State volunteers THE STAFF for the Asian Development Bank convention next week at the Hawaii Convention Center will include about 125 state employees being paid by taxpayers.
to work for ADB
About 125 will staff
By Mary Adamski
the bank's convention
at taxpayers' expense
Star-BulletinState communications director Jackie Kido said the workers from various departments answered a call for volunteers and will spend from one to five days on convention business. They will join convention center employees, also on the state payroll.
Their salaries are part of the tab that state and federal governments will pick up while the board of governors of the Manila-based bank meet in Honolulu May 7-11. The meeting is expected to draw 3,000 observers from financial institutions and other organizations.
The United States, with the state as its "executing agency," agreed to provide the meeting place, transportation in Honolulu, communications facilities and "qualified local staff," according to papers filed in U.S. District Court.
The memorandum of agreement was provided in the government's response to a suit filed last week charging that security measures planned for the convention will violate constitutional rights of groups and individuals who will demonstrate against the financial group.
U.S. District Judge David Ezra has set a 1 p.m. Thursday hearing on the request for a temporary restraining order to stop the state and city from imposing conditions that would block demonstrators' use of public parks, streets and sidewalks. The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of ADBWatch, a coalition of groups concerned about human rights and environmental effects of industrialization in Third World countries.
In the memorandum the federal government guaranteed that bank officials and staffers will be "admitted free of any duty and taxes, and expedited through customs" and shall be "immune from all taxation, whether federal or state."
Hawaii Tourism Authority Executive Director Robert Fishman said the ADB as an institution does not pay taxes, an immunity similar to that enjoyed by foreign diplomats, but it does not apply to individual participants. It will mean bills paid by the bank are exempt from the state excise tax and hotel room tax.
Fishman said the salaries of state workers are covered in the $1.5 million state budget for the convention. The state Legislature funded $1 million last year, and private businesses including local banks are underwriting the rest.
The budget does not include the cost of security.
"We will put a number on security sometime in the future," Fishman said. He said the Treasury Department has not agreed to reimburse local costs for security but that Hawaii's congressional delegation will work toward that end.