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Kokua Line June Watanabe |
Only Council has
provision for recallQuestion: It is late to ask since the California recall was last month, but what does recall mean during election time?
Answer: In California, recall means voters can yank an official from state office before his or her term expires if there are enough signatures on a petition calling for a special election. Californians voted to recall Gov. Gray Davis from office and replace him with actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Seventeen other states also have recall provisions for elected state officials, but Hawaii is not among them.
There is no provision in the Hawaii State Constitution for a recall of any state official, although the City and County of Honolulu does allow the recall of Council members.
In 1985, Democratic Councilmen George Akahane, Rudy Pacarro and Toraki Matsumoto were recalled after they decided to become card-carrying Republicans (the Council race now is nonpartisan). The Honolulu City Charter allows a recall election to be held if 10 percent of the eligible voters in a member's district sign a recall petition.
In California the law allows an official to be recalled immediately after he is elected -- there is no waiting period. A notice-of-intent-to-recall petition, signed by at least 65 voters, must first be filed. After that a recall petition can be circulated.
Petitions for the recall of Davis had to have been signed by voters equal in number to 12 percent of the last vote for California governor.
The recall ballot then had two parts: Voters first were asked to vote yes or no as to the recall of Davis. A simple majority voting for the recall was needed for it to succeed. Voters also were asked to vote for a replacement candidate. The winner was whoever received a plurality.
If voters rejected the recall, the votes for the candidates would have been ignored.
Q: Whom do I call to report a lot of jaywalking apparently by state employees who come from the parking lot of a state building at 830 Punchbowl St.? They jaywalk in the morning before work and in the afternoon when they are finished, forcing cars to stop on Punchbowl. This disturbs us daily and needs to be addressed.
A: We ran an "auwe" last year from someone complaining about police not "addressing the numerous jaywalking violations" that occur, especially on Punchbowl Street between Queen and Halekauwila streets ("Kokua Line," Nov. 20, 2002).
Officers will be making checks of the area and will send someone to speak with state officials "in the interest of working with the state" about your complaint, said Honolulu police Capt. Ed Nishi.
He hopes that will be a better way of addressing the problem since it's not reasonable to expect that police will spend their time patrolling the area just to look for jaywalkers.
When the Honolulu Police Department does receive a specific complaint like yours, it will "try to address it as best we can," Nishi said.
If you see no improvement in the situation, he said to call 911 and ask to speak with an officer assigned to the area. Just calling in the complaint would do little because when an officer does respond, it's unlikely people will jaywalk in front of him, Nishi said.
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Call 529-4773, fax 529-4750, or write to Kokua Line,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. As many as possible will be answered.
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