Kokua Line
Kokua Line
Question: Who is going to pay for the severing of the telephone lines in Hawaii Kai that Verizon says is costing more than $100,000 to repair? I hope it's not Verizon customers. Phone foul-up paid
by construction firmAnswer: The cost estimate is now in the neighborhood of $150,000, according to Verizon Hawaii spokesman Brian Blevins.
Verizon will be sending the bill to Hawaii Intergenerational Community Development, he said.
The company is building a senior housing complex near Hawaii Kai Drive and Wailua Street. Workers for the building contractor accidentally cut two sections of underground cable, disrupting service to about 3,500 phone customers.
"The customers who were out of service will see a credit in the next phone bill for the four days they were out of service," he said.
Q: Why is Jeremy Harris allowed to run for governor and still keep his job as mayor? I thought our law says that sitting politicians must resign if they're running for another job. All of us out here are talking about this. As a sitting mayor, he has all this free publicity, so we don't understand why that is legal.
A: Article II, Section 7, of the Hawaii Constitution says, "Any elected public officer shall resign from that office before being eligible as a candidate for another public office, if the term of the office sought begins before the end of the term of the office held."
However, until an elected official formally files as a candidate for another office, none of this kicks in.
In Harris' case, although he has announced his intent to run for governor, he has not officially filed papers as a candidate. The deadline for doing so for the 2002 election is July 23, 2002, according to the state Office of Elections.
Also, the state law only holds for state or county office, a spokesman for the city's elections staff explained. If Harris were running for Congress or any other federal office, he would not have to resign.
Q: I live in a single-family home with a two-stall garage, and I have four vehicles at my residence. One person leaves for work at 4 a.m., and another comes home from work between midnight and 4 a.m. A third person leaves for work at odd hours. Instead of blocking one another's vehicles, two of them usually park on the street -- one in front of my property, and the other across the street. A few months ago, our neighbors pushed their trash can into the street, where we usually park. We confronted them on this matter, and they said they "were afraid our trash wouldn't be collected." After speaking with them and stating the fact that their trash has never not been collected in all the years we've both lived there, they apologized, and we thought that was the end of it. Now, they have resorted to calling the police about the car parked on their side of the street, probably stating that it is an abandoned vehicle. The car does get used daily, but we do park it in the same spot. What are the regulations and laws about parking on a public street?
A: As long as a vehicle is moved at least once every 24 hours and is parked legally -- for example, there is no "no parking" sign, and it is at least four feet from a driveway -- it can be parked on any public street. If your neighbor is reporting it as an abandoned vehicle, city inspectors follow a procedure to determine whether that is true. If the vehicle in question is moved daily, it can't be cited for being abandoned.
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