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Editorials
Wednesday, January 31, 2001Hawaii earns better
grades in governingThe issue: Governing magazine has given Hawaii better grades than last year in its management of state government.
ADVANCES in civil-service reform and technology have earned Hawaii improved scores in a nationwide evaluation of state governments. Hawaii still ranks among the lower states in managing government but can take pride in its upward movement.
Evaluations conducted last year for Governing magazine by Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs placed Hawaii among the bottom six states. The ranking this year is not much better -- among 11 states with C grades, and with only Alabama scoring worse with a C-minus.
However, the nature of the improvements, slight as they were, is encouraging. Hawaii's scores for financial and personnel management rose from C-minus to C, while its grade for information technology leaped from F, the worst in America, to C-minus.
"I'm pleased to see we improved somewhat overall," Governor Cayetano said. "Interestingly a more conservative group, the Cato Institute, has given our administration a B for fiscal management and the bond agencies have upgraded our ratings."
In the area of information technology, the magazine praised Cayetano for declaring "that technology standards were no longer the responsibility of individual agencies, and agency heads would have to meet a statewide requirement."
Cayetano says the state plans further progress in that area. "The Governing survey correcting pointed out that we are weak in information technology, which has primarily been a budget issue. We plan to continue improvement in this area."
The improvement in personnel management stems from the Legislature's repeal of all civil service laws as of July 1, 2002. "This opens the door for Hawaii to get rid of some of the practices that have made its old civil service system overly rigid," said Katherine Barrett of Governing magazine.
Davis Yogi, the state's chief labor negotiator, said the civil-service laws were unnecessary because up to 95 percent of all state employees are covered by union contracts, "and it is two-sided negotiations that should set their working rules, not some archaic civil-service law."
The problem is that those two-sided collective-bargaining talks have been thrown out of balance by the political clout of public-employee unions. Further improvements in management of state government will be achieved only through greater flexibility in labor agreements, including avenues for privatization of some state services.
Age of consent
should be 16 years
HAWAII has the disgraceful distinction of having the lowest age for consensual sexual intercourse in the nation -- 14 years old. The age below which a minor may not legally consent to sexual intercourse varies in other states, generally 16, 17 or 18. Hawaii legislators should adopt at least 16 as the minimum age for consensual sex.
Attempts in the Legislature last year to raise the age of consent were opposed by medical and social workers who contended that making sex between consenting teen-agers a crime would deter them from getting birth control, abortions, prenatal care or treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. However, those measures would not be as necessary if adults faced severe consequences for engaging in sex with children.
"Minor girls are uniquely vulnerable to coercion and exploitation in their sexual decision-making," notes Michelle Oberman, a Depaul University law professor who has studied the implications of statutory rape laws. Studies have indicated that 74 percent of girls who have sex before age 14, and 60 percent of those having sex before their 15th birthday, have experienced coercive sex.
Asked this week about whether the age of consent should be raised, Governor Cayetano said, "I would have less problems with it if there were some way to mitigate the lack of knowledge and the consent of the minor.
"Given the world today, it is not easy to tell who is 14, 15 or 16 years old," Cayetano said. "On the other hand, you want to protect our children. So there should be some kind of penalty, but not any kind of mandatory sanction."
The difficulty in determining a child's age is all the more reason why an adult should be required to acquire such knowledge before engaging in sex. "It is up to the adult to know," says Republican House leader Galen Fox, who advocates raising the age of consent.
Consensual sex involving a child is not a victimless crime, and Cayetano's opposition to mandatory sanctions is puzzling. Statutory rape laws are such a sanction, thus the term "jailbait." Young girls preyed upon by grown men are the victims of crime and need to be legally protected. The only question is the age of consent, and the Legislature should change Hawaii's law to conform with those in most other states -- 16 years old.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
Frank Bridgewater, Acting Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
