Editorials
Wednesday, August 26, 1998

Hanalei boating ban
could kill industry

GOVERNOR Cayetano has plunged head-first into the Kauai controversy over commercial boating in the Hanalei River. It wasn't clear that the governor had thoroughly surveyed the rocks beneath the water's surface before diving in and announcing he will ban commercial operations there.

The decision came as a surprise to everyone involved in the dispute, including Kauai Mayor Maryanne Kusaka. Previously officials of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources had said they would be preparing regulations for boating operations on the river after the county completed its plan on managing a boat-launch facility.

The decision delighted environmentalists who have been battling the commercial operators since the 1970s. And it is consistent with President Clinton's designation of the Hanalei River last month as one of 14 "American Heritage" rivers.

However, there is a real concern that the decision will kill the tour boat industry on Kauai's North Shore, which employs several hundred people. The operators have used the river to pick up and drop off passengers for their trips along the scenic Na Pali coast. If the operators are denied use of the river, it isn't clear that their businesses can survive.

The governor acknowledged that the tour boats are a valuable asset to tourism and should be encouraged, but declared the "Hanalei estuary is not the place." He said the river can't handle both commercial tour boats and recreational activities such as swimming and fishing.

The decision in effect scraps years of effort to find an acceptable compromise that would limit and regulate but not ban commercial boating. Cayetano said he supports continued boat tours provided that they operate from existing harbors or a new launch site. But he provided no real alternative to the boating operators. It appears that he has none. At this point it is uncertain what if anything can be done to save the industry if the governor's decision stands.

Louis F. Powell

KNOWN during his tenure on the Supreme Court as a swing vote, Justice Louis F. Powell embodied the integrity so vital to the nation's highest tribunal. His legal philosophy was moderate and balanced, and he responded with logic and sound argument in resisting ideological forces on the court. Powell, who retired from the bench in 1987, died in Washington yesterday at the age of 90.

A descendent of the first settlers of Jamestown, Powell became a partner in a leading Richmond law firm. Known as a conservative, Powell was considered for the Supreme Court by President Nixon in 1969, but declined, saying he was too old at 69. Two years later, he reluctantly accepted the nomination.

Powell was expected to be a conservative voice on the high court but, like many others before him, proved to be unpredictable. On some issues, such as the death penalty and other areas of criminal law, he sided with the conservatives. However, he became the critical vote for liberals on such issues as abortion, affirmative action and religion, resisting the Reagan administration's attempt to drive the court to the right.

Powell considered the most important decision he had written to be that in the Allen Bakke case in 1978, striking down racial quotas for a medical school's admission policy but leaving open the door to affirmative action. The decision remains the law today.

His independence, combined with his courtly Virginian manner, earned him the respect of his colleagues on the bench and attorneys who appeared before the court.

Powell retired from the Supreme Court in 1987, leaving a record of independence and integrity that present and future justices would do well to emulate.

AFSCME convention

THE Hawaii Convention Center is hosting its first meeting of the size for which it was designed -- the convention of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), with 5,000 delegates. It's encouraging to see the facility being put to use and helping the tourism industry. The fact that this is a major national labor organization couldn't be more appealing to Governor Cayetano, whose administration supervised the convention center's construction.

AFSCME, like most unions, is strongly pro-Democrat, and a string of prominent Democrats, headed by Vice President Gore, has addressed the convention. Their message, needless to say, is vote Democratic.

It's a message that voters in Hawaii have heeded for decades, resulting in a virtual one-party state. But the tide of public opinion may be changing. The Democrats know they have a fight on their hands for the governorship, and perhaps for Neil Abercrombie's seat in the House of Representatives, too.

Just as the Democrats count on AFSCME in national politics, locally they rely heavily on the HGEA and UPW, the two public employee unions (plus the teachers union), in their election campaigns. But the great clout of the public employee unions is not good for democracy. When these unions succeed in getting the candidates they support elected, they are in effect hiring their own bosses, the people who will decide their members' pay and conditions of employment.

The public workers unions' success is reflected in the generous pay and fringe benefits enjoyed by government employees in Hawaii, benefits that are often better than those in the private sector. If you work for the government, it's great. For the rest of us, who are paying for those benefits with our taxes, the results are nothing to cheer about. That is one reason for the current dissatisfaction with the political establishment.

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Rupert E. Phillips, CEO

John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro, Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor