Harris pressures The Harris administration is urging city contractors and local community leaders to lobby against the cuts proposed by the City Council's Budget Committee.
Council
Administration enlists city
contractors to lobby against cuts
proposed by the budget committeeBy Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.comBut the committee's chairwoman accused the administration of taking part in a disinformation campaign.
In a series of e-mails and letters, two city officials -- Eric Crispin, Department of Design and Construction deputy director, and Randall Fujiki, director of the Department of Planning and Permitting -- urged local architects, neighborhood board members and members of the city's vision teams to attend April 24 and May 16 City Council hearings on the city's budget.
"We need warm bodies to show up at the hearing in support of the administration's budget and opposing the budget cuts," Crispin wrote in an April 24 e-mail. "We need you to send in your written testimony via fax; however, the most effective is the head count."
Crispin's e-mail, whose recipients included architects that receive nonbid city contracts and dozens of members of the American Institute of Architects' local chapter, came on the same day that the City Council's Budget Committee held a hearing on the Harris administration's budget that lasted more than 10 hours.
After considering comments from hundreds of testifiers, the committee voted 7-1 to approve a $1.2 billion operating budget. That budget reduces the city's capital improvement projects by $400 million but will not force the city to lay off workers. The committee will hold hearings on the budget next week.
In a letter to the American Institute of Architects on Wednesday, Crispin and Fujiki urged the trade group's members to contact the City Council and demand that the cuts be restored during the Budget Committee's May 16 meeting.
The letter, which included the names, phone numbers and fax numbers of all nine Council members, also said that architecture and planning businesses will be hurt by the cuts.
In separate letters to members of Oahu's neighborhood boards and the city's vision teams, Crispin and Fujiki said Budget Committee Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi was "irresponsible" in stating that the city is headed for a financial crisis.
City spokeswoman Carol Costa referred all questions to city Managing Director Ben Lee, who was not available for comment yesterday. Crispin and Fujiki also could not be reached.
"With the last chance for public input in this budget cycle fast approaching, now is the time to let the Council members know that you want to save the city administration's budget from the chopping block," Crispin and Fujiki wrote.
Kobayashi said the administration is overstating the impact of the committee's proposed budget, and likened the lobbying effort to that of a self-perpetuating bureaucracy.
She said it is imprudent of the city to continue to spend money at its current pace when it is "borrowing money to pay back money that it has borrowed."
Kobayashi also questioned the cost of the lobbying, saying that constituents have complained about the cost of the mailings.
"I don't mind a lot of people coming here even if they're trying to intimidate me," Kobayashi said. "But I see this as an opportunity to talk to these people and explain the financial state of the city and what a financial disaster we're seeing."
City & County of Honolulu
