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Hawaii Elections: You Don’t Need Privilege or Pedigree to Run For Office
Hawaii needs authentic candidates who will consistently put the Public Good and Public Interest First. We need candidates who are not asked to run by their employers, lobbyists or corporate interests or self-promotion.
We need authentic and independent candidates who are not vulnerable or susceptible to corruption or self-interest, and Status Quo.
We need independent candidates who will consistently be bold, be fair, and be thorough and analytical in their decision-making and not simply join the crowd and succumb to peer pressure.
We need candidates who will consistently remember that we live on an island with finite resources. We need candidates who must appreciate and invest in human capital, fiscal accountability, the environment, cultural, social and economic equity, and all other essential and sustainable needs of island living.
We must protect and promote clean water, clean air, clean soil, clean food, and a clean government. We must think of the future and Hawaii’s children and their children. We must put Hawaii and our Residents First!
Elections 2022 is quite messed-up and confusing. There are boundaries changes. When it happens this way, it tends to benefit the Status Quo. Here are some important information to note:
- ALL positions on the State Legislature are OPEN this elections because of the Reapportionment.
- The Honolulu City Council has vacancies for District 2,4,6,8
- Use this Website as your guide. If you don’t understand anything, call them. They’re paid by YOU.
- You can pull nomination papers now. The Office will provide you more info to follow.
- The Deadline to file for your Candidacy is June 7, 2022.
- The Website says that Mail-in Ballots will be in the mail for the AUGUST 13, 2022 PRIMARY by July 26, 2022. I would strongly suggest you expect the ballots in the mail by July 15, 2022. People start voting quickly. I’m saying this because at the 2020 Elections, the Office of Elections spent so much money advertising and telling the public that ballots will be in the mail in LATE July. Even Frank Delima kept saying “LATE July”. But the public began receiving their ballots on July 15, 2020. July 15 is MID July! This switcheroo negatively affected grassroots candidates with limited funds because some had to choose their mailings and were timing their delivery towards LATE July.
- General Elections is November 8, 2022. Voters receive their ballots in the mail for the General Election by October 21, 2022. Again, beware of the ballots in the mail dates.
- In other words, candidates are in crunch time. It again favors those with name recognition or incumbents but have no fear. Go for it and participate in democracy!
- Stand up and step up. We need YOU!
Ketanji Brown Jackson: President Biden’s Nominee to The United States Supreme Court
It’s unfortunate that Jackson will be forever tainted as Biden’s “first Black female” pick. What’s the next pick? The first Asian female? I submit that Ketanji Brown Jackson’s professional qualifications, achievements, and life experiences would have prevailed on the philosophy of ” Meritocracy” in our Democracy.
As protocol, the encumbent President of the United States gets to nominate someone of his choice. It was President Trump’s choice of Amy Coney Barrett before this. This time around it’s Ketanji Brown Jackson.
This is a short excerpt from The New York Times:
| “There have been three main career paths to becoming a federal judge in recent decades: defending corporate clients, serving as a prosecutor or working in politics. She spent seven years as a corporate lawyer, in Boston and Washington, including a year at the same boutique firm where Barrett once worked and Kavanaugh spent a summer. She spent two and a half years as a federal public defender in Washington, representing defendants who could not afford to hire a private lawyer. In that role, unlike many other legal jobs, she could not choose whom she did and did not represent. |
More from The New York Times
| Her parents worked as public-school teachers and administrators, and Jackson graduated from a public high school in the Miami area (the same one that Jeff Bezos attended). If she is confirmed, she would become only the third public high school graduate on the new court, along with Alito and Kagan. “Every other member of the court is a graduate of a Catholic high school,” The Times’s Linda Greenhouse has written. All the justices — as well as Jackson, a Harvard graduate — attended private colleges.“ |
I like the fact that she is from a public school. Any position in the public offices of the United States should be open to all who are qualified. Privilege and Pedigree should not be requisites in these opportunities.
Resolution 22-11: Owners slapped with quick lien from DPP and now faces more bullying from their Councilwoman
The Owners Hopoate Hafoka Taufa and Annetta Kihesina Tuifua Taufa acquired their Hau’ula farm of 12.693 acres zoned Agricultural 2 on November 7, 2019. This acquisition took place just slightly before COVID 19 would hamper much of our social and governmental interactions.
The owner received Notices of Violations (NOV) from the Honolulu City and County Department of Planning and Permitting (DDP). These actions were allegedly due to a few neighbors across the subject property who complained about the owner using the property as a “base yard”. Neighbors have the right to express their complaints and concerns.
On the COUNTY DPP level, below is summary of the owners’ violations on the DPP’s website.
However, the last two violations are inaccurate. Ag-2 zoned properties are exempted from certain required permits. Ag2 owners can have fences up to ten feet without a permit, except a concrete wall.
The last violation is also exempted. Ag-2 owners can have metal containers without a permit.
The standard customary procedure for residents to cure violations from DPP is to submit applications to DPP for building permits. However, according to the owner, the city DPP recently cancelled the pending approval of his permits. This became a Catch-22 for the owner.
How is a resident able to cure a violation if he cannot get a permit from DPP? In the meanwhile, the DPP fines compounded and escalated.
On January 20, 2022, City Councilwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi introduced Resolution 22-11 to urge the Blangiardi Administration for “eminent domain” on this property.
Councilwoman HeidiTsuneyoshi repeatedly accused the owner of violating for five years. The owners have owned the property for less than 2.5 years.
There were also extenuating circumstances, including COVID19 delay complications. There are obvious cultural differences towards land use issues. The immigrant family from the Kingdom of Tonga also had health challenges; the young mother is now under hospice care.
On February 8, 2022, Resolution 22-11 was heard at the County Council Executive Matters Legal Affairs (EMLA) Committee. Within a half hour period, Resolution 22-11 for “eminent domain” was quickly amended to “Judicial Foreclosure”.
On February 23, 2022, Resolution 22-11 was adopted by the full Honolulu City Council. This process only took 25 working days!
This is a highly irregular situation.
What are we to think about this case?
Why the haste to enforce on this particular property?
Unbeknownst to the general public, HB 1434 submitted by Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi is also pending. The DPP Director and five Honolulu City Council Members also testified or submitted written testimony to the STATE Hawaii Legislature for added powers to seize property through NON-Judicial Foreclosure, due to DPP county fines.
This is a Nice Reminder
Maya Angelo: Poet Laureate
With all the constant noise and haste in the world, it’s good to step back and ponder.
“Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.”
Maya Angelo 1928 – 2014
This is a Sweet Reminder
Poet’s Corner / Esquina Poetica
“ Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you,
no matter what.
If you don’t listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little,
they won’t tell you the big stuff when they are big,
because to them all of it has always been big stuff.”
Catherine M. Wallace
Free Press: Something Is Not Right About This
What’s up with giving “EXCLUSIVE” interviews? There is something unnerving about Public Officials getting involved in this media game. Is the media network hyping this up or is a Public Official playing favoritism?
I’ve seen this “Exclusive” bit on FOX NEWS and others too. I just so happened to see this on CNN today. I generally don’t watch these networks any more. I like C-SPAN or NPR. But I’m interested in what’s happening in Ukraine so I tune in once in a while.
Ohana Hale Marketplace: Most Tenants Have No Place To Relocate To
Ohana Hale Marketplace in Kaka’ako Tenants have to vacate by April 16, 2022. This start-up incubator hub for about 100 small businesses opened in 2018. The tenants supposedly have a 10-year lease from Landlord Howard Hughes. Apparently, there must be a clause that allows the landlord to terminate earlier.
This is just an inkling of what will be happening to small businesses and owners as gentrification continues to encroach on Oahu’s small businesses. Not only are commercial spaces for mom-and-pop businesses hard to find, the leases are becoming too expensive.
These is also another impending landscape change that most residents may not appear to be aware of.
Here is an article that I wrote in CIVIL BEAT on November 12, 2012 about future upheaval and displacement. It will be the small mom-and-pop outfits that will be most affected.
Rail’s Transit-Oriented Development An Assault on Private Property
(Excerpts)
” At each of the proposed 21 rail stations, the city wants TODs “within half a mile radius” vicinity.
At each of the proposed 21 rail stations, the city wants TODs “within half a mile radius” vicinity. The proposed rail stations are located at every mile; this means the whole land area along the entire 21-mile rail corridor is up for grabs. “Half a mile radius” sounds so harmless!
To covet and seize an additional 20 square miles area along this rail corridor on our small island pose a huge economical, social and cultural impact!
It’s not as if private owners can easily relocate down the road. Family inheritances, investments, and businesses built with sweat, equity, and sacrifices will be placed under the mercy of absolute powers of eminent domain. Kama’aina owners and businesses will be pushed out to pave the way for national and international investors.
Here in Hawaii, we observe a similar “revitalization” process has been set in motion. City “experts” are holding “Community Visioning” meetings to discuss “Neighborhood TOD Planning”.
The city wants to “take advantage of rail to its optimal level” and to “concentrate population” along this rail corridor.
The dangerous potential for the city to seize 21 square miles of private properties for transfer to private investors has to be reckoned with, today. The proposed Honolulu Rail is not only ugly, noisy, and a black hole for Oahu’s taxpayers; its accompanied TOD is a direct assault on private property rights.
No Oahu residents should sit idly by and condone such autocratic land-use plans for our island home. It is wrong. It’s dangerous. It’s unAmerican. It goes against the core tenets of our free society.
City planning and developments must conform within the constitutional parameters of private property rights. This should have been a big part of the public deliberations. Any “exemption” laws to skirt this right must be rejected. Too many big decisions have been manipulated and controlled by raw crony capitalism and special interests. Private property owners continue to trampled on and pushed aside by the big boys.
We must take our government back.”
Resolution 22-11: Why Was The Roadside Stand Given a Notice of Violation by DPP?
This is a mystery to many. The Roadside stand that allowed Miti Taufa to sell his Polynesian wood carving to support his family of eight was given a Notice of Violation. DPP issued a Notice of Violation on February 17, 2022 to remove his tent canopy and ez corners that he used for sun and rain sheltering.
According to the State of Hawaii Revised Statutes Section 205-12, Ag Zoned properties can also have wind turbines, bio-fuel production, aquaculture, Geothermal resource explorations and so forth.
Miti’s farm added value would fall under the (A) category for value-added enterprises:
(A) A roadside stand that is not an enclosed structure, owned and operated by a producer for the display and sale of agricultural products grown in Hawaii and value-added products that were produced using agricultural products grown in Hawaii;
(B) Retail activities in an enclosed structure owned and operated by a producer for the display and sale of agricultural products grown in Hawaii, value-added products that were produced using agricultural products grown in Hawaii, logo items related to the producer’s agricultural operations, and other food items;
(C) A retail food establishment owned and operated by a producer and permitted under chapter 11-50, Hawaii administrative rules, that prepares and serves food at retail using products grown in Hawaii and value-added products that were produced using agricultural products grown in Hawaii;
(D) A farmers’ market, which is an outdoor market limited to producers selling agricultural products grown in Hawaii and value-added products that were produced using agricultural products grown in Hawaii; and
(E) A food hub, which is a facility that may contain a commercial kitchen and provides for the storage, processing, distribution, and sale of agricultural products grown in Hawaii and value-added products that were produced using agricultural products grown in Hawaii. The owner of an agricultural-based commercial operation shall certify, upon request of an officer or agent charged with enforcement of this chapter under section 205-12, that the agricultural products displayed or sold by the operation meet the requirements of this paragraph;
