[ OUR OPINION ]
Let Lingle take on
matter of prisonUNTIL Linda Lingle is sworn in on Dec. 2, no one expects Governor Cayetano to relinquish his authority. Up to that day, he remains the duly elected leader of the state and must do what is in the best interest of the public. To that end, Cayetano should not impose upon the new administration a contract for a prison that may not fit its goals, because whatever changes Lingle may seek could prove costly to the taxpayer.
THE ISSUE Outgoing Governor Cayetano continues to negotiate for a Halawa facility.
Cayetano has been negotiating with a private contractor to build a prison in Halawa Valley to relieve the crowded and outdated Oahu Community Correctional Center in Kalihi. Throughout his eight years in office, the governor has been frustrated in his efforts for a new facility by a waffling state Legislature and by a "not-in-my-backyard" mentality. Four years ago, lawmakers -- loathe to tackle a politically ticklish issue -- turned the matter over to Cayetano.
Lingle and Lt. Gov.-elect James Aiona, in arguing that Cayetano should cease negotiations, have said new prison facilities would have to incorporate their emphasis on rehabilitation and treatment. Their approach isn't in conflict with Cayetano's, who repeatedly pushed for drug-treatment programs for inmates as well as non-violent drug offenders, but up until this year had been unsuccessful in persuading lawmakers to adopt this course.
The Halawa prison isn't intended as a treatment facility, as Lingle has proposed for a Big Island site, but to reduce population levels at the obsolete Kalihi prison, which will have to be replaced anyway. The state can ill afford to be placed under federal court supervision, as it had been from 1984 through 1999 because of crowded conditions at OCCC.
Cayetano seems determined to complete the task he began in earnest earlier this year. In August, the administration said it hoped to reach an agreement on the prison before Cayetano left office, but with less than three weeks to go, time may be too short to assure that the contract will best serve the state's interest in the long run.
Cayetano may have been offended by the way Lingle made her request that he halt talks on the prison, releasing a letter to the news media before it reached his office. If so, he should set aside his pique and grant her request because it is likely she will want changes in the contract, which could end up costing taxpayers more. It would be an act of a statesman.
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Next City Council
shouldn’t chicken outThose who enjoy the cruel bloodsport of cockfighting can turn fierce when cornered, as the Honolulu City Council and the voters of Oklahoma are finding out. Pressured largely by people engaged in the illegal activity, the Council has backed away from a bill that would have included roosters among other farm animals now banned from residential areas. Oklahoma officials are nervously avoiding implementation of a new law that makes cockfighting a felony in that state.
THE ISSUE The City Council has rejected a proposal to ban roosters from residential areas.
Prior to the Nov. 5 election, Oklahoma had been one of only three states where cockfighting was legal. Cockfighters claimed that implementing the law, approved in a state ballot referendum, would cause an unconstitutional taking of property, although the new law does not call for the confiscation of the state's half-million gamecocks. When cockfighting was legal, they argued, the value of a ferocious rooster ranged from $100 to $250. A judge has temporarily halted enforcement of the new law in three counties.
Since cockfighting itself is illegal in Hawaii -- unfortunately only a misdemeanor -- cockfighters here cannot make such a claim. Chickens are worth approximately as priced in supermarkets. Instead, rooster owners appeared teary-eyed before the Council, claiming that being deprived of keeping roosters in their backyards would be a cultural shock.
Those who jammed the City Council chambers naturally did not admit to being involved in cockfighting or gambling, which is the main revenue source of this inhumane activity. Opponents of backyard roosters are not necessarily law-and-order sticklers or animal protectors; they are mainly neighbors desiring a good night's sleep, uninterrupted by roosters' early-morning wake-up calls.
"My health is challenged if I can't sleep," public school teacher Tracey Idica told the Council. "How can I do my job as teacher if I can't sleep the night before?"
Cockfighters not only engage in illegal activity but are indignant that anyone should have the nerve to complain about the noise created by gamecocks in their backyard training camps. (Of course, this does not apply to poultry lovers who regard their roosters strictly as cuddly pets.)
Outlandish as such audacity is, it worked to turn around the lame-duck City Council, which reversed itself and voted 5-4 to defeat the proposed rooster restriction. The next Council should muster up enough courage to protect neighborhoods from the loud, peripheral effects of illegal cockfighting.
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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
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