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+--- Thread: Mayor's Race 2012 (/showthread.php?tid=10841)
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Mayor's Race 2012 - JerryCarr - 10-13-2012
Billy Kenoi is in a runoff with his former boss and our previous Mayor, Harry Kim. Billy was Harry's executive assistant for years, and I find it more than interesting that Harry has decided to re-enter politics by running against his former protege'.
I like the fact that Harry does not accept large campaign donations, but his tenure as mayor saw huge increases in personnel and about a doubling of the total budget. Harry did not have to deal with the budget shortfalls that Billy has had to handle, but he does come across to me as more sincere.
Billy, for his part, comes across as a typical machine operative, with the usual union support and a lot of big off-island financial backers . . . $500,000 or thereabouts the last time I checked. He did manage to get the budget balanced, but only by putting off some pension and retire benefit contributions that will have to be made up someday. Of course compared to the budget tricks of the Federal and some State governments, Billy's pension deferral is manini.
So what do the rest of you think? I tend to favor Harry simply because I can't wrap my mind around Billy's claim that all that money donated will not affect his decisions as Mayor. The old adage of "follow the money" seems to apply yet again.
RE: Mayor's Race 2012 - kalakoa - 10-13-2012
Open question: what happend to the $56M "construction bond"?
I know of one $5.5M park project...
RE: Mayor's Race 2012 - hikatz - 10-13-2012
Harry Kim was Civil Defense Director for 24 years, he was fantastic!
When he ran for Mayor he had great ideas of the growth and changes he wanted to make.
Trouble with Hilo it is like being in a time warp, it is very difficult to implement new ideas unless it benefits someone (my opinion)
HawaiiBusiness Magazine did an in-depth piece on Harry Kim that was excellent[
]http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/Hawaii-Business/November-2007/Honest-Harry/
My vote is Harry Kim for Mayor.[
]
RE: Mayor's Race 2012 - dwedeking - 10-13-2012
I wish every politician was so frail they wouldn't do anything. Just my opinion. Since I can't get a politician that's for taking .gov out of our lives I'll vote for one that's tooooooo old to accomplish anything.
"Government is good at one thing: it knows how to break your legs, hand you a crutch, and say, 'See, if it weren’t for the government, you wouldn’t be able to walk." - Harry Browne
RE: Mayor's Race 2012 - Kapohocat - 10-14-2012
quote:
Originally posted by pahoated...
No government = anarchy
Anarchy = no roads, no schools, no teachers, no police, no hospitals, no firemen, no mail, anyway by now, you should get the picture....
In theory, yes, that would be correct but practice is a little sloppier.
In Hawaii County, specifically East Hawaii, we have government, but our roads suck, our schools are poor and below standard, we lose teachers and doctors & nurses, and they are underpaid, we do not have enough police, hospital??? fire/EMT response time? - LOL, no mail del pretty much except to POB.... We have welfare but many poor are still hungry, and without medical care.
So how is lots of government different from anarchy? is it just a few degrees? I doubt anarchy will ever reign but maybe the pendulum needs to swing back a few degrees and get rid of the top management heavy portions that just use up salary money without doing any good for anybody, especially the employees in the trenches, and the population they serve.
As an example, I would be really impressed with Billy if he started at the top down and started eliminating positions, and if technology use freed up personnel to do other things. As an example what if Bldg plans were submitted on-line and we needed only 1 front clerk instead of 3, and we could get one more plan checker instead?
RE: Mayor's Race 2012 - dwedeking - 10-14-2012
Not an anarchists, just a government minimalist. Roads, schools, mail delivery and firemen have all existed in societies without government assistance (and our track record in America isn't too good with all those items right now). Governments are by their vary nature corrupt and ever expanding. As a citizen your focus should be on retarding that corruption and growth, not looking for government to solve your every problem.
Federal government should be there to handle physical protection of the nation (not empire building), international commerce, and dealing with disputes between states. Core crime (robbery, fraud, physical harm etc) can be handled at the state level and basic commerce laws. Public services should be handled at a local level (more easy to control by voter input). Currently our system is upside down. Most money goes to the federal level and the people least connected with the community. Local leaders are just lobbyists for federal funds at the most benevolent, power-focused nepotists in the worst cases.
So while it may seem I'm against everything, I'm only against government involvement in things. Even if it's the correct thing to do, government does it inefficiently. We've introduced government involvement into every part of our lives.
And, yes I live here (Orichland) and specifically moved to Puna as it has retained some personal liberties in practice. While you can't make the government rules go away (the statist propaganda is to ingrained into the current society , if your selective on where you live and who you associate with you can avoid the enforcement of the nanny state.
"Government is good at one thing: it knows how to break your legs, hand you a crutch, and say, 'See, if it weren’t for the government, you wouldn’t be able to walk." - Harry Browne
RE: Mayor's Race 2012 - liskir - 10-14-2012
quote:
Originally posted by dwedeking
I wish every politician was so frail they wouldn't do anything. "Government is good at one thing: it knows how to break your legs, hand you a crutch, and say, 'See, if it weren’t for the government, you wouldn’t be able to walk." - Harry Browne
You've got your wish Dwedeking, U.S. politicians don't do anything, not because they're frail, but because they're bought. Appearance is deceiving, isn't it?
"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped" Dr. Ron Paul 2012
RE: Mayor's Race 2012 - opihikao - 10-25-2012
Hey, y'all, I need some input, please.
SO torn on this race, and can't decide. Almost ready to leave it blank! Ugh!
Thoughts? Advice? Theories?
Anything! Please and thank you.
[xx(]
RE: Mayor's Race 2012 - Rob Tucker - 10-25-2012
Harry Kim was mayor for eight years of good economy. He did prove he can spend money and expanded the county budget substantially. Harry won't have that opportunity again.
Harry was popular though most of his tenure. His biggest error, in my opinion, was his proposed $125m waste to energy plant (WTE)...at county expense. Dominic Yagong had a much, much better proposal for a WTE facility in which the WTE would pay the county (taxpayers). Hopefully Harry will appreciate the difference.
Harry did have some, shall I say, not community oriented department heads. Bruce McClure is a prime example.
Harry Kim was the leader in launching the community development plans (CDPs). I think he sincerely backed that effort.
Billy Kenoi has been mayor for four years of bad economic times. He has done what he feels best to deal with that. In that process he has done an excellent job of protecting the interests of the unions and contractor/vendors..... his financial supporters. In Kenoi's approach those who suffered the most are the taxpayers.
Billy Kenoi has the distinction of blowing away all records for campaign finance. Mostly from off island. Huge amounts of money.
BIlly Kenoi has quietly been unsupportive of community development planning. Lip service mostly and actively working against some efforts quietly. Large landowners have basically had the luxury of editing the community planning to suit their needs. Billy's planning department head, Bobbie Leithead -Todd, has generally been in strong support (by greasing the tracks of) big business while generally pissing on local families or charter schools trying to play by the rules. More lawyers........
Billy Kenoi's "Together We Can" has been a nice slogan but otherwise a lie. If you or your group did/does not support him in campaign he will ignore your interests at the expense of the community. Look at his campaign donor lists.... that is the CoH "in crowd".
Kenoi has been completely unsupportive of efforts to acquire long overdue access to Fuel Tax Revenue (FTR) for our roads. Puna has suffered greatly for this...but Puna lacks union sway and lacks heavy contributors for Kenoi's campaigns.
I'll go with Harry.
RE: Mayor's Race 2012 - JerryCarr - 10-25-2012
I'm voting for Harry Kim, and what few reservations I had have disappeared in the last stages of the campaign. Here are some reasons:
First and foremost, all that union and outside money Billy Kenoi has spent for a local government job is troubling. Don't think for a minute that those donations won't get some sort of return on the investment. It doesn't work that way, especially in Hawaii County. Harry Kim will not enter office indebted to anyone but the voters.
Second, there is the fact that Billy Kenoi is the annointed candidate of the "good old boy and girl" Hawaii political establishment. Late in the race he received an endorsement of Sen. Inouye, the ultimate power broker and good old boy in chief.
Third, and closely related to the second point, Billy is very ambitious for higher office. I fully believe that he will begin campaigning for either a U.S. Representative seat or some statewide office shortly after taking office for a second term as mayor. He has been groomed for this by Inouye and Company, and I think being mayor is just "doing time" to get into higher office. Harry Kim will have one focus, being the best Mayor that he can.
Fourth, as Rob notes, Billy doesn't seem to want to help communities or groups that are not in line with his support system. Here in HPP, he has been promising us bus service for nearly two and a half years. He first promised this in a public meeting in June, 2010 when his cousin Emily was trying to ge re-elected. I reminded him of this promise at a forum in the same room in July, 2012, and he had no recollection of the promise. He did dramatically get on the phone to the Transit Director on the spot and insist that she get something started right away and get back to HPP. Contact information for HPP was provided, and three months later we have not had so much as a phone call. This may sound trivial, but this matters to a community of 12,000 badly underserved citizens.
So it's really simple. Vote for the guy who is only interested in serving all the people of this island without strings attached. Vote for Harry Kim. He won't be perfect, but he's way better than the alternative.