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Editorials
Thursday, September 21, 2000Harris has earned
re-election as mayorThe issue: After six years as mayor of Honolulu, Jeremy Harris is seeking re-election in a battle with Frank Fasi and Mufi Hannemann.
JEREMY Harris served an apprenticeship in city government under Frank Fasi, rising to managing director of the city and county of Honolulu. When Fasi resigned to run for governor in 1994, Harris moved up to mayor without losing a beat. He's been running the city well ever since and deserves to be re-elected Saturday.
Six years ago Hawaii was struggling with a weak economy, making it difficult to fund government programs. The economy began to revive just last year and is only now showing strength.
But Harris has found ways to operate city services with reduced revenues by improving efficiency, partly through reorganization and cutting paperwork. Despite the fiscal constraints, he has introduced new programs and services that have made Honolulu a better place to live. Like his predecessor, he is an activist mayor, brimming with ideas and energy, but without the abrasiveness and questionable tactics that marred Fasi's long tenure at Honolulu Hale.
As Fasi did, he is considering a bid for the governorship in two years. But any successful mayor of Honolulu is likely to have such ambitions and they should not be held against him in this election.
The magnitude of the fiscal problem facing the city can be seen in the precipitous decline in Oahu real property valuations as a result of the recession -- from $102 billion in 1994 to $86 billion this year. Consequently property tax income -- the city's primary revenue source -- is $59 million lower. The city's share of the hotel room tax has also declined.
The city operating budget, capital budget and work force have all shrunk, but there has been no reduction in city services.
Instead, Harris has improved bus service, completed automation of refuse pickup, beautified Kuhio Beach, built a stunning bandstand in Kapiolani Park, opened a top-flight soccer center on the Waipio Peninsula, new parks in the Waianae District and Central Oahu and a police substation in Kapolei and cleaned up Chinatown.
Through his visioning program, neighborhoods throughout Oahu have been empowered to initiate improvements, bringing thousands of citizens into the process of self-government.
Honolulu today is one of the safest, cleanest and best-governed cities in the country. The crime rate has dropped 36 percent. Governing magazine rated Honolulu one of the nation's best-managed cities.
The Ewa Villages fraud scandal was a huge embarrassment for the city and for Harris. However, the fact that two city employees stole millions of dollars can hardly be blamed on the mayor. They did it by exploiting loopholes in city procurement procedures. Harris has since taken steps -- belatedly, of course -- to close those loopholes.
Harris faces two able opponents in Frank Fasi and Mufi Hannemann. But Fasi at 80 is a man whose time has passed. Hannemann, like Harris, is energetic and articulate but cannot match Harris' record of achievement and leadership.
Our choice in the mayoral election: Jeremy Harris.
City & County of Honolulu
OHA trustee elections
FEDERAL District Judge Helen Gillmor's ruling that non-Hawaiians can serve as Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustees came as no surprise to those with an understanding of the legal issues involved. Racial restrictions on eligibility for running for state office are unconstitutional and cannot be tolerated. The next step should be creation of a Hawaiian government entity independent of state government.
In Rice vs. Cayetano, the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the voting restriction in OHA elections to Hawaiians. The decision carried the inference, although not part of the specific ruling, that similar discrimination in eligibility for office also would violate the Constitution. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion that "race cannot qualify some and disqualify others from full participation in our democracy."
Gillmor reiterated the Supreme Court's point that Hawaiians, under current law, cannot be regarded by government similarly to Native American tribes. Indian tribes have been recognized in U.S. treaties as separate nations and by the high court in 1831 as "domestic dependent nations."
The state wasted time and money eliciting Gillmor's predictable ruling, ostensibly in the hope that she would rule otherwise.
Meanwhile, Hawaii's congressional delegation has formulated a sensible legislative response to the Rice decision. Senator Akaka is the chief sponsor of a bill that would lead to the formation of a Hawaiian government with a relationship to the federal government comparable to that of Indian nations.
The Akaka bill is unlikely to be enacted this year because of the limited time remaining in the current congressional session. Its backers should seek commitments from the Gore and Bush campaigns to continue the Clinton administration's support.
Until Congress acts, OHA should be maintained as a state agency, with trustees elected by voters regardless of race. Further legal challenges of its limitation in providing social services only to Hawaiians can be expected, but that role -- unlike voting and running for public office -- is not part of the democratic process to which Justice Kennedy referred.
Office of Hawaiian Affairs
State Office of Elections
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
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
