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Hawaii Tourism Authority
needs to take a new tackCHARLES DE GAULLE told us, "Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians." Now, Ben Cayetano says running the Hawaii Tourism Authority is too serious to be left to hotel operators.
On the heels of a blistering audit by state Auditor Marion Higa, the governor has appointed six new members to the 11-member HTA board, including banker Larry Johnson, public relations veteran Sharon Weiner and politicians Stephen Yamashiro and Mike McCartney.
Other Cayetano appointees include Nadine K. Nakamura, a Kauai planning consultant, and Alice Guild, former executive director of the Friends of Iolani Palace. The state Senate must confirm the appointments.
Those are the Ins. The Outs include HTA Chairman Roy Tukujo of Paradise Cove and board members Peter Schall of Hilton Hawaiian Village and Shari Chang of Castle Hotels & Resorts.
HIGA TOOK the Tourism Authority to the woodshed for "alarming" deficiencies in keeping track of spending, lack of a management plan and for failing to comply with the state's law for open meetings. As a result, she said, tax dollars are administered poorly and without benefit to the state.
Her report, for example, criticized how HTA awards contracts after auditors found 29 percent of the 51 contracts awarded in fiscal year 2001-2002 had inadequate documentation to justify the awards.
According to HTA, its mandate is to develop "plans, policies and programs for a long-term strategic outlook for tourism. This includes focusing on product development, facilitation of travel, visitor satisfaction, impact management and community awareness. In its approach, the Authority will also have a strong focus on marketing and promotion."
Cayetano says that despite this sweeping mandate, HTA has had a narrow focus, taking the position that "whatever is good for the hotels is good for tourism, and that's not necessarily the case because there are larger goals that we have for tourism."
This was clear when the state dropped running the Hawai'i Convention Center into the HTA's lap.
Both the center's $26.5 million annual debt service and the HTA's annual budget of $61 million come from the hotel room tax. Accordingly, it makes sense to use that tax to generate more hotel stays, which results in more room tax, which pays for marketing more hotel stays, etc.
NOW, HOWEVER, Cayetano says he wants HTA to take a broader focus. "I hope these folks will bring to the HTA ... a belief that the money that comes from the (hotel room) tax belongs to the people, not the industry," he said recently.
Ben has long cherished a vision of Hawaii as a Geneva of the Pacific, host to global meetings like last year's Asian Development Bank or even the World Trade Organization. He broke ground for the convention center early in his first term.
Now there's pressure from the governor and the Legislature to use HTA's room tax money to fix up Hawaii's parks and wilderness areas. Since many of these are used disproportionately by visitors, that makes sense. Besides, somebody needs to pay attention to them.
The new appointees were selected with an eye toward furthering the broader agenda.
Former Cayetano Cabinet member McCartney, for example, hasn't run a hotel, but he's been a powerful player in the state Senate, where he served three terms, and a television executive, serving as president and CEO of Hawaii Public Television and founding the popular "Hawaii Stars" TV show.
MEANWHILE, HTA has also been cited for not fulfilling the requirements or the spirit of the state Sunshine Law. Since 1998 it went into executive session 28 times to discuss confidential, proprietary or personnel matters, but Higa's auditors found minutes for only nine of those closed-door meetings.
As they embrace a broader mandate and address the shortcomings brought to light by Higa, let's hope the new HTA board also embraces transparency. Sunshine's a great disinfectant.
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.