������Ƶ

Dropped Dropbox: The Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources alerted the media Friday morning about the discovery of a deceased humpback whale calf on Maui. Responders were working with staff from the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary to tow the remains offshore for disposition

DLNR and the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration provided images downloadable via Dropbox.

Just 90 minutes later, however, a second press release from DLNR Communications Director Dan Dennison explained that a cultural practitioner and agency representatives on the scene asked the media not to use the photos.

“Our apologies for the confusion and the Dropbox album will be deleted,” the release stated, although a Google search suggested that at least one local TV station had posted a photo of the whale before the image was scrubbed.

Humpback whales, , are considered to be ‘aumakua (spiritual protectors) in the Hawaiian culture “and were generally viewed as divine beings.”

Why not a real Swiss cheese plant?: The Blog sometimes hits the highlights of how state lawmakers spend their $16,350 legislative allowances. Members of the Honolulu City Council also receive annual allowances of $25,000 apiece.

A look at the 2024 reports for all nine council members finds public money was forked over for typical office necessities such as newsletters, copying, printing, postage, photos, business cards, honorary certificates and lei. It’s just part of the job.

The Blog was surprised to learn, though, that each council member also enjoys a monthly car allowance of $350. No one reported paying for a Holo card to catch TheBus or Skyline.

And most council members (except for , and ) also spent about $50 a month for cellular service and/or $40 a month for a mobile hotspot device.

The biggest expenses by far were for travel to conferences and other council-related events: Okimoto to the Philippines, Santos-Tam to the Philippines and Las Vegas, to Vegas, to the Philippines and Philadelphia, to Scottsdale, Arizona, and to Washington, D.C. and Sonoma County, California.

Other allowance highlights:

• $260 subscriptions to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser (several members);
• $1,080 for a one-year subscription to Monday Work Management (Weyer);
• $4,378 for a Business WordPress website design package (Tupola);
• $109 for a Happy Halloween banner (Okimoto);
• $8.65 to translate a survey from English to Chinese (Santos-Tam);
• $149 for an iPad Pro 12.9-inch case with keyboard, and bamboo room divider and folding privacy wooden screen (Cordero);
• $96 for space heaters and thermostat for staff offices (Kiaʻāina);
• $17.79 for a copy of the “Place Names of Hawaii” book for staff office (Waters); and
• $73.29 for a 43-inch artificial monstera deliciosa (Swiss cheese) plant for the office (Tulba).

A Special Commentary Project

Civil Beat opinion writers are closely following efforts to bring more transparency and accountability to state and local government — at the Legislature, the county level and in the media. Help us by sending ideas and anecdotes to sunshine@civilbeat.org.

Read More

Frequent flyers: The Hawaiʻi State Senate finally got around to updating its legislative allowances last week. What the reports reveal is that some senators travel a great deal, using up nearly all of their $16,350 annual allowance, while several use very little of it at all.

The money for the biggest spenders went to airfare, hotels, ground transportation, conference fees and/or meals that sometimes included office staff. Here are the top three frequent flyers and their itineraries:

• : Seattle, Tokyo, Sacramento, San Antonio, New York, Louisville, Kentucky and Tacoma, Washington.
• : Tokyo, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Washington, D.C., Louisville, Fort Wayne, Indiana., Portland, and Pasco, Washington.
• : Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, New Orleans and Lexington.

The Blog did not look deeply at the rationale for all these trips, but here’s what Dela Cruz said in his newsletter about two of his: “The purpose of the visits was to observe food service models in school meals programs and their relationships with local farms. These are critical areas that align closely with the goals we’ve discussed in past newsletters, particularly how we can scale local agriculture to better serve Hawaiʻi’s students and support economic development.”

Other travelers of note were (Atlanta, New Orleans, Austin, New Zealand), (Denmark, Sweden, Norway — maybe he roomed with Wakai?), (Palau) and (Beijing, Shanghai).

did not travel anywhere on the people’s dime but still managed to use up most of his allowance. The greatest expenses involved planting trees in Haleʻiwa and Kahalu’u, which are part of his North Shore district.

Most senators also charged for typical office needs such as bottled water, newsletter postage, Kleenex, ant traps and so forth.

Which senator spent the least of his allowance? . He paid $174.91 for magnetic tape, laminating pouches, magnetic boards, sticky pads, glue sticks and reference books on Hawaiʻi history and policy.

Go fund me: There’s expected to be another push to enact comprehensive public financing of elections in the 2025 Legislature, the idea being that leveling the political playing field might reduce the power of money in government and elect people not tied to special interests.

Hawaiʻi does have a partial public funding program, which disbursed $52,053 to 10 qualified candidates in the 2024 election. Seven of those managed to win, illustrating that it is possible to get elected without a massive war chest. Incumbency and name recognition help, of course.

One successful candidate, Kauaʻi County Council member Fern Holland, even returned $4,077 in unused funds to the Campaign Spending Commission.

The chart below lists the 10 candidates and the amount of funding they received: