Inside Honolulu: August 22
There’s always something interesting going on at Honolulu Hale.
Civil Beat is reporting from the inside.
2:50 p.m. Anti-Rail Op-Ed, or Editorial?
Avid readers of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser must have had quite a surprise when they opened up Sunday’s opinion section and saw a blaring headline: “.” The secondary headline: “Despite chronic, troubling spin on facts, rail is not a done deal, a prominent quartet insists”
That last bit of attribution is the only above-the-fold hint that the piece in question isn’t an editorial expressing the newspaper’s opinion, but instead an op-ed from well-known rail opponents. The authors are Walter Heen, Ben Cayetano, Cliff Slater and Randall Roth — all plaintiffs in the federal environmental lawsuit seeking to stop Honolulu rail in its tracks.
Though the piece is not officially an editorial, its placement, subtle attribution and considerable length — nearly 1,800 words of text and three graphics — might lead some readers to conclude that the newspaper has come out against rail. That would be particularly surprising given that many rail opponents have complained that the paper has been a booster.
On top of the op-ed, the opinion section also includes a four-day-old straight news story from the New York Times about a survey that predicts for transit systems nationwide. The curious placement, directly below the second page of the op-ed, seems designed specifically to support the rail opponents’ case.
Jim Fulton, executive assistant to Mayor Peter Carlisle, told Civil Beat that the city considers the op-ed “a view of four individuals made to look like an editorial.”
“To me, this appears to be something it’s not,” he said.
Asked if the city would be putting together a response, Fulton said, “We’re looking for some way to deal with this” — possibly within “a day or so.”
While the city works on its formal response, one city contractor has already blasted the piece. Doug Carlson, who was hired by rail contractor Parsons Brinckerhoff to assist in the public communications effort, has posted two items to his blog, Say Yes to the Honolulu Rail System:
Meantime, Civil Beat has analyzed the editorial and identified a number of claims ripe for fact-checking. You’ll see the results of those investigations on the site in coming days.
10:58 a.m. Water Board Public Hearing Today
The Board of Water Supply has proposed a pretty serious rate hike to cover what it says are overdue infrastructure improvements. Today is your chance to let your voice be heard.
The Board is holding a public hearing at 2 p.m. in the board room of the BWS Public Service Building at 630 South Beretania St. When the board a month ago, it said “information received will be considered by the BWS Board of Directors in its subsequent decision on the proposed rate structure.”
9:34 a.m. HUD Secretary Hawaii-Bound
The city is still waiting on an official letter from the federal government about its management of a troubled nonprofit at the center of a probe that could result in the loss of nearly $8 million in grant money.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development should send that letter this week, but has been delayed because local staff is preparing for the arrival of HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan in Hawaii.
Read more at DC808 .
Where’s Carlisle?
Mayor Peter Carlisle has no public events scheduled for today.
Read Previous Editions of Inside Honolulu
August 18: Carlisle’s Public Sked; Statehood Day; No Car, No Problem; HART ‘Comforted’ By Sumitomo Ruling; HART Meets Today; Pay Your Taxes; Where’s Carlisle?
August 17: Council Advances Campaign Sign Rules; $1 Million Settlement Approved; Mililani Senior Development Gets OK; Laie Hotel Deferred One Month; ‘You Got Shafted, I Got Shafted’; Council To Defer Laie Hotel Vote; HART to Ansaldo: Prove You Can Handle It; Council Sends Ag Property Tax Bill To Mayor; Godbey Confirmed As Corp Counsel; The ‘Million-Dollar Baby Toe’; Police Commission Agenda; HUD Not Happy With City’s ORI Report; Council Meeting Today; Sewage Trucking Begins; Where’s Carlisle?
August 16: Corp Counsel on Bombardier Suit; Bombardier’s Lawsuit; Tam Sentencing Delayed Again; Feds To Pay For Kolekole Pass Repair; Ethics Panel Waits on Travel Gift Policy; Rod Tam Sentencing; Newsmaker Interview Today; Where’s Carlisle?
August 15: Missouri Company Gets Sewer Contracts; Landfill Selection Meetings Postponed; Bombardier Appeals to FTA, Court; Busy Weekend for Rail; Questions for Yoshioka; Ethics Commission Today; Where’s Carlisle?
August 12: Feds’ Rail Lawsuit Response; Carlisle’s Public Sked; Council Agenda Published; Cabinet Gathers; Moku on HUD Meeting; Transportation Newsmaker; Where’s Carlisle?
August 11: Horner Lays It Down; Mayor’s Math Problem; Capitol Moat Sewage; Council Chair on Commissioner’s Ethics Violation; HART Finance Committee to Meet; Where’s Carlisle?
August 10: Vacation Rentals Argument Not Over Yet; Quintal Retires, Quietly; Packed Auditorium; Beat the School Jam; Vacation Rentals on Planning Commission Agenda; Morning Reading; Where’s Carlisle?
August 9: Ethics Agenda Out; EPA Fines Pest Control Co.; Regulating B&Bs Not So Easy; Where’s Carlisle?
August 8: Bombardier on Appeal; Carlisle In Da Hale; Where’s City Oversight?; Police Department Names Names; Carlisle on Japan, in Video; Where’s Carlisle?
August 5: 6:51 p.m. Carlisle in Japan, in Photos; Bombardier Officially Rejected; Ansaldo Enlisted to Fix San Fran’s Light Rail Cars; Traffic Ticket Quota; Carlisle’s Public Sked; Ansaldo Honolulu “Pleased” With Finmeccanica Restructuring; Waianae’s Clean Water Award; Chair Garcia’s Checklist; Where’s Carlisle?
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?
