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Governor: Pay
raises unlikely
Even if the state economy
Civil Service key: Compromise
improves, public workers
still face an uphill battle
Redevelopment dispute continues
Scene & Heard By Richard Borreca
Star-BulletinIncreased economic activity or not, Gov. Ben Cayetano does not want to offer public employees a pay raise for the next two years.
That's what Cayetano said yesterday when asked if he would go along with building legislative sentiment to give pay raises if they are negotiated or arbitrated this year.
Cayetano told reporters after the opening-day speeches at the Legislature that he would not bargain for a pay raise.
"I don't anticipate it. I'm certain this administration is not going to initiate any collective bargaining that results in a pay raise," Cayetano said.
Contracts with public employees ran out at the end of June, but the state has not actively bargained with the unions.
Legislators are informally discussing the issue of public worker pay raises, and Norman Mizuguchi, Senate president, sees Cayetano's ideas for civil service and collective-bargaining reform linked to the issue of new pay raises.
But Cayetano was adamant yesterday in his refusal to discuss more money for public workers.
"I've expressed to the unions that although the economy, according to some economists, is in an expansion mode, it is growing modestly," Cayetano said.
"This state needs at least two more years of relief before it can be on its feet," he added.
Last year, legislators approved retroactive pay raises and also hastily passed a bill to freeze pay raises for two years.The unions sued and last October won a court-ordered temporary restraining order forbidding the state from not bargaining.
The case still must go to trial, but Cayetano has told the unions that if the state loses in court and at the bargaining table, he will be forced to lay off union workers to pay higher salaries for the remaining civil servants.
This is needed, Cayetano said, because of state projections that calculate a $124 million deficit if the state doesn't curb its spending.
During the summer Cayetano warned that even if he lost the court case and the state lost arbitration, he would lay off workers to pay increased salaries.
The first showdown is expected next month when the Hawaii Government Employees Association goes into final and binding arbitration on contracts that expired June 30.
The arbitration panel is expected to rule within a month -- which means a decision could be before the Legislature by mid-March.
"The law provides a level playing field," said Russell Okata, HGEA executive director.
"If there is an arbitrated decision, the employer is required to submit it to the Legislature for action. It would not be good-faith bargaining if he chose to speak against it," Okata said.
"This is a serious situation," he said.
It is compounded because other unions -- including the university professors, teachers and blue-collar workers -- do not have a final arbitration clause, so their only recourse, if Cayetano refuses to bargain, is to go on strike.
Legislature Directory
Legislature Bills & Hawaii Revised Statutes
Civil service
By Rob Perez
keyword: Compromise
Star-BulletinThe posturing on civil service reform has begun. And at least on the first day of the legislative session, it was civil.
"Perhaps we can find middle ground," Gov. Ben Cayetano told reporters yesterday after hearing Senate President Norman Mizuguchi voice opposition to one of Cayetano's proposals.
Mizuguchi (D, Aiea) said he favors keeping labor disputes between public employee unions and management subject to binding arbitration, instead of giving the unions the right to strike, which Cayetano favors.
"My goal has always been to ensure the continuation of government services regardless of the nature or duration of labor disputes," Mizuguchi said in his opening-day address to the Senate.
Although Cayetano said he was hopeful a compromise could be reached, he told reporters, "arbitrators tend to look at (disputes) in a very narrow sense. It does not result in a good package."
Critics of the process have argued that arbitrators can make decisions that are too narrowly focused, not taking into account what effect those decisions have on government coffers.
But Russell Okata, head of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, said arbitration is a fair way to settle disputes. "That's the modern way. It provides for the continuation of public services."
Karen Ginoza, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, said her group opposes mandating binding arbitration. Teachers currently have the right to strike but also can settle disputes through arbitration if both sides agree.
"It works for us," she said of the hybrid system.
Also on the civil service front, Mizuguchi proposed having the state auditor -- part of the legislative branch -- conduct accountability audits to determine how well managers in executive departments and the Judiciary were performing.
But House Majority Leader Ed Case (D, Manoa) said determining whether executive-branch managers were performing satisfactorily was a responsibility of the governor, not the Legislature.
Legislature Directory
Legislature Bills & Hawaii Revised Statutes
Redevelopment
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
conflict continues
Star-BulletinSenate President Norman Mizuguchi's idea to transfer authority over redevelopment of Kakaako to the city is getting a cool reaction from state officials.
So too is Mizuguchi's plan to turn over jurisdiction of Barbers Point Naval Air Station to the Hawaii Community Development Authority, which handles land use matters involving the Kakaako region.
In his opening-day address, Mizuguchi said the city is in a better position to "integrate the preservation, enhancement and development of the entire waterfront area from Waikiki to Kakaako."
That would free the redevelopment agency, he said, to transform the 2,000-acre Barbers Point lands into a "Silicon Valley West" that would create jobs and industry for a second city in Kapolei.
The turf fight over who should plan Kakaako's development has existed for more than two decades.
In 1976, the state Legislature hatched the Hawaii Community Development Authority -- over the objections of the city -- and gave it broad powers to aid its mission of redeveloping Kakaako. Those powers included the power to float bonds for projects and to supersede city land use regulations.
Gov. Ben Cayetano said he's willing to hear more on both ideas.
"But I'm a little reluctant to turn Kakaako over to the city because the state put in hundreds of millions of dollars into the ground and the city all this time has been reaping the benefits through the real property tax," Cayetano said.
The governor added that the state already has plans for a portion of the region to be used for high-tech and recreational facilities.
Cayetano was even less receptive to the notion of turning Barbers Point into a high-tech center.
"Land location is not the problem in developing high tech here," he said. Workers better trained to enter high-tech fields and attracting venture capital are more important considerations, he said.
Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Nanakuli-Waianae-Makaha), chairwoman of the Water, Land and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, said she's spoken to Mizuguchi about an HCDA-type entity overseeing development at Barbers Point.
"The idea is HCDA, as a semiautonomous organization, has bonding capabilities and can cut through a lot of the red tape that government has," she said. As for Mizuguchi's Kakaako plan, Hanabusa said it's the first time she's heard of it.
Rep. Romy Cachola (D, Kalihi Kai-Iwilei-Sand Island), chairman of the Water and Land Use Committee, said he found both ideas "drastic," particularly considering that a number of plans are already under way for the Kakaako waterfront and Barbers Point.
Jan Yokota, Hawaii Community Development Authority executive director, said her agency would have no qualms about adding the Barbers Point acreage to its responsibilities so long as additional staff and other resources were provided.
Yokota said giving development authority over Kakaako to the city is "premature" because of a number of HCDA projects -- both mauka and makai of Ala Moana -- still need to get under way.
Not surprisingly, the person happiest to hear about Mizuguchi's Kakaako plan was Mayor Jeremy Harris.
"I enthusiastically support the idea," Harris said. To have had a separate entity controlling Kakaako's development, distinct from the rest of the island, has not been the most efficient land use policy, he said.
Legislature Directory
Legislature Bills & Hawaii Revised Statutes
Scene & Heard
Remember Korea
Korean War veteran Louis Baldovi gathered with his buddies on the second floor of the state Capitol during yesterday's legislative opener."This year marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the Korean War," Baldovi said.
He is seeking support from legislators to fund events for the 50th anniversary of the Korean War.
During his postwar years, Baldovi pursued his degree in education at the University of Hawaii.
He later became principal of Nanakuli High and Intermediate School from 1973-1975. From 1975-1986, he was principal of Waimanalo Elementary and Intermediate School.
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