funds would come from the state, not the county, which means that taxpayers in other counties would bear most of the burden, which is just fine as far as the mayor is concerned.

That doesn't alter the fact that the judiciary's plans conflict with the Hawaii County government's preparations to make use of the Penney building. The result, as we said, is government stumbling over its own feet. Is it unreasonable to ask that the judiciary and other government agencies get their act together?

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John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

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Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor