Capitol Watch: Dec. 29

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Welcome to Capitol Watch. There’s a new governor, new leadership at the Legislature and other government branches, and Civil Beat is reporting on all of it.

3:51 p.m. Council on Revenues Sees Modest Growth

General fund revenues for fiscal year 2011 are forecast to grow 3 percent, slightly improved from the 2 percent forecast in September.

Forecasts for the subsequent six years remain unchanged — i.e., 10 percent in 2012 and 6 percent each year there after.

Hard numbers on tourism and construction won’t be made available until the Council delivers a report to the governor Jan. 10.

3:14 p.m. No Golf? Nope.

“Group of friends who have been playing golf with obama on previous days are TODAY playing basketball with him. No golf today for POTUS so far…Mrs. Obama and girls are still at the Pyramid Rock Beach.” —Perry Bacon, Washington Post

12:45 p.m. Gov Motivates ‘Birther’ to Run for Prez

Andy Martin, who unsuccessfully ran for President Obama’s former Senate seat two years ago, will run for the Republican nomination for president in 2012 on a “birther” platform.

That’s to Michael A. Memoli of The Chicago Tribune’s Washington Bureau, who is in Hawaii covering the president’s vacation.

“Speaking on WTPL radio, Martin cited the stated intention of Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie to settle questions about whether Obama was born in the state as one motivating factor,” Memoli writes. “As one of the first candidates to announce his candidacy for the White House, Martin said he will force a broader discussion of the issue.”

Martin has aggressively to obtain a copy of Obama’s Hawaii birth certificate and has that he is a Muslim.

12:35 p.m. Obama to Leave Jan. 3

“The President will now depart Hawaii late in the evening on January 3rd, arriving in Washington in the afternoon of January 4th, spokesman Bill Burton has just told the pool via e-mail.

“‘After the extended lame duck and five-day delay of his trip here, he’s just trying to squeeze in more time with his family before returning to Washington,’ Burton said.” —Perry Bacon, Washington Post

11:19 a.m. POTUS at Pyramid Rock

“Motorcade has left neighborhood at 11:01. On way to Pyramid Rock Beach. POTUS, FLOTUS, daughters and the whole crew of families they are vacationing with. We are holding at clubhouse at golf course at base.” —Perry Bacon, Washington Post

10:39 a.m. Speaker Stalemate Continues

Seventeen state House dissidents remain committed to electing a new speaker, though they have yet to convince nine of the 25 House Democrats supporting Calvin Say to jump ship. Twenty-six votes are needed to be elected speaker.

Meanwhile, The Honolulu Star-Bulletin‘s Political Radar blog that Say “has invited his faction to lunch” today at the Empress Restaurant.

10:01 a.m. Star-Advertiser ‘Dead to Me,’ says CNN Reporter

Ed Henry, in town to cover Barack Obama‘s vacation, has posted to a recent in The Honolulu Star-Advertiser taking on Henry for fluffy reports (although the paper is happy for coverage of Hawaii in the middle of winter).

Henry teases the newspaper for running a front-page on a local ahi shortage (perhaps he does not understand the cultural significance) and defends the need to send Washington reporters to Kailua:

I always patiently point to last Christmas Day’s attempted terror attack in Detroit as the best example. It was important for the media to be at least near the president to gather facts on his response to that attempted attack, and be here to report on his comments on the matter over the course of the next several days.
Surely we can all agree that it makes sense for the media to at least be close to the president at all times, though we don’t need to be traipsing through his neighborhood in Kailua at all hours of the days trying to report on whether he had a hot dog or hamburger at the backyard cookout. Even the president is entitled to a vacation, and there should be a middle ground where we’re nearby for news but not overdoing it.

9:32 a.m. Audit of Charges Lax Oversight of Prison Contract

State auditor Marion Higa has released a 77-page of the state’s contract with a mainland prison company, as requested by the Legislature.

The findings, which come in the wake of Neil Abercrombie‘s call to bring all Hawaii prisoners in mainland incarceration facilities back home, include three critical observations:

We found the Legislature is not given sufficient information regarding the costs associated with the care and custody of offenders in out-of-state and in-state facilities. Instead, management chooses to report artificial cost figures derived from a calculation based on a flawed methodology, designed entirely on what is easiest for the department to report. Because funding is virtually guaranteed, management is indifferent to the needs of policymakers and the public for accurate and reliable cost information. As a result, true costs are unknown. Unfortunately, without accurate and reliable cost data, the State cannot appropriately address the continuing problem of prison overcrowding.

We found that department directors, past and present, have misused their procurement authority to circumvent the process that agencies are required by law to follow. By treating (Corrections Corporation of America) as a government agent, instead of a private for-profit corporation, the department was able to secure the company as the vendor of choice, relieving it from the open competition that the Hawai’i Public Procurement Code was designed to ensure.

Moreover, the department director has ignored his oversight responsibility to administer contracts for the care and custody of inmates housed in out-of-state facilities, thus leaving the operational staff ill-prepared to contract for private prison beds beyond June 30, 2011, when the current contract expires. The director leaves for the next management team a department with no policies and procedures aligned with the Hawai‘i Public Procurement Code, no objective evaluation to measure CCA’s performance, and no plan for contracting for private prison beds to reasonably ensure fiscal responsibility in obtaining the best value at prices the State can afford.

The report will no doubt add momentum to Abercrombie’s plan for corrections reform.

8:38 a.m. ‘No Big Box Store in Kailua’

“POTUS and FLOTUS and motorcade departed from Kailua neighborhood at 8:04 a.m. local time. There were people holding signs just outside a security checkpoint (not the one closest to his house) protesting the planned construction of a new Target in Kailua. One of the signs read “No Big Box Store in Kailua.” (The Star-Advertiser has written about this if you want more detail.)

“He arrived at the gym at the Marine base at 8:11. Pool is now holding at McDonald’s near base.” —Perry Bacon, Washington Post

Pumping for Information

Big Island state Rep. Bob Herkes thinks there may have been a lack of competition in contracts for the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates water project, according to a Hawaii Tribune-Herald . He’s scheduled a Jan. 6 fact-finding hearing at the Capitol.

Herkes argues that design standards for a reinforced concrete water tank are written in such a way that only one manufacturer — general contractor Bolton Inc. hired DYK Inc. to build the 300,000-gallon tank — in the state could qualify for the $6.4 million project.

“It’s probably costing taxpayers on the Ocean View project $600,000 to $700,000 more than if it were done by the private sector or other boards of water supply,” Herkes said Monday.

The county’s Department of Water Supply, which awarded the contract, disagrees.

Revenue Forecast Expected

The state has scheduled a 2 p.m. meeting today at the No. 1 Capitol District Building (a.k.a. the Hemmeter Center) to reveal what the crystal ball says about general fund revenues.

What the council has forecast in the past has often been far off the mark.

But the wisdom of council Ph.D.’s like Paul Brewbaker, Carl Bonham, Jack Suyderhoud and Pearl Imada Iboshi will be closely parsed by the Abercrombie administration, the Legislature, county mayors and councils and nearly everyone else in the state as the next round of budget deliberations begins in the new year.

Smart Acts

It’s called Akamai Hawaii, it’s authored by Kimo Kapaa, it’s described as a “new irreverent, politically incorrect Hawaii news blog” and it can be viewed by clicking .

Launched this week by Juergen (“Thomas”) Steinmetz, who also publishes the global travel news site eTurboNews and runs the Hawaii Tourism Authority antibody , Akamai Hawaii promises “wise, pithy, no-nonsense commentary on the local Hawaii political and social scene.”

This week the blog includes takes on the leadership challenge to Calvin Say, Hawaii’s financial problems and the defunct Honolulu Symphony. Akamai Hawaii accepts advertising and is offering subscriptions.

Catch up on our previous coverage:

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