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Rough riders: University of Hawaii officials testifying before the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday were in their seats for possibly 1 minute before certain senators lit into them over, well, pretty much everything.

Four hours later, the tedious process was finally over. Thankfully, the athletics director was at an NCAA meeting on the mainland and wasn’t available to be kicked around like his hapless colleagues.

The aloha spirit clearly did not possess Sens. Donna Mercado Kim, who dominated the entire session, or Kurt Fevella, who launched into a couple of different rants. Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz was almost the voice of reason. Go figure.

The Blog won’t repeat the blow by blow here — you can watch it for yourself on or read Civil Beat reporter Megan Tagami’s news story on it here — but suffice it to say UH President David Lassner and Budget Director Kalbert Young had barely introduced themselves when the senators took them to task because Board of Regents Chair Alapaki Nahale-a wasn’t there.

Lassner pointed out that the regents had only gotten notice to appear at 3 p.m. the day before, prompting Dela Cruz to throw his committee staff a WTF look over his shoulder. Nahale-a was already committed to something on another island, Lassner said.

Lassner hilariously offered up Neil Abercrombie as the only regent present — the former governor is a longtime well-known nemesis of Donna Kim — but the Senate panel was not amused even when Abercrombie stood and gave them a small bow from his seat in the hearing room.

The Sunshine Blog loves a good grilling as much as anybody but not when it descends into tedious political gamesmanship. Perhaps the only thing The Blog learned is that the senators were upset that UH has spent little money in recent years on fixing up student housing. But it appeared that’s because UH has not been given any money for student housing renovation in recent years. The governor also didn’t ask for student housing fix-up money in his budget request this year because of, well, you know, the Maui fires.

Fevella went off for several long minutes on … something. The Blog had a hard time figuring it out and couldn’t quite grasp his point. “I take offense,” he said, but at what was lost in a non-stop stream of words that included Ching stadium, renovating buildings, “could’ve, would’ve, should’ve” and something about “warm bodies.”

“I don’t appreciate it,” he said, adding “if you guys were any place else would you talk to me like that?”

The Blog thinks that’s what Lassner, Young and the room full of UH staff who sat patiently through the entire hearing in case they were needed to answer questions should be asking.

And we’ll be interested to see what the chest-thumping senators do in the end, and whether the budget will finally include the tens of millions of dollars needed to fix up UH’s ancient dorms.

Legislative intent: In another case of a lawmaker thinking she can do whatever she wants, Rep. Rose Martinez is refusing to turn over lab tests that appear to show lead-contaminated soil in an area near the Marine Corps training facility in Ewa Beach. As Civil Beat’s Christina Jedra reported in a detailed story published Wednesday, Martinez spent more than $1,100 of her taxpayer-funded legislative expense account on the testing but is now refusing to release the results despite an internal email suggesting they came back positive.

In denying Jedra’s public records request, Martinez contended the results are part of her investigation and cited this section of the : 

Section 7. No member of the legislature shall be held to answer before any other tribunal for any statement made or action taken in the exercise of the member’s legislative functions; and members of the legislature shall, in all cases except felony or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the sessions of their respective houses, and in going to and returning from the same.

While Martinez is interpreting that to mean as a lawmaker she doesn’t have to answer to anybody about anything, other legal experts tell The Blog that the section is actually intended to apply to public statements they make or other actions they might take as lawmakers.

Let the sunshine in, Rep. Martinez. Your constituents are worried.

Trials ‘r us: Many eyes are on the organized crime and racketeering trial of Mike Miske that just started and promises to be at least a six-month run in federal court in Honolulu.

But just down the hall, so to speak, another high-profile case is preparing to go to trial too. That is the abuse of power and bribery (among other things) case involving former Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Keith Kaneshiro, businessman Dennis Mitsunaga and four others.

The Blog knows it’s hard to keep all these federal corruption cases straight, but this is the one where Kaneshiro is accused of using the prosecutor’s office to help Mitsunaga retaliate against an employee in exchange for campaign contributions.

Prosecutors say Kaneshiro brought forth a meritless case against an ex-employee of Mitsunaga & Associates. Around the same time, Mitsunaga, his business associates, and his former lawyer contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Kaneshiro’s election campaign. 

This case flowed out of the wide-ranging investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office into former Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha and his then-wife, former deputy county prosecutor Katherine Kealoha who worked for Kaneshiro.

In recent days U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright, federal prosecutors and attorneys for the defense have been meeting with dozens of prospective jurors even though trial isn’t set to begin til Feb. 27.

Apparently the court and lawyers are worried about pre-trial publicity and the jurors are being asked to fill out questionnaires that will help weed out those who may know too much and have some preconceived notions. The rest will report back for the jury selection process in February.

Gone too soon: There’s a biography of a former Hawaii congressman and state representative fresh off the press: “Mark Takai’s Legacy.”

Author Jenny Duhaylonsod Delos Santos and Legacy Isle Publishing chronicle the life of a political career that began when Takai was president of the Associated Students of the University of Hawaii Manoa.

He also served as editor of “Ka Leo,” the student newspaper.

Takai, as the book states, made a difference “in a lifetime of service that ended all too soon” with his death from cancer in 2016.

A book signing is scheduled at the Barnes & Noble at Ala Moana Center on Jan. 27 at 2 p.m.