“We are experiencing right now an increase (in judicial foreclosures),” Rodney Maile, administrative director of the courts, told lawmakers at a Wednesday information briefing on recent foreclosure legislation. “If that continues in the long run, we will not have the resources.”

Maile said in order to handle the heavier volume, the judiciary would need to ask the Legislature for more money.

On June 15, lending giant Fannie Mae announced that it would convert all its new and pending non-judicial foreclosures in Hawaii to judicial foreclosures. Fannie has said it made the move in response to , a new law that placed a temporary moratorium on non-judicial foreclosures in Hawaii.

Last year, the courts handled about 10 percent of state’s foreclosures. But some mortgage experts say 2011 will be a different story.

“From the real estate side, one of the concerns about Act 48, is it going to help us move the properties through (the foreclosure process), or is it going to delay things?” asked Ron Margolis, described in a Senate press release announcing the informational briefing as “one of the isle’s best known foreclosure experts”.

“I believe that Fannie Mae is just the beginning of what we’re going to see,” Margolis said. “That this is all going to go into our court system.”

Expect a Flood

Lawmakers leading the briefing included Sen. Rosalyn Baker and Rep. Bob Herkes, both co-introducers of the bill that became Act 48.

“I think this is one of the major pieces of legislation that the Legislature enacted this year,” Baker said in her opening remarks. “As with everything, we really need to see how it plays out and whether it achieves our objectives, or whether we need to make some tweaks.”

Former Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell, now an attorney in private practice, voiced concerns about the law from the standpoint of lenders, which his firm has as clients.

Caldwell said banks are likely backing away from the non-judicial process for fear of being sued. He echoed others comments in predicting that national and local lenders alike will turn to judicial foreclosures.

“This (law) is very process-driven,” he said. “If you don’t follow it exactly, you can get sued.”

Act 48 states: “Any foreclosing mortgagee who violates this chapter shall have committed an .”

Caldwell said the offense typically results in class action lawsuits and so-called “treble damages” would apply — meaning the court can triple the amount of the damages to be awarded.

He also noted that the judicial process could work to borrowers’ advantage because it allows for oversight by a judge. Foreclosure judges, he said, have been known to be sympathetic toward consumers. He also said the judicial route can result in a borrower getting a higher bid for a distressed property.

Not every testifier expressed concern with the law as written.

Support and Reaction

Kim Harmon, policy director for Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE), told lawmakers Act 48 has tightened foreclosure loopholes commonly used by lenders in the past.

“What we’re still celebrating — actually, just a few days ago, we had yet another celebration of Act 48 on Maui… is that the act closes the non-judicial loophole that so many off-shore lenders were using to speed through foreclosures without our local families having a chance for any accountability, and without our families having a chance to explain their side of the story,” Harmon said.

Non-judicial foreclosures became popular with lenders in the 1990’s, according to Caldwell. He said the process is faster and allows lenders to be “in the driver’s seat” when it comes to foreclosing on a home.

Typically, lenders have used Part 1 of the governing foreclosures in the non-judicial process. Part 2 of the statute is seen as more cumbersome for lenders, with more consumer protections, and has largely been ignored.

But the use of non-judicial foreclosures has opened the door to problems.

“Lenders, all lenders, both mainland and the local ones that I’ve represented, saw a faster way to do a foreclosure,” Caldwell said. “So quickly, more and more people started doing non-judicials… Under the power of sale language, they’re the ones who foreclose, they’re the ones that hold the auction, they’re the ones who sign the deed to transfer title. And there’s real opportunity for abuse.”

The response to the potential abuse was Act 48. When passed, supporters hailed the legislation as the nation’s strongest foreclosure law. The bill forces lenders to have face-to-face mediation with a neutral party to try and develop a compromise that will keep a family in their home. Additionally, the moratorium on non-judicial foreclosures — the length of which varies — was meant to help prevent families from being evicted.

But Fannie’s switch to judicial foreclosures essentially allowed it to skirt the new consumer protections laid out in Act 48. Rather than having to wait around until at least October for the moratorium on Part 2 non-judicial foreclosures to die, by converting, the judicial processess are under way.

But if more lenders follow Fannie’s lead, as is expected, the courts will have a backlog.

“I don’t want to see it get into a backlog where, then, nothing happens,” said Rep. Joe Souki, present at the information briefing.

Maile responded: “We share your concern… We are at almost capacity. We can handle a spike, we can handle a temporary increase… Presently, I believe we get about 1,300 cases a year. If that were to double, you would see an increase in the backlog and the processing time it would take.”

The Hawaii Mortgage Foreclosure Task Force, formed in 2010 to recommend policies and procedures to improve the foreclosure process in Hawaii, was represented by its acting chair, Marvin Dang. He said the task force would consider several aspects of Act 48 and present a report to the Legislative Reference Bureau by Nov. 1 this year.

The report will address several of the issues raised in the briefing.

The post Hawaii Judiciary: We Can’t Handle Foreclosure Flood appeared first on ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ.

Bringing Hawaii inmates housed in mainland prisons home to the islands is one of Gov. Neil Abercrombie‘s aims. On Tuesday, he introduced a new initiative that he says represents a major step toward that goal.

The new “Justice Reinvestment” program will gather public safety data to help streamline Hawaii’s justice system. Ultimately, the program will be used to shape public safety policy. One of its primary goals is to bring Hawaii prisoners home. To date, Abercrombie said that between 200 and 250 Hawaii inmates have come home from the mainland.

“We’re, as everyone knows, firmly committed to eliminating the need to send individuals out of state with regard to prison circumstances,” Abercrombie said Tuesday, flanked by city and state officials. “We want to reunite families. We want to try and reintegrate people into society, and in some instances, integrate them for the first time into society. We want to reduce recidivism. The Justice Reinvestment initiative is going to create a comprehensive plan, not just to bring prisoners back home, but a comprehensive justice plan.”

Currently, about one third, or 2,000, of Hawaii’s adult prison population is housed out-of-state, according to the , a national nonprofit that will serve as a parter to the state in establishing the new initiative.

Hawaii is the latest to join a growing number of states that have adopted the program.

“To date, we’ve applied the Justice Reinvestment approach to 14 states around the country, including states like Texas, Kansas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio,” said Marshall Clement, a project director with the Justice Center. “Those states have used these analyses to craft policies that have, in the years since their enactment, reduced recidivism, increased public safety and generated significant dollars — hundreds of millions of dollars — in savings to those states that they have turned around and reinvested in strategies to increase public safety and reduce crime.”

Clement pointed to successes in Texas, which adopted the program in 2007.

Since then, recidivism rates in Texas have fallen 26 percent for parolees. Between 2008 and 2009, Texas saved $440 million and reinvested $240 million in expanding in-prison and community-based treatment services, Clement said.

It’s hoped Justice Reinvestment will also help address recidivism in Hawaii and reduce crime rates overall.

Hawaii’s recidivism rate was 51 percent in 2007, according to the Justice Center. And while there have been fewer property crimes in Hawaii, certain violent crime rates have increased dramatically. For example, rapes are up 5 percent since 2000 and aggravated assaults are up 37 percent since 2000.

There are three phases to the Justice Reinvestment initiative:

1) Analyze data to develop policy decisions
2) Adopt new policies
3) Measure the performance of those policies

Justice Reinvestment works as an inter-branch, bipartisan working group staffed by state and local leaders, which will receive technical assistance from the Justice Center, as well as the .

The working group will include Abercrombie, Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald, Senate President Shan Tsutsui, House Speaker Calvin Say and Department of Public Safety Director Jodie Maesaka-Hirata, among others.

UPDATE “This is an exciting day for the people of Hawaii,” said Recktenwald. He said all three branches of government were joining together to ask a fundamental question: How can we obtain better results from our criminal justice system in economically challenging times?

Abercrombie could not give a timeline on when citizens could expect to see changes within the justice system.

“It has much less to do with a timetable than it does with a game plan,” Abercrombie said. “Once we get a game plan, we can start working on timetables.”

Also this week, the a three-year, $136.5 million contract to a private prison in Arizona to house Hawaii prisoners. The contact will allow almost 2,000 prisoners to be held at Saguaro Correctional Center and Red Rock Correctional Center.

Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle, the city’s former prosecutor, also supported the new initiative.

“The key to this program is that we’re not reinventing the wheel,” Carlisle said. “What this does is it gives us basically the opportunity to look at data, and that’s the key… Most importantly, this particular program integrates the concept of community safety and victim safety at every step of the process. So once you have that and you have success on the mainland, there’s no reason that we couldn’t follow that.”

The post Initiative Aims To Bring Hawaii’s Prisoners Home appeared first on ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ.

The company, which operates in the secondary mortgage market, that it would convert all of its non-judicial foreclosures in Hawaii to judicial foreclosures, meaning homeowners facing financial troubles would face a judge rather than a mediator in resolving their loans.

The move generated criticism from lawmakers and advocates, who said Fannie was skirting the intent of what some have said is the nation’s strongest foreclosure law, just passed by the state Legislature.

Given the size of the company, the decision raised questions about whether a 100-page law had really taken into account how to address the foreclosure problem.

In fact, a spokesman for Fannie says it opted to go to court in response to the legislation.

The uproar over Fannie’s foreclosure decision started on June 14.

“Our announcement is consistent with Hawaii law and was made in response to recent Hawaii legislation,” the company said in an email to Civil Beat. “Currently, non-judicial foreclosures cannot be pursued in Hawaii. The judicial foreclosure process allows homeowners to raise any challenges to the foreclosure in court. Fannie Mae continues to encourage homeowners to reach out as early as possible to their servicers to pursue modifications and other foreclosure prevention solutions.”

Gov. Neil Abercrombie in May signed . Among other things, the law required lenders to meet face-to-face with homeowners in a neutral mediation meeting. It also required lenders prove they have the legal authority to foreclose on a home before being allowed to proceed.

Critics of Fannie’s move theorized that the lender was attempting to avoid the requirement to prove it had ownership of a foreclosure.

But Fannie has stuck by its assertion that it converted its foreclosures, at least in part, because “non-judicial foreclosures cannot be pursued in Hawaii.”

Act 48 placed a moratorium on all new non-judicial foreclosure actions until July 1, 2012, for foreclosures covered under Part 1 of the two-part governing foreclosures.

What is less obvious in the statute is that there is also a de facto moratorium on non-judicial foreclosures covered under Part 2 of the foreclosure statute as well. While there is no specific language in the bill preventing Part 2 non-judicial foreclosures, the bill bans all non-judicial foreclosures until Oct. 1, when the Mortgage Foreclosure Dispute Resolution Program, or mediation, begins.

“New nonjudicial foreclosures are currently on hold until the Mortgage Foreclosure Dispute Resolution Program which will be administered by the DCCA begins,” Cathy Yasuda, spokesperson with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, wrote Civil Beat in an email. “Existing nonjudicial foreclosures may also be on hold depending on their status as of May 5, 2011 (which is the date that Act 48 was enacted).”

Essentially, Fannie had two courses of action post-legislation: 1) Wait until October and proceed with non-judicial foreclosures under the guidelines of Act 48; or 2) Convert its non-judicial foreclosures effective immediately under the guidelines of the courts.

Sen. Rosalyn Baker, who co-introduced the bill that became Act 48, says Fannie’s decision was rash.

“I think that Fannie didn’t really consider the full ramifications of undoing everything they had started, and converting everything over, when, from a timing perspective, and what it’s going to cost them, and what it potentially could cost homeowners out here, and it doesn’t really get them any closer to resolving foreclosures,” Baker told Civil Beat. “It doesn’t make sense from a timing perspective, from a money perspective.”

Yasuda indicated that if Fannie’s decision was time-based, the switch to judicial won’t help its cause.

“We are aware of certain comments stating that the length of time to pursue a nonjudicial foreclosure under Act 48 will approximately be the same as a judicial foreclosure,” Yasuda wrote. “We believe that the specific time frames mandated under Act 48 should allow a nonjudicial foreclosure to be completed significantly faster than a judicial foreclosure once the Mortgage Foreclosure Dispute Resolution program becomes operative.”

If other lenders follow in Fannie’s footsteps, and covert non-judicial foreclosures to judicial, it could swamp the resources of the judiciary. After the news of Fannie’s decision broke, the Star-Advertiser’s Andrew Gomes that state Circuit Courts handled about 10 percent of all foreclosures in Hawaii in 2010. If lenders convert all their foreclosures, a backlog looks inevitable.

Others have speculated that Fannie’s move was strictly a financial one. For example, a judge could order a deficiency judgment, which enables a lender to go after a borrower’s assets to make up the difference once a foreclosed home is sold. Deficiency judgments are not typical in non-judicial foreclosures. And while the judgments are not issued automatically for judicial foreclosures, the potential financial burden for someone who has defaulted on a mortgage could be be greater than had they gone through a non-judicial process.

Whatever its reason, it’s difficult to get Fannie to elaborate on the decision to convert. Last week, a scheduled conference call was canceled when the company learned a foreclosed homeowner would be on the line. Press being included on the call was also apparently a factor in Fannie not wanting to participate.

On Wednesday, lawmakers will hold an informational briefing on Act 48.

“Assuring fairness and transparency in the mortgage foreclosure process is very important for so many families here in Hawaii,” Baker said in a press release regarding the meeting. “We think Act 48, which was signed into law by the Governor on May 6 (sic), will help the situation for many of our homeowners. The foreclosure issues are complex. Our intent is to share with the public the status of implementation of the new law and clarify any ambiguities in Act 48.”

The meeting will be held in Conference Room 325 at the state Capitol, beginning at 1:00 p.m.

The post Furor Over Fannie Mae’s Foreclosure Decision appeared first on ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ.

Abercrombie said in a speech to a Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce’s luncheon June 24, as reported by the : “The Big Island has the best possibilities in the entire world for alternative energy.”

Is the governor right about the Big Island‘s potential?

In 2008, Hawaii formed a partnership with the creating the , which “aims to transform Hawaii into a world model for energy independence and sustainability.”

By 2030, the goal of the initiative is to improve energy efficiency by 30 percent and produce 40 percent of needed energy from renewable sources.

The initiative describes the Big Island’s alternate energy possibilites: “The Hawaii’s Big Island has significant energy-efficiency potential, including capacity for additional solar water heating installations to reduce the island’s electricity demand. It also has the highest renewable energy potential of any of the islands.”

The initiative says that the biggest potential for alternate energy on the Big Island comes in the form of geothermal energy.

Rick Rocheleau, director of the , lauds the Big Island’s alternative energy potential, but said there’s an open argument as to what place has the most potential.

“The Big Island certainly has a diversity of resources which makes it an excellent site for alternative energy,” Rocheleau wrote Civil Beat in an email. “Whether it is the best or not is a judgement call and I am sure you could line people up on either side of the argument.”

Rocheleau said the Big Island currently has commercial alternative energy installations including “wind, geothermal, solar (thermal and PV), and some small hydro.”

But he says there is opportunity for more forms of alternative energy yet to be utilized.

“Biomass and biofuels obviously has potential and various developments have been announced,” Rocheleau wrote. “Large scale use of bioenergy is not easy so it will be interesting to see the results of these efforts.”

Lawmakers are aware of alternative energy potential in Hawaii.

Hawaii Revised Statute reads: “The State of Hawaii, with its near total dependence on imported fossil fuel, is particularly vulnerable to dislocations in the global energy market. This situation can be changed, as there are few places in the world so generously endowed with natural energy: geothermal, solar radiation, ocean temperature differential, wind, biomass, waves, and currents, which are all potential non-polluting power sources.”

Forbes published an in 2008, titled, “America’s Best Places For Alternative Energy.”

“In Hawaii, the Puna Geothermal power plant sits about 21 miles south of Hilo on the Big Island on the Kilauea Volcano,” according to the article. “The geothermal plant provides roughly 30% of the Big Island’s power.”

However, nowhere in the article is Hawaii included as the best place, or even among the best places, for alternative energy.

For wind power, Forbes lists Alaska as number one. “The wind is wild in Alaska, and the wildest of all are those whipping over the Aleutian Islands and the Alaska Peninsula,” the article says. “These unique climatic features make this area the Saudi Arabia of American wind power.”

Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and Montana were also included as best places for wind energy.

Despite Hawaii’s mention in the article for geothermal power, it didn’t make Forbes’ list for the best places for geothermal. Nevada took the top spot, followed by Utah, Idaho, Oregon and California.

Solar Energy was a similar story. Forbes ranked Arizona first, New Mexico second, and followed with California, Nevada and Texas. Same with biomass energy, which refers to “any organic feedstock, such as wood, yard waste and agricultural and forest residues, that can be converted into energy through combustion, or converted into a liquid fuel that can be combusted,” according to the article.

Iowa, North Dakota, Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina were considered the best places in America for biomass.

The state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism claims Hawaii leads the nation in at least one aspect of solar energy.

“Hawaii is the nation’s recognized leader in solar water heating, accounting for over one-third of all systems installed in 2008, according to a study by the Solar Energy Industries Association,” according to DBEDT’s . “Hawaii’s significant renewable energy resources include: solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, hydropower, ocean wave and ocean thermal energy.”

But DEBEDT is referring to the state of Hawaii, not the individual island.

Iceland is the place that raises the most questions about Abercrombie’s claim.

“The tiny nation of Iceland is often cited as a model for the world in its use of renewable energy,” Kate Galbraith for The New York Times in 2009. “Virtually all of its electricity comes from dams or geothermal power plants.”

In 2008, Newsweek that Iceland produced 80 percent of its energy from renewable sources. It has the goal being carbon neutral and fossil free by 2050, according to the website .

Hawaii is aiming to reach 40 percent alternative energy — in two decades.

There is a great deal of potential for alternative energy on the Big Island. That’s a fact. But it appears the governor is overreaching when he says it has the best possibilities for alternative energy on Earth.

The post  Abercrombie: Big Island Alternative Energy Potential Best on Earth appeared first on ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ.

Addressing a crowd at a Washington Middle School town hall meeting Thursday, the governor told attendees he has “shortcomings,” but that he’s able to get beyond them through the practice of self-reflection.

The fact that he’s a bona fide homo sapien, he says, grants him the ability to judge and modify his actions.

“We are the only species that make judgments on ourselves,” Abercrombie said.

But is the governor right that humans stand alone?

Doubts

“I’m a pretty empirical scientist,” said Dr. Paul Nachtigall, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program with the . “And I wouldn’t debate (the governor) on it. Because I can’t think of an experiment that has demonstrated that animals can self-reflect… I know of no experiment that I would trust that would contradict what he said.”

Nachtigall said arguing dolphins, porpoises, have been done that may prove self-awareness, but that self-awareness doesn’t equate to self-judgment. Referring to what’s known as a — where an animal attempts to identify its reflection — Nachtigall said:

“That may be self-awareness, but that doesn’t go the next step. The next step from self-awareness to self-judgment is a big step. That’s why I say you’d need a philosopher. You don’t need a scientist. You need a philosopher.”

Judgments on Environment

Manuel Mollinedo, director of the Honolulu Zoo, noted that the issue of self-judgment in animals is “a matter of opinion.”

“I know from my observations that animals are sentient, they do communicate,” Mollinedo told Civil Beat. “Given certain types of situations, environmentally, they probably can respond to these types of environmental challenges better than you or I can.”

Mollinedo, a physical anthropologist, offered the example of gorillas in Africa to explain how animals might judge their personal situations.

Citing research pioneered by , Mollinedo told Civil Beat: “On the Rwanda side of the Virunga Mountains, you’re starting to see a larger population of gorillas living on that side of the mountain, and there’s actually fewer gorillas living on the Congo side of the Virungas.”

On the Congo side of the Virungas, Mollinedo says, there is more poaching of gorillas.

“This is, again, only my opinion — I think these gorillas are seeing that there’s danger being perpetrated on them in these particular areas, and because of that, they’re gradually migrating to these safer zones.”

Assuming the apes are, in fact, changing their behavior based off their environment, they’re not alone.

“When human measures for intelligence are applied to other species, dolphins come in just behind humans in brainpower,” last year. “Dolphins demonstrate skills and awareness previously thought to be present only in humans.”

The article discusses research by Lori Marino, a lecturer in neuroscience and behavioral biology at Emory University. According to Marino, dolphins are capable of human-like skills.

“These include mirror self-recognition, cultural learning, comprehension of symbol-based communication systems, and an understanding of abstract concepts,” the article states.

The video below shows how dolphins have changed hunting habits based off changes to their surroundings.

But is this the type of self-judgment Abercrombie was referring to? Or was he talking about the more subtle: Am I happy? Am I sad? Did I say the right thing?

Animal Altruism?

They may not be philosophers, but welfare campaigners say animals are capable of feats such as altruism.

In 2003, BBC News that animals living in communities can show signs of morality. The article quotes a paper presented by the group , which argues:

“There is evidence that some animals do have some level of morality and some concern over other animals… Living within a group requires a moral code of behaviour (sic)… Most animals that live in communities exhibit similar moral codes to humans… Zoologists who have spent their professional lives studying animal behaviour (sic), either by observation or by experiments to test their mental capacities, believe that many animals feel and think.”

In 2009, US News that there is evidence that some animals have conscious “self-reflection.” The article cites evidence collected by , a comparative psychologist at the University at Buffalo.

Smith argues that: “there is growing evidence that animals share functional parallels with human conscious metacognition — that is, they may share humans’ ability to reflect upon, monitor or regulate their states of mind.”

You can purchase and download Smith’s academic paper .

The Bottom Line

It’s apparent animals can react to their environment, going so far as to invent new hunting habits, as with the dolphins described above. It’s even been shown that chimps will make to hunt, or to navigate a forest clearing.

It has also been shown that some animals can recognize themselves in mirrors. They are aware they are looking at themselves.

But the key question was highlighted by Nachtigall: Is self-awareness the same thing as self-judging?

We’re still debating on this one, but wanted to hear your thoughts. What do you think? Are humans the only species capable of making judgments on themselves?

The post  Abercrombie: ‘We’re The Only Species That Make Judgments On Ourselves’ appeared first on ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ.

Civil Beat reported last week that mortgage giant Fannie Mae found a way around Hawaii’s new foreclosure law.

On Thursday, Fannie found a way to skirt reporters, too.

Fannie scheduled a 10 a.m. conference call with representatives of Faith Action for Community Equity , a non-profit that pushed for , what some call the nation’s strongest foreclosure law. FACE wanted to ask Fannie about its recent decision to switch all of its non-judicial foreclosures to judicial foreclosures.

Staff for state Sen. Roz Baker as well as staff for Rep. Bob Herkes, both co-introducers of the bill, were invited to join in the call. So were representatives from Hawaiian Community Assets and Catholic Charities. A Maui homeowner going through the foreclosure process would also be listening in.

But FACE policy director Kim Harmon said the presence of two reporters on the call — Civil Beat and Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Andrew Gomes — was too much for the government controlled mortgage finance company.

At 9:15 a.m., FACE staff received an email from Terry Davis, Fannie’s VP for Single Family Business in Washington D.C.

Harmon dictated the email to Civil Beat:

“Drew, if you have a few minutes this morning to discuss the meeting attendees. Your attendees include press, which is a surprise and a concern. If you can speak this morning, can you please call my cell phone?”

At 9:46 a.m., less than 15 minutes before the scheduled call, Harmon emailed Civil Beat:

“(Fannie) just emailed and said that they have a problem with press being on the call this morning. Since they waited until the last minute to inform us, I am just going to wait and deal with this on the call. Please feel free to get on and I will do my best to get them to change their minds. If they threaten to get off the call if you stay on, then we will probably have to ask you to get off, but it is up to you if you do get off the call at that point. I don’t know what the rules of journalism dictate at that point.”

Civil Beat attempted to join in on the call at 10 a.m., but couldn’t get through.

At 10:10 a.m., Harmon sent out another email:

“(Fannie) just sent this email stating “we need to cancel this meeting”. I am trying to figure this out with them asap. Sorry for the inconvenience. I sent them an agenda and list of everyone who would be on the call yesterday, so they know they have inconvenienced a lot of us.”

Civil Beat could not reach a representative of Fannie for an explanation.

At 10:39 a.m., Harmon sent Civil Beat another email explaining why Fannie canceled the call:

Hello Everybody,

I just got off the phone with Terri Davis, FNMA’s VP for Single Family Business in DC. She said that she chose to cancel the call because:

• When some of the Fannie Mae people found out that there would be a homeowner on the call, “that really changes the discussion and we did not feel ready for that”
• Hawaii’s congressional delegation met with FNMA this morning about this same issue and “that meeting was longer that we expected, and we did not feel like we had the right people scheduled on our end for the discussion that you probably wanted to have”.
• Because of the attention that FNMA’s announcement has gotten from Hawaii, FNMA claims that they have now posted more information about their June 10 announcement to servicers in Hawaii. Here is the link they gave me, see what you think:

FYI, I received an update this morning from our congressional delegation via Jun Yang (FACE organizer) who is in DC this week. The report is that Hawaii’s delegation was not satisfied with FNMA’s responses and that FNMA does not seem to understand the foreclosure situation “on the ground” in Hawaii.

Thank you all for your patience. We will do our best to reschedule this call. Call me if you have any questions.

UPDATE: According to Peter Boylan, press secretary to Sen. Daniel Inouye, Jun Yang (mentioned in Harmon’s email above) mischaracterized the meeting congressional representatives had with Fannie.

“Staff members from the delegation listened to FNMA’s presentation, asked questions and voiced concerns about the GSE’s actions,” Boylan told Civil Beat in an email. “However, no staff member said they were unsatisfied with the meeting, nor did any staff member suggest that FNMA ‘does not seem to understand the foreclosure situation ‘on the ground’ in Hawaii.'”

After this article was published, Amy Bonitatibus, a spokeswoman with Fannie contacted Civil Beat. She said she was not directly involved with the FACE conference call, but reiterated that Hawaii congressional leaders met with Fannie this morning.

“I actually am not aware of why the call was scheduled or canceled,” Bonitatibus said. “But I do know that we met with a Hawaii congressional delegation earlier today. And so I think between that meeting and the actual guide announcement, which is very clearly posted on our website, we have been very transparent about the policy and our rationale behind it.”

Bonitatibus said that any time the media has questions, representatives from Fannie are available.

Read more Civil Beat coverage on foreclosures:

• Fighting For Their Homes
• Hawaii Adopts Nation’s ‘Strongest’ Foreclosure Law
• Fannie Mae Skirts Landmark Hawaii Foreclosure Law
• Hawaii Attorney: Failure of Foreclosure Law Inevitable

The post Fannie Mae Hangs Up On Hawaii Press appeared first on ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ.

establishes three new surcharges for using Hawaii’s courts, the proceeds of which will be used to provide more legal services for the indigent.

Lawmakers passed the measure in May and sent it to Gov. Neil Abercrombie. A spokesperson for the governor told Civil Beat Abercrombie intends to sign the bill.

“(The bill) is going to give much needed, if not desperately needed funding for those who provide legal services for the very seriously underserved in our community,” said Avi Soifer, dean of the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “It’s not going to solve (the problem), but it addresses it.”

In the past, legal service providers who worked with needy “had to go hat-in-hand to the Legislature and look for grants and aid, which was unpredictable,” Soifer said.

Currently, when a person initiates a court action — for example, by filing a lawsuit — they must pay a small fee, per chapter of the Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Under SB 1073, the following additional fees will also apply:

• Any person in a civil action in the circuit court who is required to pay an initial filing fee must pay an additional surcharge of $50 effective Jan. 1, 2012. The surcharge will increase to $65 beginning Jan. 1, 2014.
• Any person in a civil action in the district court who is required to pay an initial filing fee must pay an additional surcharge of $25 effective Jan. 1, 2012. The surcharge increases to $35 beginning Jan. 1, 2014.
• Any person in a civil action in the courts of appeal who is required to pay an initial filing fee also must pay an additional surcharge of $50 effective Jan. 1, 2012. The surcharge increases to $65 beginning Jan. 1, 2014.

The fees will go into a special fund, known as the “indigent legal assistance fund.” The administrative director of the courts will administer the fund.

The bill was strongly supported by the , established in 2008 to increase access to legal services for low-and moderate-income residents in Hawaii. Comprised of 22 members, five of whom are appointed
by the Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court, the commission was formed in response to a that documented a disturbing trend in the state’s legal system. Among the report’s were:

• Only 1 in 5 low- and moderate-income Hawaii residents have their legal needs met.
• Legal service providers are able to help only 1 in 3 of those who contact them for assistance.
• The areas with the greatest unmet civil legal needs are housing (24 percent), family (23 percent), domestic violence (8 percent), and consumer (7 percent).
• There is one legal service attorney for every 2,291 persons living below 125 percent of the federal poverty guideline.

The state judiciary was also behind SB 1073.

“The Judiciary has consistently expressed its belief that indigent persons have insufficient access to legal services,” Mark Santoki, a communications officer with the judiciary, wrote Civil Beat in an email. “We are confident that the court system will run more efficiently when more litigants are represented by competent counsel.”

In his 2011 , Hawaii Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald said that the downturn in the economy has compounded legal access problems.

“There are many more people facing eviction, collections actions, foreclosure, loss of jobs or benefits, and related problems such as divorce or domestic violence,” Recktenwald said. “At the same time, state funding for legal service organizations has been sharply reduced.”

Access to Justice Conference Meets on Next Steps

New court fees are an important step, but advocates say more needs to be done.

On Friday, the commission is sponsoring the third annual conference to be held at the UH law school. The law school and the are both co-sponsors of the event, which will include workshops and speeches from legal experts.

“We’re going to have some heavy hitters from the judiciary and the Legislature and some very, I think, provocative and important discussions of current issues such as foreclosures and pro bono provision of services, the role of paralegals… issues about individual’s disabilities, and native Hawaiian rights,” Soifer said. “These are cutting edge issues and we’re going to have the experts addressing them.”

Last year’s conference included legislators like Rep. Marcus Oshiro, Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland and Rep. Blake Oshiro. Chief Justice Recktenwald will deliver the opening remarks at the 2011 event, which is open to the public. The conference is expected to attract more than 200 attendees.

You can see the itinerary for the conference .

The post Higher Court Fees Help Increase Access to Justice for Hawaii’s Needy appeared first on ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ.

Last week, Abercrombie wrote courtesy resignation requests to 28 members of the , the , the , the and the .

Each had been appointed by the Democrat’s Republican predecessor, Linda Lingle, and approved unanimously by state Senate Democrats.

Civil Beat attempted to reach all 28 to get their reaction to Abercrombie’s request that they resign. By Wednesday afternoon, we had reached 18 total.

On Monday we reported that four people were resisting: Kevin Chong Kee and Marcia Klompus of the Stadium Authority, Ron Agor of the BLNR and Norman Lezy of the LUC.

Tuesday that the BLNR’s Robert Pacheco said he’s likely to stay put.

Meanwhile, Wednesday that the Housing Authority’s Travis Thompson said that “he was considering his options but would likely stay at his post.”

(On Monday Thompson told Civil Beat that he was “going to try and stay the course.”)

Civil Beat has now learned that the LUC’s Lisa Judge wants to stay on, and that John Morgan, Jerry Edlao, Sam Gon and David Goode of the BLNR may stick it out as well.

“I anticipate that all the land board members are going to politely ignore the request to resign,” said a BLNR member who was granted anonymity by Civil Beat.

More to come?

—Alia Wong contributed to this story.

The post More Appointees Snub Hawaii Governor appeared first on ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ.

Speaking with reporters in his office Tuesday, Carlisle announced his veto of bills introduced by the City Council, which aimed to secure the council’s oversight of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation‘s budget. He said HART was established to ensure rail policy decisions would be in the hands of professionals — not politicians. If the council had control of the budget, it would restrict HART’s independence, he said.

“Right now, the decision-making process regarding the rail project has remained in the hands of the mayor,” Carlisle said. “This is moving it from my hands into their hands, and they take with them a single person who will be making those decisions who will be a person who is the executive officer of that board.”

In a nutshell, Carlisle said he’s had the power regarding rail decisions, and that he’ll pass that power onto HART’s executive officer come July 1, when the authority officially forms. His comment more than implies that the council has been removed from the rail process, not to mention other state and federal agencies and entities.

Are Carlisle’s comments accurate?

The reality is that there would be no rail if voters didn’t give it the go-ahead in the first place. The council also played a pivotal role, a 0.5 percent general excise tax hike in 2005 to pay for the project. So Carlisle is being misleading when he says the decision-making process has remained in the mayor’s hands.

In fact, in Carlisle’s first eight months as mayor, there have been several specific instances of decisions by other individuals and agencies that kept rail alive.

Some examples include:

• On June 3, the council approved authorizing the issuance of $104 million in general obligation bonds in order to raise money for rail. According to the updated financial plan for the project, rail “required” debt financing for the costly early phases of construction. In May, Budget and Fiscal Services Director Mike Hansen told council members, “The build-out is going to be over the next seven years, so we need to get that cash… We need to finance… until we get some of that cash from the excise surcharge.”

• On Dec. 16, city officials received a signed copy of the from Gov. Neil Abercrombie. With his signature, the governor cleared the way for rail. Without the governor’s approval, the project could not have advanced.

• On Jan. 18, the Federal Transit Administration issued a Record of Decision allowing the first stages of rail construction to begin. Again, without that decision from the FTA, rail could not have gone forward.

Carlisle has been paramount in keeping the rail project afloat, and will continue to be. But to say that the decision-making for rail has solely been in the hands of the mayor is inaccurate.

The Bottom Line

There is some part of Carlisle’s claim that can be supported in the sense that many of the decisions regarding rail lay in the mayor’s hands.

However, given that the project would be an impossibility without the support of Hawaii’s governor, the city council and the FTA. Carlisle is inflating his importance. There is some truth to his statement, but not much.

Civil Beat rates the mayor’s claim “Barely True.”

The post  Carlisle: Decision-Making For Rail Has Been in My Hands appeared first on ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ.

Civil Beat reached 15 of the 28 members Monday. Several said they are inclined to resist the governor’s wishes, and at least four said they’re staying. Many declined to speak on the record, some citing concern about reprisal.

While all 28 members were appointed by former Gov. Linda Lingle, some of the members are Democrats. All the members were unanimously approved by the Democrat-controlled state Senate and received glowing praise from many prominent members of the party.

“I am completely mystified,” attorney Kenneth Marcus, who was twice approved to serve on the Aloha Stadium Authority, told Civil Beat. “I am a lifelong Democrat and I supported Abercrombie in the last election. I have no reason to believe that there is anything that he wants with respect to the stadium that I would not support — in part because he has never discussed this with us. We don’t know what it is he would like to see us do that we are not doing.”

Like many, Marcus has contacted the governor’s office to try to talk directly with him about the request.

At least one member, Ron Agor, Kauai’s representative on the Board of Land and Natural Resources, said he understands the governor’s perspective but that he has no plan to offer his resignation.

“I didn’t take the letter in any other manner than the governor was attempting to get his people in as soon as possible,” said Agor, who is Republican. “To the contrary, I’m going to respond that I’m staying on.”

Surprise ‘Courtesy’ Request

The first news of the resignation request broke June 16 when The Honolulu Star-Advertiser that Abercrombie had issued a “courtesy” request to the nine members of the Stadium Authority, asking them to step down.

The next day, the paper revealed that the governor had made of four other boards and commissions: the BLNR, the Public Utilities Commission, the Land Use Commission and the Hawaii Public Housing Authority.

On Monday, administration spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said in an email to Civil Beat that 28 individuals in all had received letters. There are 37 members on the five panels. The governor did not ask the nine people he has appointed or whose terms are ending June 30 step down.

The governor issued a statement on his mass resignation request Monday:

Our administration needs to be able to work collaboratively with our boards and commissions to get work done in the public’s best interest. This includes a new approach to maintaining our public housing units so residents can live safely and with dignity; developing a statewide vision for our sporting events and venues; and changing our policies for managing and utilizing our limited resources and land.

As with the Board of Education, it’s important that all boards and commissions have the opportunity to have a fresh start, so they can work in alignment with other state agencies and move quickly on important issues.

My request for individuals to voluntarily resign is not a reflection of their service nor an issue of personalities. The people of Hawaii voted for a change in direction; a New Day. I need the opportunity to move forward with a team dedicated to that proposition.

The letters, according to board and commission members who spoke to Civil Beat, appeared to be form letters. Here’s a copy of one of the letters received by a Stadium Authority member:

Gov’s Request Resisted

Civil Beat attempted to reach all 28 members. Only six were willing to speak on the record.

“I’m inclined to tell him respectively that I’m going to decline his request,” said LUC member Norman Lezy, who identified himself as a political independent. “I was appointed to a term and I intend to serve out that term.”

“I was confirmed for another four years, and I believe a deal is a deal,” said Marcia Klompus, a Republican who worked in the Lingle administration with her husband, Lenny Klompus.

Klompus added that the Stadium Authority job is unpaid. “It’s a labor of love,” she said.

Many members are still scratching their heads.

“I’ve read the governor’s request a number of times, and I am somewhat perplexed,” said Republican Travis Thompson, who sits on the 11-member Housing Authority. “There are four people who are continuing on and seven new appointees. That’s a majority of the board. I’m very concerned about the lack of continuity and lack of experience.”

Like many of the appointees, Thompson said staggered terms serve a constructive purpose.

Others, like the LUC’s Agor, said they respected the governor’s prerogative.

“I wasn’t shocked or anything like that,” he said. “I mean, he’s the governor. It’s just that I know what I want, and I’m going to try and stay the course.”

Many members also defended the work they had done thus far for the state. Marcus, for example, said he was proud of his work to secure a contract with CBS Sports that resulted in a new scoreboard and televisions posted throughout the stadium.

“We’ve done some good things,” said Marcus. “There are some very good people on this board, and some are lifelong Democrats just like me.”

Marcus said at least one of his authority colleagues would step down “because they are fearful what can be done if the state decides to be vindictive.”

Serving the People, Not the Gov

Kevin Chong Kee, chair of the Stadium Authority, is a Republican who did not support Abercrombie’s election.

But he argues that boards and commissions have a duty to serve constituents rather than the person who appointed them.

“My take on this is that when you are appointed to this position, it wasn’t a mere fact that we do it for the governor,” said Kee. “We took this knowing that it is also for the people. The decisions we make, I want to make sure that we hear from everybody because we represent everybody.”

Kee pointed to an example where the authority resisted political pressure to ban alcohol sales. Then-Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona had aggressively urged the policy change.

“We invited the public to testify, and to me that was how a board is supposed to do it,” said Kee, who called Abercrombie’s resignation request “a little out of line.”

Kee said he’s been hearing from a lot of people urging him to not quit. “They don’t think it’s proper,” he said. “No other governor has done this.”

State Sen. Will Espero, a Democrat who has led many confirmation hearings, told Civil Beat, “It is an unusual time to be asking for these mass resignations. If everyone accepts it, it is a big loss of knowledge to the institution. And that is usually not the best scenario that you want to put an institution in.”

“However, the governor is not breaking any law,” Espero said, “and this is within his prerogative as the executive.”

Alia Wong contributed to this article.

The post Appointees Resist Hawaii Gov’s Resignation Request appeared first on ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ.