[ OUR OPINION ]
THE newly elected members of the City Council are neophytes in municipal government, but their backgrounds should provide them with the resources and knowledge they will surely need to resolve the city's budgetary and accountability problems. Although the Council serves to balance the power of the administration, the hope is that the new members and the mayor can work cooperatively rather than in conflict. New City Council
needs fresh attitude
THE ISSUE A new City Council will have to overcome previous disharmony and ethical lapses.
The Council in previous years had been criticized for rubber-stamping the administration's undertakings without scrutiny. After two of its members were removed from office by criminal convictions, and questions arose about Mayor Harris's fiscal prudence, the Council swung the other way, injecting harsh political tones into the legislative process. Maybe now, the Council and the mayor can establish a more reasonable atmosphere in which to do business.
Among the new Council members are former legislators Charles Djou, Nestor Garcia and Rod Tam, who will be viewing fiscal relations between the state and counties from the other side. Their experience could be helpful in garnering a larger share of city-generated revenues that go to state coffers or in seeking relief from taxes the city must pay to the state. Novices Barbara Marshall, a former television journalist, and Donovan Dela Cruz, who works in private business, will have to get up to speed quickly, but both appear to be more than capable.
Above all, the new Council must demonstrate to the public that the ethical lapses that plagued previous members are a thing of the past and that they are worthy of its trust.
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WITH education and a reconfiguration of the Board of Education as a priority for Gov.-elect Linda Lingle, the new and returning members of the board will confront many challenges during their terms. Chief among them will be to reassert the board and raise its profile as the leading agency in charge of public education. BOE seems primed
to push for change
THE ISSUE The new Board of Education faces many challenges, including one that would revise its structure.
Board members, who agree that the public school system has too many masters and too little accountability, should seize the new administration's call for change as their own and push the state Legislature to revise the way budgets and spending are determined.
The school board can no longer allow state lawmakers to set the agenda for projects and programs, a practice that results in chaotic and uncoordinated functions. A prime example of legislative interference is the Kapolei Library, a spanking-new building that stands with no books or librarians inside. The absurd and counterproductive consequences of such pork-barrel projects clearly argue for consideration of budgetary autonomy for the Department of Education. With Lingle's support, the board may be able to move the idea ahead.
Although the board itself may be affected by Lingle's proposal for a decentralized body, members should steer and encourage public discussion of such a change. If smaller boards will produce better-educated children and teachers who receive the rewards of their success, the proposal should be adopted.
The new school board appears to have a number of aggressive, clear-thinking members who truly respect and prize public education. As a united group, they should brave the system's other bosses -- the Legislature and the administration -- and prod them toward an overhaul. The public and Hawaii's children are waiting.
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