Week 51: An Open Letter to You
Dear friends:
On Wednesday, I shared an open letter to Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle.
I haven’t heard back from him, yet. But that afternoon he did tell one of our reporters that he hoped I’d have a “great day,” before saying he had “no comment” about my letter.
I hope soon to share with you the mayor’s own letter, explaining in his words why it’s OK for the Honolulu Police Department to flout the law or, I hope, that they will comply with the law. All his other departments have complied with the legal requirement that employees’ names, job titles and salaries be public. Yet…
One thing we try to do at Civil Beat is bring you into close contact with our leaders. The mayor may not always like what we write, but to his credit he’s usually not shy about sharing his point of view. Recently, at the six-month mark of his first term, he gave an extensive interview to our Adrienne LaFrance.
We’re starting to invite political leaders to visit with us and we’re soon hoping to go out and visit with them in their offices, streaming interviews live over the Internet to make your lunch hours more interesting.
This week, Hawaii’s most respected political leader dropped by Civil Beat for a lengthy interview.
I’ve met many politicians, but there’s no question there’s something remarkable about Sen. Daniel K. Inouye. Chad Blair captured it in the headline he wrote for his article on the interview: “Inouye’s Mission of Justice.” The senator’s passion for justice at 86 is still palpable, as is his steely resolve. But so was his calm understanding, his willingness to give the benefit of the doubt to someone he might disagree with.
In case you missed our articles about our meeting with the senator:
- Inouye’s Mission of Justice
- Sen. Daniel Inouye — Civil Beat Interview Transcript
- Inouye: Take Trump Presidential Bid Seriously
- Inouye on War, National Defense
I remembered the dignity of Inouye from the Watergate hearings. I wasn’t disappointed in person.
I hope you feel the same way about your encounters with Civil Beat, that we live up to your expectations that we provide something new and different in Hawaii. That the open letter and our interview with Senator Inouye didn’t disappoint.
Let me give you some examples from this week.
Selling Sex in Honolulu
Civil Beat has been investigating human trafficking issues in Hawaii. Among our questions has been how the Honolulu Police Department enforces prostitution laws. This week we reported:
- Selling Sex In Honolulu: In Nine Months, Police Dept. Arrests Just One Pimp
- Selling Sex in Honolulu: Police Use Massage License Law Against Prostitutes
- Selling Sex In Honolulu: Tracking Arrests
Power and Money
Governors are required to report their campaign donors. They’re also required to send messages to the Legislature about many of their appointments. But matching the two lists up isn’t easy, because there are so many separate documents. We did it anyway, and last week reported that 25 percent of Gov. Neil Abercrombie‘s appointees donated to his campaign, including half his Cabinet. But we thought it would only be fair to see how that compared with the record of his predecessor, Gov. Linda Lingle. This week we published the results.
Overtime Woes
Civil Beat reporter Nanea Kalani has been chronicling overtime issues in Honolulu’s Road Maintenance Division. One of the most troubling aspects of her work has been the city’s lack of oversight, at least in the past, when it came to overtime. This week she revealed that the city had been warned that it had a criminal enterprise in its Road Division two years before it took the problem seriously, and that the supervisor who’s now serving a one-year term for theft, bribery and tampering with a government record had been convicted of other crimes while a city employee, yet had still been allowed to work as a supervisor.
- Overtime Whistleblowers: Honolulu Didn’t Listen To Complaints the First Time
- Fired Honolulu Employee: Lax Oversight Led to Overtime ‘Free-for-All’
What’s Wrong With Our Justice System
When Michael Edward Manning Jr. and an accomplice, who was shot and killed by police, shut down Kalanianaole Highway for hours after a botched car jacking, we wondered who these two men were. Our Robert Brown reported that the 35-year-old Manning has spent the majority of his adult life at the Oahu Community Correctional Center. He’s racked up 19 convictions since turning 18, spending more than 14 of the last 17 years in prison. Could anything have been done to prevent him developing such a long record? Robert explored that question on Friday.
Now we’ll rest — from our work and from our foosball table, which is getting way too much action. But we’ll be back next week.
