---

TheBuzz

BY ERIKA ENGLE

Pay cuts hit
PacificBasin
publications

---

A top-to-bottom, across-the-board pay cut has been implemented for the 40 employees of PacificBasin Communications LLC, which publishes Hawaii Business, Honolulu, Hawaii Home + Remodeling and Pacific magazines.

"We told the staff it in no way reflects on our financial stability or position," said President Floyd Takeuchi. "It's a move we've done in anticipation of a fairly weak second quarter."

He stressed that the pay cut announced Monday, and which he would not quantify, is temporary. "We will restore (pay) to current levels when we can," he said.

"We have programs underway in-house that give us every confidence we will ride out the current conditions quickly," Takeuchi said.

PacBasin joins a host of other companies cutting pay for Hawaii employees, not just in light of the post-Sept. 11 economic downturn, but in an advertising slump predating the terrorist attacks.

Acting not just for actors

Acting or interim leaders are now heading some of Hawaii's top educational and historical nonprofit facilities.

The interim director for the Mission House Museum is Stuart Ching, who has been curator for two and a half years. He's happy in that role and is not a candidate for the permanent position, he said.

The board of trustees has formed a search committee and is just beginning its work to find a replacement for Deborah Dunn, who left at the end of January to replace Alice Guild as executive director of Iolani Palace, effective April 2.

Guild has retired from her former role but was elected to the board of directors at the Friends of Iolani Palace annual meeting earlier this month, according to Executive Secretary Maria Borges.

"She's been here for a long time," Borges said. "She's been involved since the beginning of the (1969) Iolani Palace restoration project in one capacity or the other." Guild was in a meeting and not available.

Also, Waikiki Aquarium curator Cynthia Hunter would serve as acting director, following the resignation of Bruce Carlson.

E-mail forwarding update

E-mails and claims on Web sites that seem too good to be true, reported on by TheBuzz Feb. 24, can be forwarded to federal authorities such as the Internet Fraud Complaint Center at ifccfbi.gov or to the Honolulu FBI office.

The latter was in the process of transitioning to honolulu@us.fbi.gov, but an FBI spokes-woman Tuesday morning was notified by the agency's systems department that technical difficulties have prevented implementation of the new address. The working address is honolulu@fbi.gov.

---

Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com