INDEX - HAWAII TRANSPORTATION

www.islandbreath.org


SUBJECT: SUPERFERRY STORY SEPTEMBER 19TH

SOURCE: DICK MAYER dickmayer@earthlink.net

POSTED: 19 SEPTEMBER 2007 - 10:00pm HST

Superferry proponents gave Lingle over $25,000

image above: Cadet Daniel Young, Kailua High School, joins Lt. Gen. James L. Campbell, Commanding General, U.S. Army, Pacific, and Governor Linda Lingle as they inspect the cadets during the 22nd Annual Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps Review and Awards Ceremony

HAWAII SUPERFERRY INTERESTS WHO CONTRIBUTED
to 2006 campaign of Gov. Linda LINGLE & Lt Gov AINO

NAME POSITION
AMOUNT
DATE
John Lehman Chairman HSF
$3,000
10/06/2006
Tig Krekel Vice-Chairman HSF
$3,000
10/05/2006
John Garibaldi President HSF
$2,800
03/27/2006
John Garibaldi PresidentHSF
$1,000
05/31/2004
David Cole

Board member HSF
(ML&P owner)

$4,000
07/13/2005
Margaret Cole David Cole's wife
$6,000
06/28/2005
Steve Case Owner of ML&P
(HSF investor )
$3,000
10/10/2006
ML&P Hawaii's major investor in HSF
$1,000
05/27/ 2006
ML&P Hawaii's major HSF investor
*$500
9/01/2006
Jeffery Arce Board member HSF
*$2,500
07/28/2005
Total  
$25.000
 

Who is at fault for allowing the Hawaii Superferry to get an "exemption" from Hawaii's environmental laws?

COMPARISON NOTE: Only $500 was contributed to Democratic candidate, Randy Iwase, by Hawaii these Superferry interests.


Source: http://www.followthemoney.org/database/state_overview.phtml?si=200611

SUBJECT: SUPERFERRY STORY SEPTEMBER 19TH

SOURCE: DICK MAYER dickmayer@earthlink.net

POSTED: 19 SEPTEMBER 2007 - 8:30am HST

Special session over the Superferry stalls

by Richard Borreca on 19 September 2007 in The Honolulu Star Bulletin
[IB editor's note: this is only a poretion of full article.]

...Meanwhile, legislators have not been able to reach any agreement on whether they should intervene to restart the ferry service.

Gov. Linda Lingle, a strong supporter of the Superferry, said she would not consider calling for a special legislative session to change the law to allow the ferry to resume service between Maui and Honolulu while an environmental study is done.

The Honolulu-to-Kauai run is expected to start next Wednesday.

Yesterday, two Democratic senators, Robert Bunda (Kaena-Wahiawa) and Will Espero (Ewa-Ewa Beach) called on Senate President Colleen Hanabusa to
speed along a special session.

"We should pass legislation that will allow the Superferry to operate until the court decides," Espero said.

The pair said in their letter that "there is overwhelming public support for a legislative compromise."

Hanabusa, however, called the possible session complex and controversial.

"I guess we could just come in and sit there and waste taxpayers' money," Hanabusa said.

"It is not a simple case. You don't know what the court is going to rule. If the court rules there is no need for an injunction, there is no need for a special session. If the court rules there is going to be an injunction, the question is
whether legislators have changed their opinions on the ferry," Hanabusa said.

The Senate during the 2007 legislative session wanted to allow the ferry to run while an environmental impact statement was completed, but the House refused to hear the Senate bill.

Rep. Kirk Caldwell, Democratic House leader, said yesterday the issue is still premature.

"Most people are concerned about stepping into a fight that isn't of their own making," Caldwell (D, Manoa) said.


[Editor's Note: it is our opinion that if there is a special session of the State Legislature to address the issue of the Superferry, it will be a bailout of a speculative project that tried to avoid the environmental regulations of Hawaii. This kind of "special" treatment will open the floodgates of "special" cases of speculative development projects that could quickly ruin Hawaii. One of the few brakes on the system regulating uncontrolled growth is what some want now to gut to get the Superferry into operation. It's time for the fools who led the Superferry march to take their losses.]

Hawaii Superferry study to go to open bid

by Derrick DePledge on 19 September 2007 in The Honolulu Advertiser

The state Department of Transportation has withdrawn a request for an exemption to state procurement law for an environmental assessment for Hawaii Superferry, opening up the process to competitive bidding.

The department had applied for the exemption because it believed Belt Collins, which is doing an environmental impact statement for the state as part of a 2030 master plan for Kahului Harbor in Maui, could do the work quickly. Michael Formby, the department's deputy director for harbors, said he was contacted last week by other contractors interested in performing the review.

The environmental assessment is expected to take eight months and the department wants to move quickly because delays could lead to the Superferry leaving the Islands. Formby said competitive bidding would only add a few more
weeks to the selection process. He said bids are due by Tuesday.

"We just thought it was worth the extra time," Formby said.

Last week, Lance Collins, a Wailuku attorney, filed objections opposing the department's request for an exemption on behalf of two men, one from the Big Island and one from Maui.

Collins said the department should honor the competitive bidding process, which was put in place to promote fairness and accountability and to discourage favoritism. "I think, ultimately, this is good for the public," he said of the department's decision to withdraw its request.

The state Supreme Court ruled last month that the state needs to conduct an environmental assessment of the ferry's influence on Kahului Harbor, and the state has chosen to review all four harbors the ferry plans to serve.

Courts on Maui and Kaua'i are considering whether the ferry can resume service while an environmental assessment is done.

At the state Capitol yesterday, lawmakers continued to discuss how to approach a possible special session on Superferry.

Gov. Linda Lingle and state House and Senate leaders, in private talks, have debated whether a special session should be called before or after the Maui and Kaua'i courts rule.

The timing is also being influenced by the fact that state House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St.Louis Heights, Palolo Valley, Wilhelmina Rise), wants to discuss the issue with House Democrats at a caucus Tuesday. Senate Democrats are also expected to meet next week and discuss the issue.

"Any comment on the issue of a special session for the Superferry is premature until I discuss it with the House leadership and majority caucus on Tuesday," Say said in a statement yesterday.

State Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), said any decision will require the cooperation between the Republican governor, Senate and House leaders, and a majority of rank-and-file Democrats.

"We're still discussing it," she said. "In order for a special session to take place, you need everyone on the same page."

Several people, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there may be enough votes in the Senate and House to help Superferry. But there is a hesitancy among some lawmakers about bypassing the courts and stepping into the controversy when public opinion on Superferry is largely unknown.

Aside from the public-policy implications of passing legislation to save Superferry, lawmakers are also worried about the political impact. A special session may expose some vulnerable lawmakers, particularly in the House, to risk during next year's elections.

State House Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell, D-24th (Manoa), at a speech yesterday to the Rotary Club in Waikiki, again said he was personally opposed
to a special session but would be open to hearing a compromise if all parties agreed. He said afterward in an interview that, as majority leader, he would also respect the will of House Democrats.

Caldwell said, in hindsight, that the state likely made a mistake by not requiring an environmental assessment for Superferry early in the development process. He also urged Lingle to encourage Superferry executives and environmentalists to settle before the courts rule.

"It's the wrong time for any finger-pointing. We've seen a little bit of this and I think it's going to get worse as we go forward," Caldwell said in his speech. "Let's remember that all state departments, the feds, the Legislature in funding the $40 million in (harbor) improvements, all had a bite of the apple.

"It's time for us now to put our heads together and figure out what to do."

Two other lawmakers, state Sen. Robert Bunda, D-22nd (North Shore, Wahiawa), and state Sen. Will Espero, D-20th ('Ewa Beach, Waipahu), sent a memo to Hanabusa yesterday urging her to either call a special session or back Lingle if she called for a special session.

"We also feel that there is overwhelming public support for a legislative compromise," the senators wrote. "We urge you to initiate open discussion of a special session in the interest of full citizen participation in the process."


SUBJECT: SUPERFERRY STORY SEPTEMBER 19TH

SOURCE: ELAINE DUNBAR inunyabus@gmail.com

POSTED: 19 SEPTEMBER 2007 - 8:30pm HST

Re-Election & the Superferry

by Elaine Dunbar on 19 September 2007

As more is revealed regarding improprieties of legislators' actions and disregard for Hawaii's laws in the handling of Superferry's demands to operate as they see fit, more is being revealed of behind the scenes motivations on the part of our legislators.

It's a fact that from the beginning Hawaii state laws were toyed with; an ongoing attempt to thwart the intent of Hawaii's laws to appease tantrums and whining of Superferry officials by most legislators and judiciary. Was this due to threats, coercions, promises, payments or other distasteful means? It appears so considering this many of our elected officials are so bent on subverting and mangling laws and procedures.

Three years of mediocre rationale offered to the public causes me to ponder just how profoundly inferior and or corrupted these people are.

It is wonderment that they are in authoritative positions. Does that mean the majority of the public is terribly ignorant to have voted them in? I don't know but there aren't many choices; I guess most honorable people don't run for office and if they do, can't last or become what they ran to reform.

People who hold office ARE to be held to a higher standard; intellectually, morally, ethically, with an expectation that decision-making maintains a manner of consistency within the laws and in honoring their oaths of office to uphold the constitution.

I don't have faith in these people who behave like a bunch of carpetbaggers fighting each other for manipulation tactics of our laws for personal ambitions and scraps being thrown to them from big business and military - completely oblivious to the public they are to serve through the laws. The public has been standing on the sideline in bewilderment and now becoming divided by way of death threats from Superferry supporters. It is appalling. I now have a vision in my head of these legislators as primitive humans on the ground physically mauling each other to take what they can.

This came to me this morning after I read the debate and hesitation over a special session of the legislature. After realizing the underlying reason NOT to hold an 'emergency' session, wasn't because of the impropriety of the process and that it is wrong to do this... but because there could be possible damage to some legislators' reelections.

I have also realized that our elected officials are not that savvy when it comes to comprehension of the laws. This is frightening and leaves no doubt as to why there is chaos no. The rule book was in front of them all the time. It never would have come to this. People in office in Hawaii became over confident. They forgot to respect what binds all together, the rule of law.

Now they're playing catch up to cover their tracks because careers will no doubt be on the line, consequences. Our legislators may not fully realize that but a large portion of the public does.

Legislators' (and judges) loftiness, disregard for the rule of law and failure to consider the public's overall welfare, due to selfishness, greed and self centeredness, has caused them to fall from any grace they might have had.

I can't help thinking about the Bishop Estate trustees bestowed with too much money and privilege, being caught in a dirty public bathroom with their pants down. It's an evil and dangerous path these lawmakers have embarked on and it will come back to bite them. People will get hurt and as life is full of ironies, it may not be the 'annoying public' that harm comes to; it could be someone close to them who eventually suffer the wrath of what they cause.

They should have consulted with the highest authority. Many of them may not even know who that is. But I will consult with Him and in doing so I know that the sickness and disgust I feel at this point will be removed and justice will step in and clean house. Hawaii has a lot that others want, especially the military. That doesn't mean they can have it or take more, of what has already been foolishly bartered away.

In case any legislators have forgotten why they were elected (excluding the ones who were paid to run)...follow the constitution at all times and when in doubt, "..it is better to err on the side of caution". I heard Judge Watanabe state that as a guideline in a recent court proceeding.

People can change their thinking and turn their lives around. It's not too late. It would be empowering and rewarding for them to suddenly do what is right, at all costs.

For this state, through its legislature and judiciary, to sit in continuance of these attacks against the constitution is far worse than an armed robber killing someone. Not only will the Superferry be bringing the armed robbery element to outer islands, it will inflict devastation and destitution on young innocents that an Oahu resident could NEVER comprehend. Kauai is unique, not just because of the rural scenery.

We in Kauai KNOW the mandates of the EIS laws. And we stand for the Public Safety of the Residents and Visitors. That's why we demand a full EIS as per the law - regardless of how long it takes. The definition of Public Safety has been altered to a truly twisted subversion of its intent: as in Safety/Security Zone, tailored for a private agenda that is a detriment to human life. Nor is DOT or any
other conflict entity rendering unqualified interpretations of law acceptable.

Still with hope.


SUBJECT: SUPERFERRY STORY SEPTEMBER 19TH

SOURCE: LANNY SINKIN lanny.sinkin@gmail.com

POSTED: 19 SEPTEMBER 2007 - 8:00am HST

Fatal Defect in Security Zone Rule

by Lanny Sinkin on 19 September 2007

The following is a letter I have sent to the Office of the Attorney General of the
State of Hawaii.

 

Lisa Ginosa
Office of the Attorney General
State of Hawaii
Honolulu Hawaii

Dear Ms. Ginosa:

You represent the Attorney General's Office within the Unified Command that intends to activate the Superferry Security Zone on September 26, 2007 pursuant to 165.T14–160 Security Zone; Nawiliili [sic] Harbor, Kauai, HI., a temporary final rule adopted by the Department of Homeland Security Coast Guard. Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 171 / Wednesday, September 5, 2007 / Rules and Regulations 50877 ("Hereinafter Fed. Reg. Rule"). I am sending a complete copy of the Federal Register publication as the first attachment to the email containing this letter.

While adopting a final rule, the Coast Guard did open a comment period running through September 26. Id. After that date, the Coast Guard may or may not revise the rule. Id.

As a representative of the highest law enforcement official in the State of Hawaii, I know that you take seriously your responsibility to provide accurate and appropriate legal advice, particularly to State agency personnel.

Joining you in the Unified Command are Governor Linda Lingle; Barry Fukunaga, Director, Department of Transportation; Mike Formby, Deputy Director-Harbors, Department of Transportation; Major General Robert Lee, State Adjutant General; Clayton Frank, Interim Director, Department of Public Safety; Laura H. Thielen, Interim Director, Department of Land and Natural Resources; and Lillian Koller, Director, Department of Human Services. All of these personnel rely on your office for legal guidance to avoid agency and personal liability.

At the moment, all of the above personnel and yourself are involved with the Department of Homeland Security Coast Guard in planning the activation of the security zone referenced above on September 26, 2007, the last day of the comment period.

As a result of a clerical error, however, the security zone rule is not now effective and will not be effective until such time as an amendment can be made after the close of comments. The earliest possible date for such an amendment would be September 27, 2007, the day after the planned activation. [Note: emphasis by IB editor]

The defect in the rule is the complete absence from the rule of any statement as to when the rule goes into effect. The Preamble to the rule contains the following statement:

DATES: This rule is effective from September 1, 2007, through October 31, 2007.

The preamble, of course, carries no legal weight; the law resides in the rule itself. No where in the rule itself, however, does that information appear.

The importance of having the effective dates in the rule itself is to actually adopt a provision making the rule active.


Furthermore, the inclusion of effective dates puts the public on notice of the rule's effective time period.

The effective date is also necessary for judicial review of applications of the rule. Cf. Ison v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 308 F.3d 1036 (9th Cir. 2002) (marriage predated effective date of statute).

Finally, absent the inclusion of the dates in the rule, the agency cannot amend the effective dates at a later time. The second attachment to the email containing this letter are some Federal Register notices for other security zone rules that clearly show the effective dates and the process of amendment tied directly to the rule itself. The agency cannot "amend" the Preamble because the Preamble has no force of law.

The situation at the moment is, therefore, that the rule is not in effect and the public is not legally on notice of any effectiveness.

If the Unified Command activated the rule prior to correcting this clerical error, the Unified Command would be acting without authority or ultra vires. Once a state official is acting outside the scope of their authority, particularly when on notice, that official opens herself or himself to legal liability for all actions that emanate from the original abuse of authority.

The Coast Guard has no authority to activate the rule. The other members of the Unified Command will be putting themselves in legal jeopardy, if they follow the Coast Guard down the path of lawlessness.

I thought you might like to share this information with the other state officials in the Unified Command. You're welcome.

Aloha,

Lanny Sinkin
Attorney at Law (Hawaii Federal Bar)
P. O. Box 944
Hilo, Hawaii 96721
(808) 936-4428
lanny.sinkin@gmail.com


c.c. Coast Guard attorneys, Press, and Public

 

 

 


see also:
Island Breath: News of September 18th 9/18/07
Island Breath: News of September 16th & 17th 9/17/07
Island Breath: News of September 14th & 15th 9/15/07
Island Breath: News of September 13th 9/13/07
Island Breath: News of September 12th 9/12/07
Island Breath: News of September 11th
9/11/07
Island Breath: News of September 10th 9/10/07
Island Breath: Superferry Concerns 9/10/07
Island Breath: KOH Petition to USCG 9/5/07
Island Breath: HSF Slice & Swath Technology 9/5/07
Island Breath: News of Oahu animosity 9/5/07
Island Breath: Maritime Administration & EIS 9/3/07
Island Breath: Support from Oahu's DMZ 8/30/2007
Island Breath: DMZ - Stop the Strykers 7/2/07
Island Breath: Maui Case & Timeline 8/29/07
Island Breath: A Hawaiian's View 8/29/07
Island Breath: We Win Round Three 8/28/07
Island Breath: Plea to Reps and TRO 8/27/07
Island Breath: Rounds One & Two 8/23/07
Island Breath: Boycott the Superferry 8/17/07
Island Breath: Superferry Preparations 8/10/07
Island Breath: Hui-R Superferry Meeting 7/26/2007
Island Breath: Not So Super Ferry 7/24/07
Island Breath: Superferry Invasion 7/22/07
Island Breath: Superferry Noise 7/18/07
Island Breath: Superferry Delayed 5/25/07
Island Breath: Still No Superferry EIS 3/31/07
Island Breath: Superferry EIS Effort 3/25/2007
Island Breath: Superferry EIS Bill hearings 2/26/07
Island Breath: Superferry Promotion 2/24/07
Island Breath: Superferry Launched 1/28/07
Island Breath: Superferry in Trouble
12/12/006
Island Breath: Superferry Reference
11/6/06
Island Breath: Superferry Resistance
11/1/06
Island Breath: Superferry & Military
10/13/06
Island Breath: Superferry History
10/3/06
Island Breath: Stop the Superferry
8/29/06
Island Breath: Superferry Meetings
8/13/06
Island Breath: Superferry Redux
6/23/06
Island Breath: Superferry Problems
11/14/04


www.islandbreath.org

pau

of StatCounter Code -->