Harbor Court money may be used to fund jobs
Some $1.5 million in lease rents from the Harbor Court condominium can be used to help restore 111 city jobs slated for the chopping block, City Council Budget Chairman John Henry Felix said.Restoring the positions would cost $3 million.
Questions have arisen over the use of the money, however.
Funds now received from Harbor Court go into a Housing Assistance Fund dedicated to housing-related activities.
A separate measure now before the Council would kill the Housing Assistance Fund, leaving remaining money in either the general fund or the Housing Special Development Fund.
"We have to dissolve the Housing Assistance Fund, but once that is done, the way is clear to use that money," Felix said.
City Finance Director Roy Amemiya, who initially told the Star-Bulletin yesterday that all Housing Assistance Funds needed to be reserved for housing purposes, later said the issue is unclear.
Amemiya said his staff is researching whether restrictions were placed on the Harbor Court money.
A number of money sources of the Housing Assistance Fund come with stipulations that funds be spent only on certain types of housing projects.
Felix, however, said Harbor Court lease rents have no restrictions.
"Harbor Court is not tied into that," he said, adding that he'll ask for an opinion from city attorneys.
The city had not received lease rents from Harbor Court's developers since November 1996 but two weeks ago got $2.7 million in back rent from the developers' creditors.
Patricia Tompkins, a housing specialist with the Department of Housing and Community Development, said it's clear to her that all money in the Housing Assistance Fund should be dedicated to housing projects.
State and city square off over pay raise for UPW
State chief negotiator Manabu Kimura says he assumed he had the city's vote when he agreed to give the United Public Workers union up to a $14 million raise.But he did not, the city will argue today.
"When you sign a $10 (million) to $14 million contract, you would think he would at least ask us how we felt about it, but he never asked," said Corporation Counsel David Arakawa.
"He just assumed."
The city was to present its case today on the second day of a Hawaii Labor Relations Board hearing. The UPW has raised a bad-faith bargaining charge against Mayor Jeremy Harris and Managing Director Bob Fishman.
The union said Harris and Fishman reneged on their verbal agreement to support the raise, and it wants the board to force the city to accept the settlement.
The UPW's 8,000 trash collectors and road and maintenance laborers have worked without a raise since 1995.
"It's an equity issue," said UPW attorney Herb Takahashi, noting the other unions received their raises and the UPW wants the same treatment.
Kimura indicated that Harris told the governor and other neighbor isle mayors on Tuesday that the city had the money for the UPW raise.
Harris has stated repeatedly the city could not afford it.
Later, when questioned by attorney Paul Brooke, representing the city, Kimura said there had been an apparent misunderstanding.
Kimura later testified he believed he had the fifth vote, referring to the city's, along with the state's four votes to support the UPW contract. Five votes were need for approval.
When Kimura was asked if he had asked city Personnel Director Sandra Ebesu how the city stood on the issue, he answered, "I didn't specifically ask her. I assumed I had the majority vote."
UPW State Director Gary Rodrigues said he had a conversation with Fishman in which the refuse agreement was tied to the pay raise.
The union leader said without the raise the city could forget automation until 2008.
Rodrigues told the labor board he would tell the city: "You will get it after I'm dead."
2 ex-finalists among 33 after school chief's job
Two of the remaining four finalists in the search for school superintendent four years ago are considering applying again.William Mathis, superintendent of an eight-town school district in Vermont, and Phillip J. Bossert, an assistant superintendent under former schools chief Charles Toguchi, and other interested applicants have until today to decide.
Today is the closing date to submit applications for either school superintendent and state librarian. Applications will be accepted until 4:30 p.m.
By the end of business day yesterday, the Board of Education office had received a total of 33 applications for school superintendent. Eleven of the applicants are from here.
The state librarian position attracted 15 applicants.
Eight are from here, including a former librarian in the public library system.
Mathis, currently superintendent of schools for the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union in Brandon, Vt., confirmed Friday that he was "weighing the challenges and strongly considering it."
"Of course, the question is of funding adequacy -- that's causing me to think some," he said.
"For a state pretty high in general income and in state income, there's a question as to how education is being funded and to what degree," he added.
Bossert, appointed assistant superintendent for the Office of Information and Telecommunication Services in 1991, yesterday said he had prepared an application but was still debating.
Whoever is appointed has a huge responsibility," he said, and "probably won't have a life."
The job would entail a seven-day, 20-hours-a-day work week, he said. Now that he has a 4-year-old daughter, "my wife and I are worrying this through," he said.
Members of the business community, lawmakers and people in the department have urged him to apply.
"I feel I have something to contribute," Bossert said. Having worked in the system, he's familiar with the problems and possibilities in the public schools and feels a business approach could help in some areas.
"I'm very well of the constraints -- the main one being there is no one person in charge and can make a decision," he said.
"It's like 75 cooks stirring the soup."
Bossert, president of Strategic Information Solutions Inc. -- a computer network design and installation company he started in 1986 -- served under Toguchi for 3-1/2 years.
He was responsible for the department's computerized financial management system, educational and interactive television, distance learning and communications.
Man to serve minimum of five years on manslaughter plea
A man who maintains he didn't commit a 1995 murder but changed his plea to manslaughter to avoid the risk of conviction will serve a minimum of five years in prison.Circuit Judge Wilfred Watanabe yesterday sentenced Wallace Rodrigues, accused of murder in the shooting death of Wayne Pemberton, to 10 years each for manslaughter and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
But Watanabe also followed a plea agreement between the state and Rodrigues, requiring him to serve a minimum of five years for each with concurrent terms.
"We're very happy with it," Pamela Tower, Rodrigues' attorney, said yesterday after the hearing.
She said in October he entered an "Alford" plea, which enabled him to say he didn't commit the crime, but also that he understood he could have been convicted based on the evidence.
Deputy Prosecutor Wayne Tashima said the state was glad to resolve the case, involving the death of Pemberton on April 11, 1995, on Palehua Road.
Jurors last May convicted Rodrigues of the firearms charge, but couldn't reach a verdict on murder. One juror, who said seven voted for acquittal, also said he didn't find the state's main witness credible.
The witness, Samson Fernandez, had testified that he and Rodrigues met Pemberton on Palehua Road and that Rodrigues shot Pemberton.
Tower had told jurors that Fernandez shouldn't be trusted because of a plea agreement he signed with the state.
Police had said motives included drugs or revenge.
Unlicensed cosmetic surgeon is deported
A woman who performed plastic surgery in a hotel room and an apartment in Honolulu was deported to South Korea yesterday.Jung Ja Kim, 54, was accompanied by Immigration and Naturalization Service agents as she boarded a plane.
Kim's lawyer, Young Noh, said she could have contested the deportation, but wanted to leave.
"She wanted to be in Korea as soon as possible," Noh said. "She has no money, and her family members are in Korea."
Kim, who has no medical license, admitted to performing plastic surgery on three women in Honolulu, said Noh. However, a doctor said as many as a dozen women approached him about correcting Kim's work.
Kim was fined $500 and ordered to cease operations.
"She came here as a tourist, and some people she met asked her to perform small surgeries," Noh said. "She was just trying to help them.
"She was very sorry when she realized what she was doing was wrong, when she thought she was just helping people."
Kim, a medical receptionist, was arrested by state narcotics investigators March 31 when U.S. Customs inspectors at Honolulu Airport seized a suitcase containing painkillers and surgical supplies.
Thousands of pills, surgical tools and $6,000 cash were seized in the raid at a Ahana Street apartment.
Noh said media reports of the incident were "overblown" and that Kim fully cooperated with officials.
"She didn't want to cause any trouble," he said.
Waikoloa fire scorches 6,000 ranch-land acres
WAIKOLOA, Hawaii -- An uncontrolled grass fire has blackened 6,000 acres of ranch land south of Waikoloa village in west Hawaii, but firefighters may be getting a handle on the fire after a day and a half of fighting it.Eleven firefighters were at the scene early this morning, down from 71 who were battling the blaze 12 hours earlier. The firefighters spent the night cutting fire breaks, laying down foam along the perimeter, and hitting hot spots.
Despite the optimism, firefighters were not yet declaring the fire controlled or contained.
Daytime winds around 25 miles per hour have carried the fire across land owned by Parker Ranch and the Waikoloa Land Co.
No structures have been in the path of the flames, and the wind direction has carried the flames away from Waikoloa town.
Senate Judiciary finally OKs Mollway as judge
WASHINGTON -- Twenty-eight months after she was first nominated as a U.S. district court judge, Honolulu attorney Susan Oki Mollway was finally approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee today.And while the 12-5 vote indicated that objections remain, her supporters now predict she will be approved by the full U.S. Senate.
"With a little patience, I believe it will" be voted on by the Senate, said Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye. "When that happens, I feel certain it will be successful."
But her opponents were not ready to concede. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who voted against Mollway, called five "no" votes in committee significant. "With that many 'no' votes, it may not be pushed as much as other nominations," he said.
Sessions did not question Mollway's qualifications. But he objected to her apparent support, as a former board member of the Hawaii American Civil Liberties Union, of such ACLU positions as opposing random drug tests in the workplace and supporting elimination of mandatory sentencing for criminals.
Although the House Judiciary Committee approved Mollway's nomination more than two years ago, her appointment languished in the Senate.
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Police/Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffSearchers can't find volcano hiker who fell
KALAPANA, Hawaii -- Hawaii Volcanoes National Park officials were to decide this morning whether they should resume a search for missing hiker Shin-Dru Thurston, 26, of Laupahoehoe, they said.A daylong search yesterday, which included a helicopter scouring 11 miles of national park coast, failed to produce any new sign of the man.
Thurston has been missing since he fell onto a seaside rock ledge during an illegal hike to the park's lava flow area about 1 a.m. Tuesday, officials said.
Thurston was in a group that included two other Big Island residents, three people from Colorado, and one person each from Oregon and New Mexico, park officials said.
Trio rescued at sea after vessel overturns
Two men and a woman were rescued at sea yesterday after an emergency locator beacon made it possible for the Coast Guard to locate the position of their raft, 835 miles northeast of Oahu.They reportedly were in good condition when they were picked up at 2:45 p.m. by the fishing vessel Vera Cruize, which is headed toHonolulu.
The trio were aboard the 70-foot tuna boat Twin J, which left Newport, Ore., April 19 for Midway Island.
The Coast Guard located the position of the overturned boat and raft at 5:40 a.m. yesterday.
Man who allegedly beat, raped girlfriend is sought
Police are searching for a 23-year-old man who allegedly beat and raped his 16-year-old girlfriend.The couple were arguing about their breakup at the girl's Kailua house yesterday evening, police said.
They said the man reportedly struck the girl, raped her and threatened her with scissors.
Heart attack, fall from Kaena ridge kills man
A 48-year-old man died yesterday after falling down a ridge at Kaena Point, police said.The man was walking on a steep path to a fishing spot when he suffered an apparent heart attack, police said.
He fell down the ridge at 12:25 p.m.
The man was taken to St. Francis West Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:58 p.m., police said.
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