Harris vetoes Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris exercised his line-item veto powers yesterday, deleting key provisions from the $455 million capital improvements budget, restrictions he says would have made it tougher to build a tennis complex and expand the HPOWER plant.
building delays
The mayor removes conditions
that would precede a new tennis
court and waste facilityBy Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.comHarris, in a related action, signed into law the $1.12 billion operating budget for the 2002-03 fiscal year but chastised the City Council for some of its decisions.
The line-item veto was the first in the eight years Harris has been mayor. City officials said the last time a mayor used veto powers was when former Mayor Frank Fasi vetoed the entire operating budget in 1990.
Key Council members are vowing to fight some of the provisions vetoed by Harris yesterday, while others said they thought the mayor's concerns were legitimate.
Under the City Charter, the nine-member Council can, with six votes, override any or all of the items vetoed in the period between five and 30 days after the veto.
The key provisos deleted:
>> Requiring that a study on new refuse disposal technology be completed before a $6 million expansion of HPOWER, the city's waste-to-energy plant, can begin.
>> Requiring that a $3.1 million tennis complex at Central Oahu Regional Park not be built until the city can find a private organization to operate and manage the facility.
Harris said that requiring the alternative refuse disposal study to be done first "will unnecessarily slow down the expansion of HPOWER by at least one year." The city began a study on plasma arc technology a year ago, he said.
But according to Councilman Gary Okino, "I don't want to go headlong into HPOWER if that's not the technology we're going to use to replace landfills."
Harris said he vetoed the tennis complex proviso because it has conflicting language. He noted the proviso calls for requiring that a private entity "pay for all operating expenses" and then later also calls for a private firm to be "responsible for at least 50 percent of the maintenance costs for the facility."
Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said that keeping some kind of proviso is still crucial. "I worry that we don't have enough money for operation and maintenance unless there is a public-private partnership," she said.
Not all Council members felt the same way, however.
"I think he's raised some good issues," said Councilman Steve Holmes, who supported Harris' budget. Holmes said he was surprised that the mayor did not veto items in the operating budget after discussions he has had with Cabinet members.
Councilwoman Darrlyn Bunda said she sees no need for an override. "I personally don't have any major problems with this," she said.
Harris, in approving the operating budget, said he was not happy with decisions to slice the budget of the Office of Economic Development and Department of Enterprise Services.
"Programs that were under way to spur our economy will lose momentum," Harris wrote.
Managing Director Ben Lee said last night that no decision has been made on whether to continue to hold Sunset on the Beach four times a month, although the administration said earlier they expected to trim the events as a result of operating-budget cuts.
City & County of Honolulu
