[ OUR OPINION ]
Let’s remember, Council
service is a part-time jobIN THE real world, part-time jobs pay part-time salaries. But not in the Honolulu City Council's realm, where compensation at mid-five figures is more than a private sector employee would expect to earn for a 40-hours-a-week position.
THE ISSUE
A salary commission has set increases for city officials and Council members.
A salary commission's recommendation to boost Council salaries by as much as $10,455 -- roughly 21 percent -- is excessive, and members should muster the votes needed to turn down the raises. The Council also should trim wage proposals for the mayor and managing director, which would go up by $5,610 and $5,355, respectively. Increases, if any, should be closer to the 5 to 9 percent arbitrated for public employees.
However, the city prosecutor, the corporation counsel and their deputies deserve the raises to match their increased workloads and move their pay nearer to the going rate for lawyers.
The commission plan would bump the Council chairman's pay from $48,450 to $58,905 while members would receive $52,700, an increase of $9,350 a year.
Unlike the state Legislature, which convenes for three months a year, Council members hold meetings year-round. Nonetheless, law requires the city's legislative body to meet only once a month, technically a part-time occupation.
In practice, members meet several times a week with committee sessions and hearings generally stretching from Tuesdays through Thursdays. Members say the hours they spend doing the city's business take up most of their time; some of them can be found in their City Hall offices all week.
However, three -- one of whom is a retired city employee -- hold no other jobs, two work in family businesses and the rest are either self-employed or hold part-time positions.
If the Council members want full-time pay, they should give up other employment. They would then more easily avoid the kind of ethical problems that tangled member Rod Tam recently when he represented business clients in seeking city permits, as well as other conflicts of interests.
The Council need not ratify the raises. The increases will become effective automatically unless a super-majority of seven of the nine members rejects them, a passive approval that lets the Council off the hook. Voters should stay tuned.
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Alien species corps
is well worth costINTENDED as a temporary employment program, an environmental work force put a silver lining on the cloud of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While providing interim jobs as businesses shed about 51,000 positions, the program also tackled a problem that had been long neglected -- eradicating invasive species in Hawaii.
THE ISSUE
Legislation would make permanent a work-force program to fight the non-native species.
A bill that would make the program permanent should receive legislative approval and funding cleared by Governor Lingle to keep harmful plant and animal pests from taking over Hawaii's natural areas and crowding out native species.
Having a trained crew makes sense not only for long-term eradication projects such as miconia removal, but also to tackle such emergencies as the outbreak of Asian tiger mosquitoes that transmitted dengue fever.
There appears to be no opposition to creating a permanent work force, but budget concerns could become an obstacle. Lawmakers have approved $4 million to combat invasive species as part of a $3.8 billion supplemental budget the governor is now considering. Some of that allotment could be used to fund the program, a small amount when compared to the $1 million spent last year to clear Lake Wilson of fast-growing salvinia that blanketed the water's surface, choked off fish and caused a human health hazard.
Controlling invasive species requires an alert system through which harmful insects, plants and animals can be quickly identified and a corps of workers ready to attack the problem. Early detection and removal would save the state considerable money and protect Hawaii's environment and its tourism-based economy.
The state and counties currently are struggling to rid forests and valleys of miconia, which kills native plants and touches off erosion. This effort could cost as much as $47 million on Maui and Hawaii. Meanwhile, noisy coqui frogs are spreading across the islands, causing sleepless nights for residents and tourists and menacing native birds. Had procedures been in place, these invasive pests could have been constrained before they established territories.
