Editorials
Thursday, August 26, 1999New play equipment
for Honolulu parksThe Department of Education is removing old equipment from school playgrounds throughout the state because of concerns about meeting new federal safety standards and liability.The issue: The city is spending $3 million to buy new play equipment for 31 parks.
For lack of funds, the equipment isn't being replaced. The Board of Education last week rejected a recommendation to request $3 million for new equipment, cutting it to $1 million to provide safety surfacing and accessibility for students with disabilities.
Despite the shortage of funds, the decision was short-sighted. Schoolchildren need playground equipment and Hawaii isn't too poor to provide it.
Fortunately, the city is taking up some of the slack. Mayor Harris said the city is planning to spend $3 million to install new playground equipment at 31 Oahu parks. The cost per park is estimated at $100,000.
As Harris observed, "We can't have whole generations of children growing up without having access to playground equipment. Families simply need a place where their children can play and get exercise."
However, the mayor is off base on another issue. He wants the city to regulate how and where electric power plants and power lines are built. The Harris administration has proposed an amendment to the land-use ordinance that would require plan review use permits for such projects.
The last thing Hawaii needs is more red tape, more obstacles for needed development. These issues are already regulated by the state Public Utilities Commission.
A city review would duplicate this function and prolong the approval process -- with the probable result of increasing the projects' cost as well as depriving the public of their benefits while the battle rages, moving to one agency after another.
Moreover, the PUC contends that it has the sole authority under state law to regulate utility projects and an attempt by the city to conduct its own review would be illegal. That means a probable court fight just over the city's right to get involved.
Harris wants Hawaiian Electric Co. to install new power lines underground, particularly for its Kamoku-Pukele project, where it proposes overhead lines on Waahila Ridge. Let him make his case before the PUC. Don't create more red tape.
Holt’s campaign
spending violationMILTON HOLT has had difficulty taking responsibility for a series of misdeeds in the 1990s that led to the downfall of the once-promising politician. His guilty plea to a felony, mail fraud, stemming from his conversion of political campaign contributions to his personal use may signal a change of attitude.
At the very least, it should provide him enough time behind bars to free himself from drugs and contemplate his future.
The charges against Holt are less serious than the campaign-spending and obstruction of justice charges contested at trial two years ago by former House Speaker Daniel Kihano.
He was sentenced to two years in prison but that was reduced to one year after he suffered a heart attack. Holt could be imprisoned for up to five years but probably will be sentenced to far less.
Holt claimed to accept responsibility for his actions in 1991, when he checked into prison for two days after pleading guilty to abusing his wife. A year later, he was fined $450 for bringing undeclared jewelry into the country from Asia.
In 1993, he was arrested in New Orleans for public drunkenness, although no charges were brought against him. Holt seemed unfazed by this series of legal scrapes in such a short time.
As a special projects manager for the Bishop Estate, Holt acknowledged using an estate credit card to run up a bill of $21,000 at local strip joints and Las Vegas casinos between 1992 and 1997. He attributed that controversy to public "misunderstanding" about his use of the plastic.
He explained last year that he planned to pay the money back, and he did after the estate gave him a one-time salary adjustment. He was relieved of his duties in July.
Holt's troubles in the past year have involved not only charges that he diverted $15,000 in campaign funds for his personal use but evidence that he had engaged in illegal drug use. His bail in the campaign-spending case was revoked in July after he failed a drug test and admitted using crystal methamphetamine.
A graduate of Kamehameha Schools and of Harvard, where he was the football team's starting quarterback, Holt was elected to the state House in 1978 at age 26 and served in the Legislature until his defeat for re-election to the Senate in 1996.
Once praised for his brilliance and political potential, Holt has come to epitomize a fall from grace. A rebound will not come easy for him.
Bishop Estate archive
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
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A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
