State gets extra time in Superferry Motion for Reconsideration

The State Supreme Court is being nice:

From:

invcondemnation

Robert Thomas

State gets extra time in Superferry recon motion:
http://www.state.hi.us/jud/opinions/sct/2009/29035ord.pdf


Aloha, Brad

Superferry Saga...week in review

There were so many rumors, reports, letters and videos out there in the media over the past week, that it was hard to keep up with all of them. This post will be a quick review of the more interesting of those:

First a letter to the editor in the Maui paper:

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Count on Harry Eager to get it wrong (Maui News 3/17). In fact, the five member Hawaii Supreme Court unanimously agreed that Act 2 is unconstitutional special legislation. All five justices also agreed that the private attorney general doctrine applied and that attorney’s fees and costs are warranted to the prevailing environmental groups.

The only dissent involved two justices who took the position that Superferry should pay the attorney’s fees and costs, while the three member majority held that both the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation and Superferry are responsible.

Jeffrey Parker

Haiku

Media rumors were reported that the Alakai might go to Guam. Was also reported that the Alakai might be sent to an Austal yard to be fitted with an onboard ramp. Media rumors were reported that the Huakai (the second vessel) might go to Malta or may be leased to the military. The NYT reported that the Huakai was completed last week. KGMB-9 reported off the record that last week HSF had begun hiring Kaua'i staff and was planning on starting service to Kaua'i again in May, before the Supreme Court decision came down.

KITV/MSNBC reported on Wed. March 18, 2009, that Senate President Colleen Hanabusa said, "'I believe the new Superferry is not going to fall within the purview of the present environmental laws.' The Senate president is also an attorney trained to find loopholes. Hanabusa pointed out another one: [she feels] there is no legal barrier to Superferry going to and from Kauai or the Big Island. The state attorney general agreed."

KGMB-9 reported on Wed. March 18, 2009, that Lingle said of the decision, "It basically concluded that the Legislature can never do anything that favors one group over another, but that's what they do everyday." And Hanabusa added, "That's more of the concern that we have as a Legislature. It goes beyond just Superferry it goes to other pieces of legislation that we've done." Never mind that that's not what the specified decision actually said.

KGMB-9 reported on Wed. March 18, 2009, with video on a press conference on Kaua'i about the Supreme Court decision. The press conference had been originally called in response to the expected speaking engagement of Fargo that had been planned for March 19, but was cancelled. [March 19 was also the day of the Act 2 Scoping Meeting on Kaua'i one year earlier and fittingly March 19 is also the anniversary of the Iraq War.] Here is the The Garden Island newspaper report on the press conference.

San Francisco Chronicle reported on Thurs. March 19, 2009, Hawaii Insider travel reporter Jeanne Cooper writes a nice recap of these events and ends the article "Superferry's Sunken Image" with the following, "While Hawaii Insider is fond of taking ferries elsewhere on this planet, her stay on Maui last week reminded her again of how precious the whales and their island waters are to the people of Hawaii and its visitors. They're certainly worth the time it would take for an environmental study to prove (or disprove) that they would not be harmed if the Superferry continued."

The Honolulu Advertiser's Lee Cataluna on Thurs. March 19, 2009, had the best mainstream media Op-Ed of the week in "Superferry didn't have to be fiasco."

The Maui Time Weekly reported on Thurs. March 19, 2009, in "Ferry Interesting," Rob Parsons (no relation) writes a post Supreme Court decision follow up to his widely read status report of the prior week. Good quotes in this one. ; )

The Honolulu Advertiser reported on Fri. March 20, 2009, in "Study Ordered as Ferry Ends," reported low ridership figures for the fall and winter and the following quote, "Brennon Morioka, the director of the state Department of Transportation, said state contractor Belt Collins 'has completed most of the work' on the $1.5 million environmental review ordered by the law the court struck down. The department will essentially start the process over under the procedural framework of state's more stringent environmental review law, known as Chapter 343, but hopes to transfer the bulk of the work already performed into the new document. Morioka said a completed environmental review could be used by Superferry or any other ferry company interested in the Islands."

Brennon Morioka and Mike Formby have agreed in e-mail that a NEW Draft EIS under Chapter 343 needs to be written and comments on it sought from the public. They did not say, though, whether the state DOT recognizes that new scoping meetings need to be held on that new Draft EIS to properly set it's new parameters.

The Got Windmills? Daily Op-Ed Tilt from Rabid Reporter Andy Parx on Fri. March 20, 2009, in USED GUIDE DOG FOR SALE writes a piece of biting satire that attracted wide attention for the best sarcasm of the week on this topic.

KITV reported on Sat. March 21, 2009, that "The new [EIS] review will take four to six months...employees said the Superferry told them Saturday it may be back in touch in two month when it knows more about the possibility of resuming service here with its second ship. The Superferry's second ship has just been completed and is sitting in Mobile."

Lastly from Disappeared News on Sun. March 22, 2009, was the following spot on comment, "In the short, erratic regulation like that demonstrated by the entire Superferry debacle only increases transaction costs making it hard to enter markets and harder to remain profitable. If we truly want to be business friendly, we need to weed out this kind of erratic, ad hoc regulation and utilize systematic policy making and planning to inform regulation. Otherwise, businesses will spend more money lobbying when they see one business getting a pass. Yet, in order to spend money you've got to have it and so this system of back scratching only helps incumbents and tends towards oligopoly and monopoly." posted by line of flight 5:22 PM HST

There you have it, the dope on this for the past week,
Aloha, Brad

Kaua'i March 18th Press Conference on Superferry Shutdown

This press conference was originally called in preparation for HSF's CEO expected speaking engagement the next day on March 19th on Kaua'i. Instead, Kaua'i citizens speak on the 3/16/09 Hawaii Supreme Court ruling declaring Act 2 unconstitutional and the effort that led up to that:

From: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=24399614112386664



Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21400600@N03/sets/72157615836711738/

At the end of the video Koohan Paik appears who co-wrote a book on this subject matter, The Superferry Chronicles: Hawaii's Uprising Against Militarism, Commercialism, and the Desecration of the Earth (Paperback). The book is a good read for those wanting to understand how events got to where they are today on this issue.

Aloha, Brad

Blast from the past...

One of my first posts on this blog and what inspired this whole research project:

Monday, October 1, 2007

Open letter to the Kauai Superferry Protestors

This is an open letter to the Superferry Protestors of Kauai.

What you have done thusfar is outstanding.

A lot of Americans have long sense lost faith in what the will of the people can accomplish, but not you on Kauai.

Linda Lingle, her minions, and the U.S. Coast Guard can do all kinds of things to try and intimidate and misuse the "law."

Ultimately, in America, the law is what the reasonable will of the people say it should be.

On Kauai, you are the people. If a 1000 or more of you show up at Nawiliwili harbor to protest (like you did to the assembly hall when Lingle came to speak to you), and the state or Coast Guard try to actually arrest 1000 of you, then we will see a sea change on this issue.

A 1000 or more people on Kauai IS THE REASONABLE WILL OF THE PEOPLE! What they espouse will become the law. If Lingle tries to contest that, what happened to the Provincial government in British Columbia on this same issue of fast ferries, will happen to Linda Lingle, her party, and any minions she tries to further in the political process.

Mauians can try to work within the court system, but Kauai, you are the REASONABLE WILL OF THE PEOPLE, you are what the law should be.

Aloha, Brad

Also, the best original series of posts from this blog were:

Justices: Please tell us how it is a "closed class of one"

'Public Need' was Never Established as Fact

The Act 2 Citations Creating a 'Closed Class of One'

Where are the Act 2 Section 4 Quarterly Reports?

The Rapid Risk Assessment Did Not Adequately Respond to the Requirements of Act 2 Section 4

Act 2: A Closed Class of One (Part 1)

Act 2: A Closed Class of One (Part 2)

Act 2: A Closed Class of One (Part 3)

Act 2: A Closed Class of One (Part 4)

How many people have actually ridden HSF and what's the trend?

And the actual Supreme Court Decision:

ACT 2 STRUCK DOWN AS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

And what another blogger astutely noticed in all of this, with my response on his blog:

GUARD DOG AND YAPPERS

Aloha, Brad

Poem from Greg Kaufman, "The Final Act"

"The Final Act"

Black robes gather.
Statements. Questions.
The opponent blathers.

Recess.
We guess.

This is how it ends.
Not with a bang or a whimper.
With fists raised and joyous laughter.

The threat retreats from hallowed seas.
Plants escape a killing bee.

A calm ascends upon the isles.
Hope returns to a wise man's wry smile.

For those who stood and held nothing back.
Stand  tall.

This will not be your final act.

Aloha,
Greg Kaufman

Act 2 Loose Ends...EIS needs to be redone

I see the spinmeisters are trying to put the word out that the EIS could be completed in "2 to 3 months." Actually, that is an Act 2 pseudo-EIS (which no longer has any legal foundation) with limited focus and no more public involvement from here on out. On a Chapter 343 EIS the public has continued involvement even on the final draft and that can be challenged. Also, a real Chapter 343 EIS on this should not be prepared by the DOT. That is a conflict of interest.

Also, Lingle says when they started drafting Act 2 they were doing the legally correct thing. Wrong. Lingle says there are a lot of small businesses dependent upon HSF, then she should list them. There are only a handful of businesses, most are not small, and they have options and are not totally dependent upon HSF. Lingle also says HSF is lower cost than it's competitors. Wrong. The airlines are now lower cost than HSF and Young Brothers is lower cost than HSF at moving cargo. So that is wrong, wrong, and wrong on Lingle's points. One of the other people in an e-mail group on this says Lingle is in a "state of denial."

One last thing. I was misquoted in the following:

Brad Parsons, a Superferry critic who splits his time between Maui and Kaua'i, said the ruling gives him "a sense of great relief and inspiration, that the Supreme Court justices did the right thing, with good reason and well-thought-out logic. ... It's like a big weight off my shoulders that there is somebody at the state that did the right thing, finally."

The quote is correct until that last sentence. I never said that last sentence. I would not view it as a weight on my shoulders only, and in addition to the State Supreme Court Justices there were a few people in the Legislature who did try to do the right thing.

Aloha, Brad

P.S. In reply to Tim Dick's comments on his Use Half blog, questioning my carbon use, I last visited Maui for a couple of days in Sept. 2008, to attend the OTF committee hearing, prior to that I was last on Maui in May 2008. I haven't been back to Maui since. Personally, I view casual interisland travel as a waste of resources and money. Rather than "using half," I have cut that back to almost nothing, something that much of HSF's expected market appears to have also done in the past 6 months or more.