The anatomy of toxic lawmaking in Hawaii

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Passing toxic, illegal legislation in Hawaii has become normalized (SB795(2021) and HB1089 were the red warning flares)

The first stop for House Bill 1089 was the legislature's WAL committee where it received a standing ovation from all of the representatives despite the fact that it was unconstitutional, would essentially end up barring the public from what was once public land, and was secretly introduced with the introducers being carefully hidden from public view. The standing ovation was not for the bill but rather a display of allegiance to  Josh Green, who is suspected of secretly originating this package. The fact that it's illegal, unconstitutional, and secretive seems to be no problem for our self-promoting "pandemic consultant", or legislators -- an insensitivity that suggests a long history of lawmaking abuse in our legislature.

After 6 years of watching Hawaii's legislature in action, we've noticed a clear, toxic lawmaking pattern in Hawaii:

1) Some legislation will be designated from its inception to be ramrodded through the legislature REGARDLESS of its legality, its constitutionality, the amount of public opposition, or the resulting damage to the community. These are pieces of legislation that have hidden agendas benefiting certain individuals within our government or their supporters or benefactors. SB 795 (2021) was just such a piece of legislation. The passing of this bill resulted in a humanitarian crisis for one of Oahu's demographics; some state of Hawaii tenants were near instantly driven from their homes -- some were made homeless -- while the remainder were put under enormous existential stress ongoing into the future. The resulting Act 42 legislation gave carte blanche administrative power, way beyond his pay grade, to a minor potentate, division head Ed Underwood: a person known to be a pathological liar, a bully and a fraudster.

2) Legislation will quite regularly ignore the constitution, as is convenient . . . so much so that in 2021 the League of Women's Voters and Common Cause Hawaii filed a lawsuit to this effect. But even as the Supreme Court sided with the plaintiff the legislature continues to ignore  the constitution.

3) Some elements of some legislation are kept secret from the public: bill introducers are hidden, advisory board identities are kept secret, and certain key background data regarding legislation is left unsaid or hidden.

4) The legislative and lawmaking process in Hawaii is purpose-built from the ground up to make it as difficult as possible for the public to participate in the lawmaking process; Hawaii statute requires that lawmakers allow public input, so legislators go through the motion of fielding public comment . . . and then mostly ignore it

5) Lawmakers go through a great deal of trouble not to disclose the introducers of legislation that may be illegal or unconstitutional, or that will be known to result in being a causative factor in future public catastrophes/humanitarian crises (see SB795 (2021), or be wildly unpopular

6) Legislation that is built for the sole purpose of insulating the state from future legal readdress: purpose-built successive legislation for the sole purpose of making the illegalities of a predecessor statute magically disappear with the new legislation, making all previous litigation under the superseded law null and void 

7) Position the responsibilities of an attorney general in such a way as to render him/her powerless to act on the illegal protocol and unconstitutionality that occurs daily in Hawaii's state legislature (which would explain why Clare Connors was so useless in her role as AG)

8) Ensure the greatest attention to legislators who fight for big-money interests

9) Make sure that Hawaii's version of lawmaking allows for behind-the-scenes and out-of-the-sunshine collusion between Hawaii legislators and low level division operatives who stand to gain financially by encouraging the introduction of certain new legislation 

10) Make behind-the-scenes legislator/governor collusion okay, as we see with so-called "governor's packages", where the public is not told about the back-door origin of a package. And . . .

11) Don't worry be happy . . . it's not about you or the people of Hawaii; Hawaii's government is anything but a government "of, by, and for" the people of Hawaii.

Our testimony to the FIN committee February 28, 2023:

An open testimony
(Note: This testimony has been published on the Hawaii Ocean News website so that all of Hawaii might be aware of its existence.)

Regarding HB1089 (companion: SB1387):

RELATING TO A STATE BOATING FACILITY LEASE PILOT PROGRAM

 Testimony submitted by:

Katherine Lindell
Honolulu, Hawaii
Katherine@HawaiiOceanNews.com

  On: February 27, 2023, @ 11AM

 
Testimony

A WARNING TO:

THIS BILL IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL IN ITS PRESENT FORM . . . REARRANGING THE WORDING IN THIS BILL DOES NOT CHANGE THE WAY IN WHICH IT VIOLATES THE STATE’S CONSTITUTION; TO PROCEED WITH THIS BILL IN ITS PRESENT FORM IS A SLAP IN THE FACE TO EVERY RESIDENT IN OUR STATE AS WELL AS OUR FOREFATHERS WHO AUTHORED HAWAII’S STATE CONSTITUTION

1) Unconstitutional Component

Firstly:  The composition of SB1387 (companion: HB1089) constitutes a clear violation of Hawaii’s State Constitution: the agenda items contained therein, shoehorned together in this same bill, are mutually exclusive, in violation of the state’s constitution (Article 3, section 14).  Allowing this bill to proceed through the legislature in its present form snubs the foundational laws of this state and is a slap in the face to the people of Hawaii. Clearly, all you’re doing is attempting to attract more interest among legislators via an unconstitutional subterfuge.

2) Failure to Disclose Introducers

Secondly:  in any open and honest government, all introducers of any piece of legislation will be disclosed.  Why are the introducers of this bill being hidden?  Who are they?  Why are they hiding or being hidden?  Some have already suggested that the hidden introducers are part of the governor’s “inner circle” and that this is nothing more than a piece of legislation purpose-built by the governor himself.  If that’s true, this represents an ethical violation that must be rectified.

 You have an obligation to clarify all of this to the public before moving forward with this bill.

3) Advisory Board Requirement

Thirdly:  The privatization of publicly owned properties is a radical alteration of intended use of any public facility.  As such, a precursor to such a change must include a board or advisory council made up of the affected public. The latter needs to be completed and operational first.  This cannot be the “gutted” version of a board/advisory committee suggested by HB422, but rather, a fully functioning board that is looked to for advice regarding changes to and the operation of the affected public properties.

 4) Legal Irregularities

Fourthly:  There are legal irregularities that are currently taking place, ongoing, in the administration of the public’s marina system that must be resolved first, before moving forward with this bill.

 To wit:
a) An ongoing DoBOR-sanctioned administrative procedure that has taken thousands of dollars from hopeful principal habitation permittees, while denying them access to the very same privilege that they had signed up and paid for.  The State needs to be reminded, once again, that the exchange of money from one hand to another constitutes a contract.  The State is currently reneging on that contract in real time and over a protracted period of time. This constitutes fraud.

b) The arbitrary and capricious valuation of floating pier electrical usage charges, in it’s current form, constitutes fraud.

5) Inconsistent with Intended Use

Fifthly:  Hawaii’s public harbors are publicly owned properties that allow all of our residents to enjoy recreational boating, regardless of income status.  By privatizing our harbors – or any public entity – the for-profit model that the lessee intends will, by default, not be consistent with the public model that was intended by our forefathers.

 The notion of a so-called “public-private” partnership is, as you well know, a subterfuge intended to misrepresent the introducers’ true agenda.  This is unacceptable lawmaking except in third-world banana republics where anything goes.

 
Please do the right thing and reject this piece of legislation at the very first opportunity.

Katherine Lindell
Honolulu, Hawaii