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Five City Council members are in Washington, D.C., but there’s still plenty going on at City Hall. The mayor’s new budget is out, and Civil Beat is reporting from the inside.

HECO Provides Emergency Generators to Family Center

4:26 p.m.
Lights are still out at the , a nonprofit human services provider in Ewa. The center lost power a week ago after storms knocked out electricity for thousands of HECO customers across Oahu.

HECO officials said in a statement the expect to restore power there by Friday evening. In the meantime, the utility company is lending the shelter three emergency generators, so programs there can continue as usual.

Landfill Committee Loses Members

11:01 a.m.
Picking the right place to put a new landfill is a job that even the man who runs Waimanalo Gulch, Joe Whelan said he doesn’t envy. At least two members of the mayor’s advisory committee on landfill site-selection left the group.

Group moderator DeeDee Letts confirmed former City Council member John DeSoto is no longer on the committee since he has skipped all three meetings so far.

“He hasn’t shown up,” Letts told the group this morning. “And we haven’t filled his or anybody else’s spot.”

Letts also announced David Cooper dropped off the committee due to scheduling conflicts.

Updated Members of the 2011 Task Force
Bruce Anderson
David Arakawa
Thomas Arizumi
John Goody
Joe Lapilio
Tesha Mālama
Janice Marsters
Richard Poirier
Chuck Prentiss
George West

Ex-Members
David Cooper
John DeSoto

Rail Controversy Not Unique to Honolulu

10:05 a.m.
Honolulu is not the only city whose residents have strongly divergent views on rail transit. The battle over a rail project in Florida continues, even after Florida Gov. Rick Scott rejected federal funds for the project.

Now, that state’s transportation department has issued a study that contradicts Scott’s claims that the proposed rail system would waste money.

from NPR.

Landfill Site-Selection Committee Continues Work

9:18 a.m.
Members of Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle‘s landfill site-selection committee are meeting downtown this morning. It’s the group’s third of seven meetings, and there’s still debate over exactly what they’re tasked to do.

Some committee members said they want to keep possible expansion of Waimanalo Gulch on the table for consideration. Moderator DeeDee Letts said the “marching orders” from the city require the group to exclude Waimanalo Gulch from consideration.

“I think the city is shooting themselves in the foot by not getting input from this committee on the appropriateness of that selection,” said Bruce Anderson, a former State Health Department Director and the only member of the committee who served on a similar task force in 2003. “The city’s position is Waimanalo Gulch is the best place, and should be expanded… I think the Land Use Commission is looking to this committee, as would be expected, to make some judgment on that.”

Another group member said including Waimanalo Gulch as an option for a “new” site would hinder progress.

“If the focus is on Waimanalo Gulch, we’re not going to be able to get past that idea,” said Tesha Malama.

City officials are fighting a Land Use Commission requirement that Waimanalo Gulch stop accepting municipal solid waste in 2012. They say the deadline is unrealistic, as siting a landfill takes up to a decade.

Catch Up on This Month’s Inside Honolulu

March 9, 2011: City’s rail groundbreaking ceremony costs about $30,000, consistent with Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle‘s estimate.

March 8, 2011: HART seeks $21 million in first budgetl; City IT Director Gordon Bruce works out kinks on new budget website; City gives HPD 9,000 hours in legal defense in two years; City moves forward with compost facility in Waialua; Could Honolulu ask residents to pay-to-play?

March 7, 2011: Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle says he doesn’t want a raise; Salary Commission recommends bump in pay for vacant medical examiner job; Tom Berg‘s chief of staff blasts HECO.

March 4, 2011: Landfill channel not designed to handle rainfall equivalent to storm that caused near-catastrophe; Six City Council members out of town.

March 3, 2011: Line-by-line budget to go online in about a week; Five City Council members are D.C.-bound.

March 2, 2011: Mayor Peter Carlisle raises taxes, fees in first budget; More money for autopsies; Liquor commish nominee Wesley Fong talks commission image issues; TheBus turns 40; Ides of March deadline for City Council’s HART nominees.

March 1, 2011: City Council member Breene Harimoto worries about bandaid approach to homelessness; Planning Committee advances North Shore communities plan; Parks and Rec eyes new dog park; Tom Berg pitches Matson containers as possible living space.