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City Web site gives details
on its surplus auctions

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Question: How can I purchase used state of Hawaii or City and County of Honolulu vehicles?

Answer: The city holds auctions whenever surplus equipment, including used vehicles, is available.

No auctions are currently scheduled.

Check the city Division of Purchasing's Web site -- www.co.honolulu.hi.us/pur/auctions.htm -- for announcements of future auctions, or call 523-4874 for information.

You can receive mailed notices of upcoming auctions for an annual fee of $10.

The city also holds auctions for noncity equipment. Call 733-2530 to find out about abandoned and unclaimed vehicles; call 529-3283 for information about bicycles, mopeds and other unclaimed public property.

On the state level, there is no hotline to call or Web site to check, although Aaron Fujioka, administrator of the Procurement Office, says you can call him at 587-4700 for information.

There's not usually a demand for used state vehicles, he said, because most have been "driven quite a bit."

Fujioka explained that, typically, state agencies will trade in old vehicles to get new ones.

But the state has an "excess property" list, which it circulates monthly, noting equipment, furniture, computers, vehicles, etc., that still have value, but which an agency no longer needs.

That property is made available to other state agencies. If no other agency wants it, an item can end up on the public auction block, although many times, excess property will be donated to a nonprofit agency because it's cheaper to do so, Fujioka said.

Auctions of vehicles are held depending on the number of vehicles available, he said, and the state usually goes through a private auctioneer and will run a notice in a newspaper.

Meanwhile, the state also has a surplus property program. In fact, the state manages the surplus property program for the federal government locally.

But, don't get excited -- none of this surplus property is available to the general public.

The federal government has "property, equipment, vehicles -- all kinds of stuff -- that still has value and they want to make it available to the state," Fujioka said.

"Property moving through GSA (the General Service Administration) comes through us (in Hawaii)," Fujioka said. He noted that his office recently acted as a go-between in transferring a "huge vessel" to the University of Hawaii.

It turns out that "a major source of vehicles for state government is the federal government," Fujioka said. The state gets first crack at those vehicles.

State and federal surplus property is available, at no charge, to "eligible participants," which means licensed or approved educational, health and human service organizations; and minority-owned small businesses, Fujioka explained.

If none of these groups are interested in any of the surplus property, then it becomes available to non-profit organizations.

The GSA itself has a Web site -- GSAAuctions.gov -- by which it sells used property for nonmilitary federal agencies, including cars, vans, trucks, boats, and airplanes. However, as per Fujioka's explanation, the site said there were no auctions in Hawaii.

Mahalo

To the person who found my wife's wallet in a shopping cart outside the Kaimuki Longs Store on Monday, Sept. 27. -- No Name

Auwe

To AKAL security service at the airport. I recently went to pick up my son who had moved away for a year. They kept chasing me away, but they left their van parked there for over 30 minutes. Where's the fairness? If we can't stop and look for passengers who we're picking up, they shouldn't be allowed to park there also. They should follow the same rules. -- No Name

AKAL, whose security contract with Honolulu Airport ends in mid-October, is allowed to leave its vehicles at curbside "for emergency response or an incident, which may have occurred at the time," said Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

He pointed out that the airport implemented a pilot program last year, offering the public free parking for 30 minutes in light of restricted loading and unloading zones and tighter security measures.

He said airport security personnel, including the new company (Securitas Security Services) would be reminded about letting drivers at curbside know about the free 30-minute parking, "with aloha."

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