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The grass is sometimes greener: We hear a lot of griping about the Democrats these days. Well, here’s a chance to let your feet do the talking, as they say.

Head to the , scheduled for Saturday, June 10. In fact, you don’t even have to walk because the convention is being held via video and phone as well as in person on the Big Island.

The gathering is from noon to 3 p.m. There’s an in-person lunch meet-and-greet in Kea’au and then the convention is taking place at the Unitarian Universalists of Puna in Kea’au.

The group will elect state party officers, delegates and alternates to the Green Party of the United States National Committee.

The Green Party of Hawaii has been on the ballot for the past 30 years. But, according to Nick Nikhilananda, a delegate on the Green Party’s national committee, for the 2024 elections the party needs to successfully petition in order to remain on the ballot. Any registered voter can sign the petition, whether or not they are a member of the party.

You may recall seeing Green Party candidates on the ballots for state and national offices. “In the early years of the GPH, we had numerous successful campaigns, all on the Big Island,” Nikhilananda says, noting that three Greens were elected to the Hawaii County Council between 1991 and 2006.

Pass the popcorn, please: The drama continues to play out at Honolulu Hale as this week’s City Council meeting approaches. That’s June 7 and we’ll keep you posted on the start time. We’ll see if the outrage over ginormous pay raises for City Council members translates into citizens storming the council chambers and demanding to be heard.

If your angst does motivate you, here’s a handy guide Civil Beat’s newsletter editor, Courtney Teague, recently put together that will walk you through how to participate in local government, from how to testify to where to park.

So much of the bad vibe is aimed at council Chair Tommy Waters and the council members who still won’t say where they stand on the issue of their own pay raises. But The Blog has to point out that salary increases for quite a few city officials are on the table here, not just the council members.

What say ye about those? Do any of these public servants deserve the raises approved by the Honolulu Salary Commission? Remember, this is an all or nothing thing. The council either accepts the whole enchilada served up by the commission or nothing at all.

Here’s the list of who is in line for what:

Fan mail: The Sunshine Blog will send a Civil Beat T-shirt to the first person who can tell us who wrote this in an email to a Civil Beat reporter. To be fair, this is just the most recent of a string of similarly angry emails that have been sent by the same author. We don’t usually see such well-written hate mail so it seemed worth sharing. (The Blog thinks “sidekick” means editor):

“Let me put things in perspective. Human nature would logically dictate intense disdain for you and your sidekick, for your public nonsense. However even so, if an unlikely emergency situation were to arise, without hesitation, if presented with the opportunity, I would rescue both of you (since you probably don’t have the skills to do so yourselves).”

Hint: We’re surprised he didn’t call us “boneheads.”

Register your guesses in comments.