hunterbishop.com

I am glad you have addressed the recent showing of the Council Meeting held in Kona on Feb. 7th. It was painful to watch, frankly, and I felt alot of compassion for that poor woman, Ms. Naeole. You have, again, hit the nail on the head with your commentary.

It is really an interesting process to watch, and unfortunately, we can't get it in real time. I await other comments on this issue, as I am very interested to see what other here think. Thank you for alerting everyone it is being reshown.

The frustration of the current council really shows in this meeting. It is apparent the basics (ie. sunshine law they must abide by, protocol, etc.) are lost among the newcomers and the process of "getting things done" has been stifled once again. Mr. Yuen's restraint and patience is admirable.

Thanks again, Mr. Bishop for the candor.

Aloha Hunter and fellow Bloggers,

I don't care if it is re-broadcast 100 times on cable TV, I will not be able to see it living outside the cable area. I am one of the people who has never been able to see the cablecast of Council meetings, because the cable is not available where I live now or where I have lived for the past 15 years.

It is way past time for the County Council to bite the little bitty bullit and get their proceedings on the Internet. This technology has been available for a long time and I am now wondering if it would be faster to see it on the internet if I were to take my own video camera (if I still had one) down to the meetings and put it on You Tube myself.

Please lets all work on the County Council to do the right thing, and allow the proceedings of the Council to be put on the Internet for video streaming as soon as possible after each meeting. This is just "CLOSED" government for anyone who lives outside of the cable area. That is a lot of citizens who pay taxes and should have access to the meetings by way of the Internet.

Mahalo,
Dr. Keola G.A. Downing, Ph.D.

In the case of Council Member Naeole, there is a missing critical component that, alone, is not sufficient, but is always necessary: good staff support.
As previously noted here (including last October), caring can go a long way. More than one of the ex- and some of the current Members could use a bigger dose of aloha and caring!
However, aloha and caring are not enough.
Council Member Naeole is suffering from not being well-briefed on issues and not having all the right words on the right pieces of paper. Just as too many Members come up short in the caring department, so are others are challenged in the tedium of procedure and nuance of policy and law.

I am no big fan of Emily Naeole, but I can see why she is agonizing over the group home issue. As a former worker in the social services field, I certainly see the need for more beds for people to get help. There is a shortage, and we all suffer in the long run when such needs are not addressed. On the other hand, having worked in group home setting, I know that they can be disruptive to neighborhood life and that they can affect property values. One possible solution might be to restrict them to areas where the lot sizes and distances between homes are larger, although people in those areas would probably still complain. No easy answers.

I don't have cable and have not attended any Council meetings, so I haven't seen Ms. Naeole in action. Hunter could be right about her demeanor, though. Politicians with passion have to temper it with well-measured restraint, and showing weakness or confusion is an invitation to the sharks. Should I mention Stacy Higa at this point? Perfect example, but I don't have time to take him up right now.

Even those of us who have opposed Ms. Naeole need for her to succeed in getting Puna's needs well presented and promoted. I sincerely wish for her to get it right, and still have some hope that she might.

Emily if this is an indication of what we have in store for Puna, It stinks. Running for office on the aloha platform is quite commendable, but I don’t think you are doing your constitutes very much good. Having some backing to keep you informed as to what is going own is also very good. Knowing just what you would like to do while you are in office is much better. Having a plan for Puna to move us forward on the big scale of things is even [mo bedder sister].

So far in office you have backed one failure. That’s ok not every measure always goes the way that you want. Going to the Council meeting full of aloha and having the spirit feelings is also very good, but maybe an agenda to improve Puna might be a little better idea. Heck Emily, even your cousin said that she wanted to set a standard on Poi, at least that’s something. Just trying to react to other council members is not what we hired you for. Get a program and “get her done”. You have lots of people that would support you if you could just tell us what it is that you would like to do for Puna. My heart goes out to you because I know that you really feel for the people, but let’s get realistic about it. You need more help then you have been getting, whoever is guiding you now should be brushed aside if you want to survive in the jungle. I will still be pulling for you, but make a move.

The Lack

I am glad to join Wankine and Tom in their call for Emily's success, because that means Puna's success.