Inside Honolulu: August 5
There’s always something interesting going on at Honolulu Hale.
Civil Beat is reporting from the inside.
6:51 p.m. Carlisle in Japan, in Photos
A city spokeswoman has just provided reporters with photos of Mayor Peter Carlisle in Japan. Here’s one of them, showing Carlisle and his wife, Judy, today at the Peace Memorial Ceremony in Hiroshima.
5:16 p.m. Bombardier Officially Rejected
Senior Hearings Officer David Karlen said he was going to reject Bombardier‘s rail contract appeal more than two weeks ago, and now it’s official.
The state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs posted Karlen’s written ruling to its website Friday afternoon. Read it . (Because of a typographical error in which he mistakenly said Sumitomo, not Bombardier, was being rejected, Karlen also issued a short errata . Freudian slip?)
Andy Robbins, the chief of Bombardier’s Honolulu efforts, has repeatedly told Inside Honolulu he would wait to see the written ruling before deciding on whether to take his appeal to court. We’ll post his comments here when we get a hold of him.
3:48 p.m. Ansaldo Enlisted to Fix San Fran’s Light Rail Cars
San Francisco‘s transit agency needs to repair eight cars that have been damaged in various accidents — repairs that will cost a total of $33 million. The company hired to do the repairs? AnsaldoBreda.
The Italian company “owns the world’s only jigs specifically shaped for straightening the frames of San Francisco’s fleet of Breda light-rail cars,” according to San Francisco Weekly. Read the full story .
That’s interesting for Honolulu because one of the arguments raised by the city in defending itself against Sumitomo‘s appeal this week is that it was appropriate to evaluate maintenance costs only for the 14 years covered by the contract, not the 30-year life of the cars. The city argued that after the contract expires, any company can be hired to continue maintaining the cars — including Sumitomo, if they’d really be cheaper in the long run.
The news out of San Francisco this week shows it might not be so easy to change horses midstream, and that Honolulu might be committing to Ansaldo for the next 30 years, even if it’s only officially signing up for half of that.
3:39 p.m. Traffic Ticket Quota
Interesting story out of Los Angeles yesterday, where 10 LAPD officers sued the city, alleging they were retaliated against for resisting traffic-ticket quotas.
Apparently, ticket quotas are illegal under California state law. That got us wondering: What’s the law here in Hawaii?
Read over at the Los Angeles Times, and let us know what you think about traffic ticket quotas.
2:36 p.m. Carlisle’s Public Sked
Mayor Peter Carlisle was scheduled to return to Hawaii from Japan at some point Sunday or Monday, but the public schedule for next week put out by his office a few minutes ago is still pretty bare. If you want to see him in action, here are your options:
Saturday, August 6th
- No public events.
Sunday, August 7th
- No public events.
Monday, August 8th
- No public events.
Tuesday, August 9th
- No public events.
Wednesday, August 10th
- No public events.
Thursday, August 11th
- 5:30 p.m. — Mayor Carlisle is a guest at the First Insurance Company of Hawaii Gala Celebration. Iolani Palace.
Friday, August 12th
- No public events.
12:37 p.m. Ansaldo Honolulu “Pleased” With Finmeccanica Restructuring
Italian aerospace, defense and transportation giant Finmeccanica announced today in Rome that AnsaldoBreda CEO Salvatore Bianconi has resigned, effective next month.
Ansaldo Honolulu, the joint venture of AnsaldoBreda and Ansaldo STS, put out the following statement just minutes ago:
We are extremely pleased with today’s announcement by Finmeccanica appointing Maurizio Manfellotto as AnsaldoBreda’s CEO and Sergio De
Luca, Ansaldo STS’s CEO, to the Board of Directors for AnsaldoBreda. Mr. Manfellotto’s wealth of experience as the President of Ansaldo STS’s Standard Solutions, Platforms and Products (SPP) Business Unit enables him to immediately have an impact on AnsaldoBreda. With Mr. De Luca’s appointment to the AnsaldoBreda’s Board of Directors, Finmeccanica has acknowledged the synergy that must be encouraged between AnsaldoBreda and Ansaldo STS with their joint projects worldwide.Ansaldo Honolulu believes that this restructuring achieves Finmeccanica’s intent to strengthen AnsaldoBreda for its customers. Honolulu’s rail transit system will be the tenth driverless transit system in the world built by Ansaldo STS and AnsaldoBreda.
Ansaldo Honolulu supports Finmeccanica’s effort to better serve its customers. Ansaldo Honolulu is ready to deliver its world-class rail system in Honolulu.
12:30 p.m. Waianae’s Clean Water Award
From a city press release:
The Waianae Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) headed a list of five City and County of Honolulu facilities recognized at 2011 National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) Summer Conference and 41st Annual Meeting July 19-21 in Chicago.
Waianae WWTP notched a Platinum 9 Award for nine straight years (2002-2010) with 100 percent compliance with its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. Wahiawa, Kailua Regional and Honouliuli WWTPs garnered Gold Awards, while Sand Island achieved Silver.
The NACWA recognition program consists of three categories – Platinum, Gold and Silver. Platinum Awards recognize facilities with 100 percent compliance with its NPDES permit for five or more consecutive years. Gold Awards honor treatment plants that achieved 100 percent compliance during the calendar year, while Silver Awards identify facilities that received no more than five permit violations during that same time.
The NPDES permit program, mandated by the Clean Water Act, controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge into U.S. waters. Point sources are discrete conveyances such as pipes or manmade ditches. Individual homes that are connected to a municipal system, use a septic system, or do not have a surface discharge do not need an NPDES permit; however, industrial, municipal and other facilities must obtain permits if their discharges go directly to surface waters.
Chair Garcia’s Checklist
Ernie Martin is starting to get comfortable as chair of the Honolulu City Council, but he’s still got a lot of work to do.
The presiding officer of the city’s legislative branch has some responsibilities other lawmakers don’t. Some of those tasks were passed down to Martin from his predecessor, Nestor Garcia.
Garcia sent an “exit report” communication to Martin last month that included status reports for more than a dozen projects the Office of the Chair had been working on. Though was dated July 15, it wasn’t received by the City Clerk and posted on the Docushare website until last week.
Here are the 15 items on Garcia’s report, all at various stages of completion:
- Guidelines for the Message of Aloha
- Updating the Council’s Administrative Manual
- Creating and Implementing an Index of City Policy Resolutions
- Revised Ordinances of Honolulu — Webpage
- Updating the Revised Ordinances of Honolulu
- Collections of Memorandums
- Departmental Training
- Increased Transparency of Operations
- FY 2012 Legislative Budget Improvements
- Strategic Planning
- Improved Emergency Operations Plan
- Employee Safety and Secuirty
- Third Floor Renovations
- Telecasting
- APEC and APCESE
How do you think Garcia did?
Where’s Carlisle?
Mayor Peter Carlisle is in Japan all this week, and has no local public events.
Read Previous Editions of Inside Honolulu
August 4: Congestion Tolls in Honolulu … Someday; HART Here, HART There; Zoning Appeals Board Appointments Advance; Committee Moves Sign Bill Forward; Moratorium Lifted on New Sewer Connections in Waimanalo; Free Speech vs. Open Space; Today’s Committees; Where’s Carlisle?
August 3: Board Defends Rate Hike; Appointee Asked About Water Rates; Tow Trucking Debated; Seniors, Disabled Ask for Help; ORI Discussion Coming Soon; Today’s Committees; Fewer Golfers, More Money; Chang’s Public Service; Where’s Carlisle?
August 2: Case Closed, Not Decided; City Rests, Ansaldo Satisfied; City Witness Rebuts Sumitomo; Ireland, Silva Like Merger; Talking Merger; No Competition for Carlisle; Berg: GOP “Party of the Skin Heads”; Today’s Committees; Want Train? Get Brains; Where’s Carlisle?
August 1: Across the Street?; Waipahu Board Backs Hoopili; Executive Session?; Ansaldo Responds; Rail Appeal Continues, With Questions Churning About Ansaldo; Sewage Spill in Kailua; Where’s Carlisle?
