Get rid of local elected officials

Fire the City Council! Fire the mayor! Fire the Legislature! Why? It's downright obvious: None of them are listening to the public.

This latest mayoral/City Council tax increase package is the biggest shibai we've seen in a while. They want to raise property taxes again to cover their lack of creativity. And raise vehicle registration fees? Ai, yai, yai, yai, yai!

Perhaps the restoration of the Waikiki Natatorium should be shelved for better times, and just think how much money could be saved if we mothballed Honolulu Hale and the state Capitol building. We'd be in the black immediately.

I suggest we also follow Judge Kevin Chang's lead and appoint new interim City Council members, an interim mayor and interim legislators -- all of whom could work in the Hawaii Convention Center because, heck, no one else is using it.

Robert "Rabbett" Abbett
Via the Internet

Bishop Estate trustees should decline pay

How dismaying that the five interim Bishop Estate trustees have suggested that they should be paid "no more than $200,000 per year." Such a sacrifice!

They should have simply kept quiet about the pay issue, and let others make suggestions regarding their compensation. Then, when a pay scale for trustees was eventually determined, the interim trustees should have refused any salary at all.

It appears that the power and money of the Bishop Estate continue to be irresistible, even to "honorable" people. How disappointing.

Paul E. Buell
Via the Internet

Trustees' low ratings are due to bad press

In his May 31 column, Charles Memminger expressed bewilderment over the Bishop Estate trustees: "What do you have to do to get a LOWER approval rating than 1 percent?" He was awed by the Star-Bulletin's poll that gave trustee Lokelani Lindsey a disapproval rating of 83 percent -- a full 23 points higher than the worst ratings ever polled anywhere.

Here's how you get those negative numbers: A newspaper like the Star-Bulletin runs stories, editorials, photos and cartoons on its front page nearly every day that are so unflattering, so unremittingly negative and so unbalanced that the public concludes the trustees must be lower than dirt.

This issue goes beyond the trustees and whether they did wrong. It's also about media power and the limits that journalists must set on the exercise of their power. When they chase stories too hard and are too quick to pursue a story line, fair and balanced journalism goes out the window.

A closing comment on Memminger: He routinely applies the term "flack" to those who work in the field of public relations. Newspaper columnists apparently can get away with using derogatory terms to describe a whole class of people. Elsewhere in society, such behavior is unacceptable.

Doug Carlson
Via the Internet

(Editor's note: Carlson is the former public relations person for Lokelani Lindsey.)

Bishop Estate Archive

Quotables "I'd like to grow a few more inches, maybe (to) 6-2. Coach Chico's goal is to prepare me for college. That's the plan." Brandy Richardson KALAHEO HIGH BASKETBALL PLAYER A 5-10 sophomore who is not only the Mustangs' Female Athlete of the Year, but Ms. Basketball Hawaii on the Star-Bulletin's All-State Girls' Team "She should step down because she has judged my son already." Jerry Schweitzer FATHER OF SHAWN AND ALBERT IAN SCHWEITZER About Big Island Judge Riki May Amano, who denied bail for Shawn Schweitzer in the murder trial of Dana Ireland

Mirikitani stages public outrage

The May 29 View Point by club owner Warren Colazzo was right on target. I recall City Councilman Andy Mirikitani orchestrating the picketing of the adult video store in McCully. As I drove past that location daily, it was interesting to note that "community" reaction to the shop was clearly staged and definitely not spontaneous.

I doubt that most of the people in the picket line even lived in the area, given that when the TV cameras and reporters went away, so -- magically -- did the picketing. How did their anger dissipate so rapidly?

I'm just glad this council-man/moral authority doesn't represent me or my district.

James Ko
Via the Internet

Theft of journal adds to grief over son's death

We have had a very difficult time over the past year. On June 4, 1998, my eldest son was diagnosed with leukemia. We live in Hilo and visit our son's grave on Oahu as often as we can.

On May 31, prior to driving to his gravesite, we stopped at Ala Moana Center to have lunch. While we were eating, some heartless person broke into our car and stole my wife's briefcase. This briefcase was special, as it was a Mother's Day gift. Inside that briefcase were several Hawaiian Air coupons, to be used for future trips to visit our son's grave.

More important, the briefcase also contained my wife's date-book/planner, which was given to her by our son, and her journal, with a detailed history of this most traumatic experience.

To the culprit, please know of all the pain you have caused. We can replace the briefcase and the air coupons, but we can never replace that special journal.

If you have any compassion, please drop it off somewhere so it can find its way back to a heart-broken mother.

Steven G. Pavao
Hilo, Hawaii
Via the Internet

Cayetano should help Harris out

It is interesting to see how Cayetano is playing politics with the promised $11 million grant to the city (Star-Bulletin, May 29). If the Legislature committed the funds, then the governor should ante up.

Otherwise, he should expect legislators to continue dumping his political appointees like Bronster and Anzai.

Matthew Lum
Via the Internet

Hawaii doesn't tax tourism industry

David Kimo Frankel's May 28 View Point column hit the nail on the head. In Hawaii, we tax all businesses except one -- tourism -- while complaining that we don't have a diversified economy.

Economists have a name for this, although they are too polite to say it publicly. It's called "captive state."

Neil Frazer
Kailua
Via the Internet

Legislature Directory
Hawaii Revised Statutes

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