Fred Blas Report Card

[2liveque]

So far so good?

What you all think?

Bring back Aunty? []

[Rob Tucker]

I have been happy with his votes on most issues for Puna so far. Predictions that he was a tool of others have proven false.

Moving this to the Puna Politics section.

Bring back Aunty? Aunty who?

[leilaniguy]

I've never seen Fred blocking the sidewalk in front of Cash & Carry bellowing prayers. I like Fred Better.

[Norm]

Think Fred is doing a Great Job !!!

[2liveque]

haaaaaa! How funny. Leilaniguy....you never took advantage of the guerrilla church on the sidewalk that doubled as a craft sale? haaaa.
Me thinks fred is doing a good job too. He is not a politician, so I know this job can't be easy for him.

[manu]

[:0] A bird's eye view: I witnessed Mr. Blas taking credit for cleaning an area of Pahoa while accusing the man who actually did the cleaning of loitering ... what is up with that?

I also witnessed Mr. Blas harassing a man who is not mentally with us at this time ... he threatened him with the police also accusing that man of loitering. When told the man lived in the building, Mr. Blas called him a liar ... what?

At that moment all respect I might have had left for the man flew out the window of my heart. That is no way to talk to citizens ... especially men who were born here, men of Hawaiian ancestry deserve extra respect always!

Why would Fred do that? Perhaps he knew they did not vote. Perhaps he should have noticed those around him on that Sunday morning who do vote and who talk to others that vote! Perhaps he should have noticed the shop owners present who appreciate what those two local men do for the community every day, picking up rubbish, weedeating their area and helping shop owners unload their supplies ... hmmmm

Then I looked at Fred's voting record since election ... can any one name one bill he has introduced to help Puna? How about standing up to legislation introduced to help the west side but would actually hurt our district, has anyone seen him do that?

I have seen a lot of political posturing ... I could handle that as it comes with the territory called elect me.

But out and out lies is another thing! Harassing citizens with threats of his 'power' is unacceptable. Fred, wake up, the election is long past and it is time for action!

I say Blah Blah Blas ... I won't be accepting of any of your claims for I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears exactly what you are!

None but ourselves can free our minds ~ Bob Marley

[Rene Siracusa]

Manu - I work in Pahoa and spend a lot of time there every day. For many years Fred Blas has cleaned up Pahoa, gotten the road paved and striped, new crosswalks painted, etc. He not only does it personally, but brings in community service and supervises them. I know the Hawaiian man you are referring to and have never seen him pick up a piece of trash. And he does indeed loiter and sometimes verbally molest passersby because he has mental problems. I have seen all this with my own eyes on a very regular basis. Are you judging by something you saw on one day? If so, perhaps you did not fully understand the dynamic and are just filling in the gaps yourself.

[leilaniguy]

Most of us know that man. When he's on his meds he's fine, harmless. When he's not, he can be scarey. Don't make it sound racial, madness has no race.

[JerryCarr]

Report card for Fred? Well, he has been better than Emily, especially in regard to manners. (Doesn't throw pencils, for example.) When it come to bringing Puna to a higher level of county services, though, the record is mixed.

Fred is continuing Emily's habit of paying for Puna's improvements with Geothermal Fund money rather than getting appropriations the same way other districts do. I'm sure there are some other council members who really like this habit as it leaves more money on the table for their districts. If you live in Pahoa or Hawaiian Beaches, you get the fruit of these projects such as the repaving of Kahakai and Pahoa Village Road. The rest of us . . . not so much.

From my purely parochial view, Fred's approach to HPP really needs some work. When we invited him to talk story with the HPP committee on PMAR, he mainly listened. When he was leaving, however, someone had just mentioned the effect PMAR would have on our private trunk roads. Fred's response as he left the room was, "Why don't you just give the roads to the County?" That left us all speechless. How can you represent Puna and not know that we would love to give the County the roads if they would only take them?There are other groups in HPP who also have their own issues with Fred, and I'll let them post them if they care to. I just think that Fred needs to get grounded with our issues because any likely district alignment will have HPP as over half of the district population. A smart politician would educate himself about and address the concerns of the largest community in his district. Will Fred do it? We'll see, but he hasn't impressed me too much so far.

[csgray]

Fred will have to start dealing with his constituents here in HPP before the next election. We are going to be at least half of his district once redistricting is solidified, I don't think he has enough votes in his little subdivision and Pahoa downtown to outweigh all the HPP voters he has failed to serve in any way. The handwriting was on the wall when he refused to speak at all those voters' forums during the election. Fred only serves those he is already involved with: the Pahoa merchants, his subdivision, and people he already knows. The rest of us clearly do not matter to him, but we will matter come election time.

Fred deliberately undermined any chance for HPP to work out the issues concerning getting the county to fund a park for our 10,000+ citizens, including the 2400+ kids under 18, who have no real place to recreate in our community without getting onto that death trap of a highway. He actively did this by immediately advocating diversion of the money to create a park in "his" subdivision as soon as issues cropped up that needed to be resolved. A true leader and democratic representative would have used his office to help smooth out the concerns HPP's board had about wear and tear on our roads, and the possibility Hawaii county would take the land, and then either not fund the park, or use the land for some other purpose. Instead, Fred chose to advocate once again for his little subdivision getting the benefit, just like virtually every other project he has put forth.

Emily may have been a flake at times, and severely under equipped to do the job, but she would talk to anyone who lived in Puna. Fred avoids his constituents, and rudely just walks away when a citizen politely tries to introduce themselves and talk to him when he is in public in an official capacity, such as a ribbon cutting for a project put through by his predecessor. He sure likes getting his face plastered on the front page taking credit, but does everything he can to avoid interacting with the public in those same situations. He has staff members who very effectively run interference for him so he doesn't have to answer questions, or address citizen concerns when out in public. No one in his office respond to emails sent to Fred, and neither does he. If he doesn't already know you, he doesn't want to talk to you, which is no way to be an effective public servant for district as large and varied as Puna.

I still wonder if he promised Ms. Lively a good paying job if she would just jump into the race late and ensure his victory; it still seems very fishy to me how that played out. She was running against him claiming she jumped in late because no one in the race was competent to do the job, next thing we know she is working for him. Very odd.

Carol