Editorials
Thursday, May 24, 2001
GOVERNMENT officials have developed a remarkable talent over the years at obfuscating blunders to avoid having to blame anyone. Feelings are left unruffled, repairs are made and taxpayers foot the bill. The latest example of this finesse is the explanation for a structure that was being built too high above the cliffs of the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve. Mayor remains mum
about source of error
in Hanauma center designThe issue: The city has ordered
the lowering of mounds being built
to contain an education center on
the cliffs of Hanauma Bay and thus
to make it invisible from the beach.Mayor Harris, other city officials and architects of the education center and other buildings along the ridge gave numerous assurances over the past two years that the $10.6 million project would not be visible from the beach. However, architects from the Group 70 firm noticed during construction that the complex would indeed be visible from below if the work were to go forward as planned. To put it out of sight, builders will have to lower, by five feet, a 19-foot berm into which the center is to be built -- at an extra cost of $80,000.
"It's not an error at all," Harris blithely explained. "You can have the building serve its purpose, accomplish its mission and be five feet lower." If the city had settled on such a plan prior to construction, that would have been true. Despite Harris' explanation, the failure to do so was an error that will cost what to most people is a lot of money to correct.
Two decades ago, midway through construction of the ramp connecting Kapiolani Boulevard with the H-1 Freeway, the concrete began to crack.
Construction was halted and the state Department of Transportation ordered an expensive study to determine what had gone wrong. The study concluded that the construction phase of the project was faultless. The only other phase was design, but the state refused to affix blame, calling the design "state of the art." Taxpayers were billed not only for the repair but for the study.
More recently, University of Hawaii officials discovered during the construction of a softball field on the Manoa campus that, once it was completed, many fans would not be able to see home plate from their seats. Dirt had to be hauled in to raise the field at a cost of $612,507. In what may have been an unprecedented display of contractor responsibility, architect Bryce Uyehara ponied up $326,000 to correct mistakes his firm made in the seating design.
That precedent apparently went unnoticed by the mayor, whose generosity with tax dollars is more consistent with other past cases of bureaucratic mercy.
Before sundown on May 31, the eight members of the commission whose responsibility is to redraw the lines of the state's electoral districts must select a ninth person to be chairman or see that task fall to the state Supreme Court. Since the court is comprised entirely by Democrats, that would immediately throw into question the fairness of the selection. Therefore the commission needs to press on to meet its deadline. Reapportionment panel
needs to proceed quicklyThe issue: The bipartisan
Reapportionment Commission is
seeking a chairman and has only
a week to make a selection.The commission has been charged with drawing new electoral boundaries for the Legislature's 51 House and 25 Senate districts and the two districts for the U.S. House of Representatives to make each roughly the same size in population as reflected in the 2000 census. With the Republicans holding 19 House seats and the GOP asserting that it intends to take control of both the House and the governor's office in the 2002 elections, the work of the commission takes on even more than usual significance.
Consequently, the role of the chairman becomes doubly important in presiding over a commission evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. He or she must bring to the commission a reputation for integrity, fairness, independence and an ability to rise above partisan politics. Not an easy task and the difficulty of finding someone to fit those requirements is reflected in the time it has taken so far to name a leader.
A glance at an electoral map of Hawaii suggests that the commission should strive to erase some of the mish-mash that violates the principle of contiguity. Part of Representative District 12 is on northern Kauai, the other part on eastern Maui; Senate District 6 is split somewhat the same way. There may have been a good reason for this once upon a time, but the commission should scrutinize it carefully this time around.
When the trustees of the Bishop Estate came under fire for irregularities, Governor Cayetano appointed an interim board of citizens of unquestioned ability and integrity to straighten things out. The Reapportionment Commission should emulate that in selecting a chairman to give the voters confidence that fair play reigns.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, President
John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.com The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (USPS 249460) is published daily by
Oahu Publications at 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813.
Periodicals postage paid at Honolulu, Hawaii. Postmaster: Send address changes to
Star-Bulletin, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802.
