House Bill 2422 Hearing on Monday, February 24, Seeking Independent Audit of DoBOR Performance Turns into An Attempt to Bless Privatization of Public Lands
Time to Sack Incompetent Managers in Hawaii's State Government
It became evident, during a legislature Finance committee hearing, on Monday, Februrary 24, that HB2422, a proposed law that would require an audit of DLNR and DoBOR performance, was nothing more than a DoBOR inspired subterfuge to compel legislators to bless the privatization of public lands and assets being administered by these same agencies.
Make no mistake, it is definitely time for an audit, but any audit should be skewed towards a deep dive into public harbor management financials. There are numerous inconsistencies in the handling of public monies by the DLNR and DoBOR, and these inconsistencies need to be flushed out by a thorough independent financial audit.
Ironically, Underwood's DoBOR and Case's DLNR seem to be very much in favor of the performance-based audit proposed by this bill, despite the long history of bungling at the hands of these two agencies. The reason? The auditors would conclude that DoBOR and the DLNR were incapable of managing the public's harbor system and therefore these public lands and assets should be turned over to private interests -- exactly what Underwood and Case have been trying to do for years now.
It is a well known fact, by now, that Hawaii's public harbors and surrounding public lands have been, for years, grossly mismanaged by the individuals running DoBOR and the DLNR. The ability to manage the public harbor system in Hawaii lies with the individuals who are appointed to do so and has nothing whatsoever to do with the inherent capacity of a nebulous agency designation (DLNR, DoBOR) to manage public lands. People mismanage, not departments or divisions. The inability of the managers (the people) heading the DLNR and DoBOR to properly manage public properties has been well documented (see these articles: DoBOR incompetence , DLNR mismanagement)
So, the elephant in the room remains: why do we continue to retain management that demonstrates a contiguous inability to do its job properly, harming public interests in Hawaii? In the real world, Ed Underwood and Suzanne Case -- and many of their minions -- would have been sacked, long ago, for grossly incompetent performance.
For all the harm they cause, why do we continue to support incompetent staff in Hawaii's State government?
Clearly, Underwood and Case are now attempting to manipulate the legislature itself in yet another misguided attempt to give away public lands. Are our legislators really that stupid that they would fall for this kind of nonsense?