Board doesn’t discourage competition
The state Contractors License Board would like to clarify misstatements in your July 22 story and repeated in a July 24 editorial, which have led to undeserved allegations of wrongdoing by the board and a specific board member.
The story and editorial claim that board member Dennis Sadowski lost a bid for the University of Hawaii's Les Murakami Stadium resurfacing project in October 2007 and asked the board, the next day, to limit such projects to contractors holding the synthetic field surface specialty license. This is inaccurate in two important respects.
First, Sadowski did not lose the bid on the Murakami Stadium project; the university confirms that only one bid was received. Second, the discussion on the subject was initiated at the board's July 2007 meeting, at which time Sadowski was not present. Therefore, the motivation that your editorial attributes to Sadowski is missing.
After the board's August 2007 meeting, Sadowski, the board's only synthetic field surface licensee, expressed concern that the board's earlier opinions on the installation of synthetic field surfaces ignored the specialized nature of the work. He was encouraged to take the issue up at the September meeting.
At the September and October 2007 board meetings, Sadowski expressed his belief that synthetic field surface installation process requires specialized skills not held by the average landscaping contractor. He explained that the installation of synthetic field surfaces is entirely different from installing natural grass; that there are seaming, drainage, inlay, infill and resilience issues that differ from turf installed for landscaping and aesthetic applications. Sadowski's participation in the September and October 2007 board meetings was consistent with his duty as a specialty contractor board member under Hawaii Revised Statutes.
While the editorial also takes Tady Arisumi, the board chairman, to task for asking Sadowski to review the wording of the board's landscaping and turf classifications, the board's only synthetic field surface licensee was the only logical assignee. Arisumi's request was not unethical, and the board is certainly not "disgraced" by the fact that Sadowski was asked to provide input within his area of expertise.
The board, of course, is concerned that all licensees are treated fairly, and it works closely with Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs staff and the Department of the Attorney General to ensure that they are. Consequently, while the board does not share the editorial's view that its longstanding application of the ethics law is incorrect, it has asked the DCCA to raise the matter with the State Ethics Commission and to advise of any needed changes.
In the meantime, the matter is still the subject of public discussion at the board. New methodologies and technologies frequently require the board to review the scope of its license classifications, and such reviews invariably affect competitors. That's a far cry, though, from saying that such reviews are intended to stifle competition; and that was certainly not the intent in this case.
Verna Oda is executive officer of the Contractors License Board.