Faced with more than 75 requests a day for meetings, speeches and appearances, Gov. Linda Lingle has turned to the Internet to organize her schedule. Public can reach Lingle
by going to her Web siteHer office goes online to handle
requests for the governor's timeBy Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.com
To handle all the calls, Lingle's office has set up a Web page, www.ehawaiigov.org/appt/gov/schedule.cgi, for citizens to request a meeting, appearance or interview.
The range of requests runs from an eighth-grade student doing a school paper on the office of governor, to the sponsors of a bald eagle for the Pro Bowl who wanted Lingle to stand in the Capitol atrium and have the eagle land on her arm.
Before you dash off a request for the governor to show up at your baby luau, however, be prepared to answer some detailed questions.
Name of the event, purpose of the event, person who will introduce the governor, will there be any other speakers, who will be attending, will the news media be there and how many people will attend, are some of the questions asked.
The Governor's Office also wants to know if Lingle can bring a guest and can the guest and the governor be seated together; also, if there is a sample of the program, the office would like to see it.
Carolyn Tanaka, press secretary for John Waihee when he was governor, said the detailed questions are not much different from what she handled.
"We had a lot of requests for speeches, especially in the first part of his first term, because he was new and a lot of people didn't know him," Tanaka said.
"We had a lot of invitations for baby luaus, weddings. Probably the strangest request was for him to come to my baby shower, but he came," Tanaka joked.
"We would take it all down and then meet with him (Waihee) to decide," Tanaka said.
Lingle asks for at least two weeks' lead time for requests, something that former Gov. Ben Cayetano noted was not his policy.
"There was no two-week advance notice. If, at the time the request came in, my calendar was open and it was something I wanted to do, we'd approve the request even though the event may have been a few days later," Cayetano said.
"If I could not handle the request but we thought it was important, we would ask the host whether a Cabinet member or my chief of staff would be an acceptable substitute," Cayetano added.
Lingle's staff decided to go to the Internet system after first trying to take down all the requests by hand and then by faxing out forms to persons requesting a meeting.
"The governor makes a point to plan out 30 days in advance, but with the Legislature now and everything else, she is being cautious about her schedule," Lenny Klompus senior communications advisor, said.
Lingle has her weekly schedule completely booked, he explained, adding that in between meetings, the governor will make telephone calls.
"The telephone calls are scheduled, too," Klompus said.
By getting more information about the meeting, Lingle is able to "do her homework" on the group or the issues that are to be discussed, Klompus added.
Office of the Governor
Governor's schedule planner