Kalaheo water supply update

The recent 48 hour water service failure has provided a window in the operation of the Kauai Department of Water in providing clean, safe drinking water - a service too easy to take for granted. Since yesterday afternoon water service has been working for me here so that's real progress.

This part of Kalaheo gets water from who wells near the golf course area at the top of the hill makai of the highway.

Four months ago on January 29 the main well failed and the department responded by requesting a contractor to perform necessary repairs[1]. The emergency procurement request states specifically that the contractor, Oasis Water System, commits to mobilize their rig "same day" the department orders the job. The next mention of this emergency request I could find was two months later[2] contract #581 was awarded as requested (the date of Notice to Proceed is not listed but presumably is before April 24). So repair on the primary well should have been underway at least a month ago.

Then the backup well failed last weekend. "The Department was executing a contract for the repairs to Well no. 1, but before the contractor got started, Well no. 2 was damaged on Sunday, May 25, 2014. "[3]

The latest timeline: "DOW estimates 4-6 weeks to fully restore Kalaheo well damage; Temporary measures should improve water service by early next week"[4] It's unclear if this means repairing the backup well or also the primary well. Temporary pipe was put in across the highway last night which I suppose allows water from the mauka reservoir to be shared with the rest of Kalaheo.

Open questions include:

• Why did it take one to two months to approve an emergency repair request?
• Did the contract indeed start work "same day" and what is the status of that work?

[1] Water board minutes of February 14, 2014: page 51-53.
[2] Water board minutes of April 24, 2014: page 158.
[3] Water department reply to comment on Kauai DOW facebook page.
[4] Water department announcement on Kauai DOW facebook post.

Currently the mainland is facing severe drought conditions in much of the southwest and south central regions. This is a much bigger problem than fixing a couple of broken wells. In the map below the black, red, and orange areas represent exceptional, extreme, and severe drought conditions, respectively. The past two days have demonstrated to me personally that running low on water very quickly impacts daily life. What we can do is raise awareness and act to address these challenges. What we mustn't do is ignore the situation and continue taking our water supply for granted.

Kauaʻi County Council race begins

While politics may be of little interest to many readers, the outcome of this process very much effects the future of this island. 

In the USA I think we tend to take elections for granted, even after the 2000 election raised some very serious issues with the process. Kauaʻi is small enough that I wanted to look into the process behind the election itself.

Candidates are still filing for the primary election ballot for county council seats but here is an early look at the official uncertified preliminary status as of 9 May. The follow lists candidates who have applied for nomination papers to be returned with 15 (thatʻs all) signatures of voters to get on the ballot along with a filing fee. Until all papers are in and signatures checked we won't know the final list but the following is a reasonable approximation of who will be in the running for seven seats.

According to the candidate's manual, each candidate chooses whether or not to comply with campaign spending limits and if so a viable candidate can receive funding from the state (taken from state income tax revenue) for the campaign. The spending limit is $1.40 per registered voter (from the last election) or about $56,000. Candidates must independently collect at least $3,000 to be considered eligible for funding.

Candidates are listed alphabetically with their city of residence; incumbents marked "(i)". Link to best web link I found relevant to candidacy:

1. Arthur Brun - Kekaha, works for Syngenta (biotechnology corporation)
2. Tim L. Bynum (i) - Kapaʻa, recently won settlement to lawsuit against the county in court
3. Felicia E. Cowden - Kilauea, prominent local radio personality
4. J. Furfaro (i) - Princeville, current chair of the council
5. Joanne Georgi - Eleele, ran for state senate unsuccessfully in 2010
6. Eva Hoopii - Kapaʻa
7. Gary L. Hooser (i) - Kapaʻa
8. Ronald J. Horoshko - Kalaheo
9. Joseph H. Kaauwai, Jr. - Anahola
10. Ross K. Kagawa (i) - Lihue
11. Ernest L. Kanekoa, Jr. - Kalaheo, police commission member
12. Arryl J. Kaneshiro - Lihue
13. Kipukai L.P. Kuaalii - Anahola
14. Darryl D. Perry - Lihue, chief of police
15. Melvin F. Rapozo (i) - Kapaʻa
16. JoAnn A. Yukimura (i) - Lihue

The only incumbent not listed is Mason K. Chock, Sr., recently appointed to fill an open seat.

While I don't want to overestimate the power of the internet, it's notable that only incumbents (and not all of them) have campaign web sites. Of those most are fairly barebones. A couple of new candidates got short interviews in the local paper which I did link to. That said, signs in people's yards may be more powerful that web sites, and I have seen several signs for candidates that don't have web sites, or at least sites I could find via searching.

Election year

This is an election year and in the past few weeks signs have been popping up along the road or in front of homes and businesses in support of candidates. Less than two months remain to register to vote.

• Primary election is August 9, 2014
• General election is November 4, 2014

County mayor, council, and prosecuting attorney will be on the ballot in addition to governor and state representative. The county council members are "at-large" meaning each serves the entire island rather than having regional seats. The top 14 vote getters in the primary vie for the 7 seats going to the top 7 vote getters in the general election.

By far the strongest early showing on the streets is our incumbent mayor Bernard Carvalho: not just signs but he has people waving his signs by the highway. Last election he won easily and I have heard folks here opine that he doesn't have any serious competition this year. It's too early to tell as there are a few weeks left for candidate filings so the process has just begun.

So many people I have asked about local government shake their heads and complain. There certainly have been reasons to worry, but one easy improvement that is very doable is better voter turnout. In 2012 general election voter turnout was 62.9% (25,617 of 40,738 registered voters).

For politics, I realize this is a rather bland opinion-free posting, but I am just beginning to learn about all this so will wait until I actually have some insight before sharing my critical thoughts on candidates.

Official county elections information is available at kauai.gov/elections or see state elections where results will be posted.

Charter amendment amendment

More changes to the county charter are being considered. In another proposed amendment to the county charter, the Kauaʻi County Charter Review Commission held a hearing about upping the number of required signatures for amending the charter by the public from 5% to 20% of voters (based on number of votes in the last general election).

The stated motivation for changing the charter amendment signature requirement is that it should be higher than the requirement for placing a proposition (creating legislation) which is currently also 5%. Charter amendments certainly are changing a more fundamental layer of the legal system yet it seems that if anything the number of votes required for passage should be higher. Quite obviously, making it harder to put amendments on the ballot is hardly the same.

A summary of the percentage of vote signatures required by the major islands is instructive:

• Kauaʻi county charter [link] 5% (72 pages)
• Oahu  (City of Honolulu) charter [link] 10%
• Maui county charter [PDF] 10% (62 pages)
• Hawaii county charter [PDF] 20% (61 pages)

True, Kauaʻi does have the lowest bar for signatures to place proposed amendments on the ballot, yet do we want to jump to match the highest requirement? Since we are talking about effort to place amendments on the ballot a key consideration is if there are frivolous amendment proposals that the lower requirement is allowing that did not belong on the ballot in the first place or not. 

To support this I would like to see more of a justification, specifically where is the evidence that the 5% requirement is too easy? Have we had a problem with frivolous amendments get on the ballot? (Obviously some amendments will fail to pass, that doesn't mean they should never have been on the ballot.) On the other hand if we have had lots of amendments that only garnered 5% of the vote or something like that, I can see that as justification to raise the bar. In the 2012 election [results], nothing like that seemed to happen, so what's the motive? 

The real problem the county has been having with charter amendments is that they don't stand up in court: "For the second time in six years, a Hawaii court has invalidated a voter-initiated amendment to the charter". Due to a 2012 amendment the county attorney reviews amendments including "alteration or change in the form or language or any restatement of the text of the proposed amendments" (though the exact process is unclear).

My take on all this is that people are very rightfully frustrated with government. Many people here feel that this place is special, yet there is so much state and federal control on top of everything it often makes it difficult. 

This possible amendment seems unrelated, at least directly, to the effort to place an amendment to the county charter about GMO regulation. Even if both garner support they would appear together on the ballot later this year. 

The Fifth County

There is one more county in the state of Hawaii located in a remote part of Molokaʻi. Kalawao county (map), with a population under 100, is a special case with no elected officials. Maui county government supports Kalawao county as well as administer the rest of the island. Kalawao may be the least populous county in the United States (source). For obvious reasons their charter provisions isn't going to be comparable to the other counties, and actually I was unable to even find the document or even a web site for the county online.