Neighborhood Board 5, Season 2

We had our first meeting of 2009 last night, and our first peak at what the coming season might bring. It promises to be more of the same, really, but with a few new cases. I saw some of the same villains lurking in the shadows hoping for a comeback, an old ally returned but he might have crossed over to the darkside, and there are glimmers of hope that one infamous obfuscater might be changing his act and that another might finally be losing her grip.

We started off with the standard, repetitive, complaints that there are homeless living in the park near the rich people. Only it's not phrased like that. It's we are concerned with the public health implications of all those shopping carts and why doesn't the Department of Health do something about them? and What about the tourists? and (courtesy of MM, chest heaving like an aged Scarlet O'Hara) I am just ... worried ... about the maintenance ... of these public lands ... At least she didn't bring up the sacred trust of our beloved queen this meeting.

She's losing it. Even the cops stopped pandering and spelled it out to her and her cohorts: Being homeless is not illegal. And there were times when I heard the other Board members giggling over some of her more ... dramatic ... pauses. Ah, but we will still have a special Executive Meeting to address the homeless issue.

There was relatively little drama over the minutes, although, again courtesy of MM, we will have a special Executive Session to ... discuss ... some of the ongoing ... issues ... with the minutes.

Duke Bainum, who back-doored his way onto the City Council this election, came in person. I tried not to growl when he got up to speak. And at first it was all cliches and platitudes. He's honored to be here, he's humbled, he has a dream team behind him, he's ready to tackle the issues, he's going to drive me insane. I actually worked for members of his family once, and I thought he was one of the good ones (it was a bat-shit crazy and possibly corrupt family). Now I'm not so sure. But he actually addressed the issues with his election, and introduced a measure that would stop anyone else from pulling the same stunt. That was interesting. And he was pro-rail at one point, but then allied himself with the anti-rail people to get back into office, and then seemed to be backing off on that tonight. So: I don't know what to think of this guy now.

Charles Djou, City Council, replaced most of his staff. I don't know the back story on that, but his old staff mostly pandered to the LCD, and the new rep seemed to have his act together. I wonder if this means that Djou is cleaning up his act, and that we'll get less grandstanding and more actual work on the issues. I asked the new guy about Djou's proposal to start the rail project in town rather than `Ewa, and if this was more posturing or if he was serious this time. New guy assured me that this is a serious proposal.

Rail. The Stop Rail people were there. They lost the public vote, both their mayoral candidates went down, even the anti-rail politicians have been backing off (see Djou and , above), but no one actually believes that they're going to stop. Slater & Co. have too much money invested in privatizing our roads. They'll be billionaires if they can stop rail and built their HOT system (a private toll-road that will run above state roads). The only question was, where would they attack next?

Matson went off on a tangent about a sewer bond coming due. "Concerned member of the community" also had questions about the sewer bond. I had never even heard of this, and suddenly all the sketchy characters are talking about it. Then Matson tips her hand: She wants to know how the sewer bond might be affected by the proposed rail bond ... and there you have it. Tom-A-Hawk actually foreshadowed this (see comments on January 6: i've actually been convinced not to support light rail anymore when i look at how much money needs to be spent on infrastructure: keeping raw sewage out of the ocean ... keeping the lights on ...), and I didn't really know where this was coming from at the time. I still don't know how Slater's people intend to play this out, only that it will be another headache and will cost us a lot of money.

So, for a Season Opener, it was ok. We won't have the highest rated show on the island. If we can stop the divas from making themselves the center of every meeting and discussion we might actually get some work done.

NOB5: Battle for the Minutes

I wonder a lot about what the point of being elected to the Neighborhood Board is. In terms of political or social influence we fall somewhere between "condo association" and "dogcatcher." There is potential here; if we spoke clearly and rationally we can make an impact.

So far Neighborhood Board No. 5 has only had an impact on parking. Specifically, they saved one parking lot from being developed as a store - and that took a year of protests. Luckily I had to excuse myself from the issue as I work for the State and there was a potential conflict of interest.

So we have potential. But instead, we spend our time dealing with nonsense side issues. I thought becoming an Executive Member (i.e. Secretary) would at least let me influence things a touch. Instead, I am fighting to accomplish simple things like getting the minutes approved.

This will bore most of you. The political junkies will enjoy it. Maybe. I don't care. I am hereby unilaterally applying the sunshine law to my webmail and liberating these executive emails for public consumption and review. For background, a representative from the Neighborhood Commission provides meeting notes for us. The secretary reviews them, and then every other Board on the island votes to approve them. Not us. We go half a year at a time without getting minutes approved.

This is the shit we deal with each month, and this is why we never get shit done.

From: Michael Cain
To: 4 board members, Chair, and Michelle S. Matson   
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 11:34 AM
Subject: Fw: Draft minutes for October

Aloha all,

Here are the draft minutes from October. Monday should
give everyone enough time to go over them.

If you have suggestions for corrections, I'd like to
ask one favor: keep them brief and substantive.

 Thanks
 Michael

From: Michelle S. Matson
Sent: Nov 7, 2008 9:54 AM
To: Chairman Bert Narita NB#5, Michael Cain
Cc: (4 Board Members, and 1 Commission Official who has
blocked our emails)
Subject: Re: Draft minutes for October

The NB meeting is Thursday, November 13.
See attached Reso provided at the October meeting.
Apparently this was not reviewed by the regular NA
to have any initial effect.

What is the proposed status of the previous two
months' minutes,(August -deferred in September and
October- and September - deferred in October)and
their substantive and formatting corrections as 
previously provided for the record?

From: Michael Cain
To: Michelle S. Matson ; Chairman Bert Narita
Cc: (4 Board Members, and 1 Commission Official
who has blocked our emails)
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 11:05 AM
Subject: Re: Draft minutes for October

1. The resolution was introduced but not, to my
knowledge, voted on or approved by the Board.

2. I will be moving to accept the August and
September minutes at the upcoming meeting. Members
are free to object or vote against approval.I did not 
incorporate the nine pages of edits you sent. If you
need an explanation I will do it publicly and on the
record at next week's meeting.

 - Michael

 
From:  Michelle S. Matson  
Sent: Nov 7, 2008 8:46 PM
To: Michael Cain , Chairman Bert Narita NB#5
Cc: (4 Board Members, and 1 Commission Official who has
blocked our emails)
Subject: Re: Draft minutes for October

Michael:

1.  The Resolution was received by the Board and deferred
to the November meeting since there was no time for approval
of this or the corrected minutes at the end of the October
meeting.  As in previous months it was also suggested that
the regular NA review the recommendations and try to
work on some of the improvements.

 2.  There were not "9 pages of edits" but specifically
digital tracked changes within the minutes text, which showed
the substantive and grammatical corrections and formatting
improvements as a helpful convenience to assist comparison.
Is simple text without showing the corrections preferred?

 3.  If / when all substantive corrections provided by Board
officers and members have been incorporated into the August
and September minutes,respectively, we would appreciate
receiving your corrected draft minutes prior to the November
meeting so that we know what has been corrected for approval
of the minutes. In turn, for convenience of comparison please
 indicate where the corrections have been made.
 
 Michelle

 
From:  Michael Cain 
To: Michelle S. Matson; "Chairman Bert Narita NB#5
Cc: (4 Board Members, and 1 Commission Official who has
blocked our emails)
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 4:03 PM
Subject: Re: Draft minutes for October

No.

You waste too much of too many people's time with this
silliness. It stops here.

You can take it up at the Board meeting if you have a
problem with this.

From: Michelle S. Matson

To: Chairman Bert Narita

Cc: Michael Cain (& five board members and one commission
official who has blocked our emails)

Subject: Re: Draft minutes for October

Date: Nov 7, 2008 7:02 PM

I believe we are all looking for a democratic approach
to resolving current issues with the ongoing timing,
formatting, grammatical and often substantive deficiencies
in the minutes - deficiencies also acknowledged by 
Board Member Cain in previous emails (attached).

Is it too difficult to provide open disclosure to the Board
of any corrections to the minutes prior to the Board
meeting(s) at which such minutes are anticipated to be
adopted?  One would expect that any revised/corrected
minutes would be mailed/emailed to all Board members prior 
to the meeting date of any noticed anticipated approval.

As a constructive suggestion apart from the apparent
presently-imposed acrimony, an NCO regularly-issued
recorder could provide the NA with needed assistance for
any substantive areas of question.  The bottom line is that 
we would like to see positive and productive outcomes for
the whole in the form of readable and referable substantive
reflections of all Neighborhood Board meetings for the
collective community.

It is interesting to note that for some unknown reason
September's deferred minutes were publicly posted today,
November 7, with the unanimously deferred August minutes.
Both are absent any preliminary approval by the 
Executive Committee or ultimate approval by the Board:

To: Michelle S. Matson, Chairman Bert Narita NB#5

Cc: (five board members and one commission official who
has blocked our emails)

Subject: Re: Draft minutes for October

Date: Nov 7, 2008 11:31 PM

This discussion needs to occur in public and on the record.

Please cease your emails to me on the matter. I do not feel
they are appropriate.

Although I guess it is on the record now. Or at least in public.

Board Aftermath

The Divas performed as expected last night. They started off with high drama, complaining of yesterday's Blue Angel show, telling the police that they were cowering in fear in their Gold Coast apartments as the planes flew by.

The ever reliable Michelle Matson even made it into the papers with this: Having the military put on such a spectacular event is I'm sure good for business and the tourist industry and recruiting, but you also have people living here and trying to cope without feeling as if their lives are threatened.

It was horrendous. It was a nightmare. It was, for most of us: nonsense. I mean, really: we're a working class neighborhood with one very wealthy section - and yet the multi-millionaires in that section always want empathy from the rest of us on how they're just trying to cope.

The divas ended the night with an awkward and aborted attempted coup against the Recording Secretary. It was childish, and almost painful to be part of.

Nothing of import happened the rest of the night. Djou's representative continued to pander to the Board, and regaled us with Shocking Tales! of financial mismanagement in the city. People complained about their neighbors' parking habits, leading me to wonder if our political system doesn't over-empower the whiners and complainers. A 13-year old kid advocated for a skate-park, and everyone on the Board voted to support him. He left with a big smile on his face, and I'm so glad he left before the nastiness started. I think that supporting the skate park was the only substantive vote we took all night.

Board Questions

Two hours to go before the Neighborhood Board Meeting. People were rather civilized at the July meeting. I've been warned that tonight might be a bit more action packed. I'm ready ... the only question is, where is the action going to come from? Will Kapahulu publicly denounce me as a son-of-a-bitch again? Will the Diamond Head Divas continue their nefarious plot to do whatever it is their plotting to do? (They're always plotting, but I just can't figure out what for). Will Eduardo corner me into introducing a Civil Unions Resolution, and am I a shit for not wanting to?

Will I even care enough to stay awake?