Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Cayetano targets
fireworks, salaries,
harbor privatization

---

By Bruce Dunford
Associated Press

The Aloha Stadium would go to the University of Hawaii, cabinet members would get 11 percent pay raises, firecrackers would be banned on Oahu, Ala Wai and Keehi small-boat harbors would be privatized and discrimination against gays and lesbians in housing and public accommodations would be illegal.

These are among the more controversial measures the Cayetano administration has submitted to the state Legislature. None was mentioned in the governor's State of the State address last week.

Operation of Aloha Stadium and the planned Kapolei recreational sports complex are now under the Hawaii Stadium Authority in the Department of Accounting and General Services.

"In order to streamline government and make it more efficient," Aloha Stadium and Kapolei sports complex would go to the university, which has experience in managing Rainbow Stadium and the Stan Sheriff Center, the department said. Aloha Stadium lands would be included in the transfer.

The salary of Cayetano's chief-of-staff, Sam Callejo, would climb from $90,041 to $100,000, while pay for the cabinet members would jump from $85,302 to $95,000 under an administration bill. Pay for deputies would go from $77,966 to $90,000.

Increases of 11 to 15 percent, the first in 10 years, "will make the pay of state officers comparable to individuals who hold similar positions in the City and County of Honolulu's Administration," the governor's office said. "The state needs to offer a more competitive salary to attract and retain qualified individuals to government service and discourage them from leaving for higher-paying jobs in the private sector."

The bill contains no increase for the governor, whose salary now stands at $94,780.

Cayetano's push to have all common fireworks banned on Oahu except for cultural and religious purposes follows last year's measure restricting fireworks use and increasing penalties for use of illegal aerial devices.

"This bill is an effort to protect the health, safety, welfare and property of Hawaii's residents," said the governor's message attached to the bill.

The administration is again trying to get the state's most successful small-boat harbors, the Ala Wai and Keehi on Oahu, turned over to private developers to get them redeveloped and revitalized at no cost to the state and to leave more funding for other small-boat harbors.

A related measure seeks a process for the state and counties to privatize certain government services in answer to the 1997 state Supreme Court ruling that blocked privatizing services normally done by civil service employees.

Expected to again provoke the religious right are administration bills barring discrimination in housing and access to public accommodations on the basis of sexual orientation. Such measures passed the Senate last year, but died in the House.

"An individual should not be denied housing because of his or her sexual orientation," the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said in support of the bill. "This bill will make our state's anti-discrimination laws more uniform because sexual orientation is already a protected basis in the employment discrimination law."

Other administration measures would:

Fluoridate public water systems

Increase restrictions on travel agencies

Require a majority of members of the Hawaiian Homes Commission to be of at least one-quarter Hawaiian blood

Allow the open sale of sterile syringes to illegal-drug users to curb transmission of blood-borne diseases like HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C

Exempt state airport construction projects from county approval

Transfer supervision of prison parolees from the Hawaii Paroling Authority to the Department of Public Safety

Allow more than one contract for duty-free concessions at the Honolulu International Airport.

---

Legislature Directory
Hawaii Revised Statutes
Legislature Bills