STAR-BULLETIN / 2002 The city-sponsored Sunset on the Beach program is scheduled to run every weekend through this month in spite of a City Council proviso to hold the event no more than one weekend a month beginning July 1.

City defies Council
on beach festivals

The mayor apparently is ignoring
a proviso limiting the events

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By Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.com

The city's Sunset on the Beach program is continuing on a four-times-a-month schedule in spite of a City Council proviso instructing Mayor Jeremy Harris to hold the event no more than one weekend a month beginning July 1.

Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said the Council would likely take some sort of action if the administration follows through and conducts the event every week this month.

Exactly what action it will take still needs to be discussed with Council Chairman John DeSoto, she said. "To be so arrogant is really disturbing and disappointing."

Waikiki area Councilman Duke Bainum, who came up with the proviso as a compromise for those who wanted to eliminate the program, said the language and intent of the proviso were clear to him. "Once a month is once a month," he said.

Carol Costa, the mayor's spokeswoman, said last night that the administration would not have immediate responses to questions about the program.

The city's Sunset on the Beach Web page shows the event running every weekend through July 27-28 at Waikiki's Queen's Surf. The Web page also gives the movies for last weekend, this coming weekend and the weekend of July 20-21.

Additionally, an announcer at this past Sunday night's Sunset on the Beach event said that the program is expected to continue at its current schedule indefinitely.

Bainum said he was able to persuade colleagues to continue supporting the program, through a $300,000 appropriation for the new fiscal year, which began July 1.

But a condition was attached allowing "Sunset and Brunch on the Beach on a monthly basis provided additional private-sector funding is sought."

Bainum said he is at a loss as to why Sunset is being planned for the rest of the month. "One would have to assume that they either are going to have four movies in July and none in August, September and October," he said, "or that the Harris administration seems to believe the law does not apply to them."

The program is a popular and important one from the standpoint of economic development, Bainum said. "But given our priorities, the lack of street maintenance, rising crime rates, the difficulty keeping police here, it can't be our priority."

Kobayashi agreed. "We like the project. It's just, How much are we spending and can we afford it?" she said. "I'd like to see more money going to the Police and Fire departments."

The city is not even fixing sewer breaks in a timely manner, she said.

The administration has yet to give a final accounting of all the money involved, including overtime and the cost of printing invitations, Kobayashi said.

Bainum said that if alternative funds have been found to pay for additional weekends of the program, he said, "then they need to notify the City Council."

Kobayashi said she believes the proviso requires there to be only one weekend of Sunset on the Beach even if private funding is found.

"The language is very specific, and if he didn't like that, then he should have vetoed this one," she said, noting that Harris vetoed several other provisos.