Ruggles Excused

[terracore]

"i also dunno why so many people are down on Jen"

People are disappointed in their elected official after she abandoned them. Maybe if she came out with a public, and clear explanation, they wouldn't be "down" on her.

[Bullwinkle]

A search on the issue turned up this document

http://hawaiiankingdom.org/pdf/Dr_deZaya...5_2018.pdf

[riversnout]

It was more likely this document:

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2018/0...ent-trump/

"By letter to United States President Donald John Trump dated 5 July 2018, the Hawaiian Kingdom gave notice of claim and invoked responsibility of the United States, in accordance with Article 43, for a serious breach of an obligation to comply with international humanitarian law.”

Actions taken after the date of notice (July 5th) are, well, maybe, actionable.

[kalakoa]

breach of an obligation to comply with international humanitarian law

Trump's America doesn't recognize "international law".

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

"By letter to United States President Donald John Trump dated 5 July 2018

I think you might overemphasis the impact a letter might have on someone, who by his own admission, doesn't read.

“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.” - President Donald J. Trump, 7/25/18

[Punatic007]

Unbelievable is the amount of time they waste in our already overburdened court systems not to mention the tax money from hard working people who don't support such self-indulgent and self-serving causes. Unbelievably annoying are those living in a fantasy about the history of Hawaii. Talk about destructive behaviors, using the legal system to steal time, money and good will from ALL the citizen of Hawaii and all of America.

All history of mankind is wrought with inequities. Is Jen Ruggles really sucking up our time and money over a fantasy of what did not happen in the past? A past impossible to return to and any foolish attempt to do so would cause significant grief to her constituents?

Is this a political ruse not in support of the government that pays her that she signed onto?

[ironyak]

Corporate Counsel tried to get by with a couple sentence assurance of the solidity of Hawaii County's legal standing on issues of international law, but provided a 5 page explanation of why Ruggles could not provide a grant for a community center in Orchidland. Some interesting issues outlined in Ruggles' latest update.

https://jenruggles.com/corporation-counsel-opinion/

Personally, I like sticky widgets like Jen and Russell poking at the underbelly of business-as-usual local politics. While I think they are both sincere in their intentions, their actions often run aground of the blatant absurdities of the local government in its never ending efforts to reward itself for promising much while doing little.

[kalakoa]

sticky widgets like Jen and Russell

What we need is a Gadfly. Several, at this point. I'm tempted, but that whole "day job" thing...

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Corporate Counsel tried... a couple sentence assurance... of Hawaii County's legal standing

Offhand, two sentences does seem somewhat inadaquate. I have to click “Agree” to a 50+ page EULA before I can download one song from iTunes for $1.29.

At a White House meeting in June, President Trump reportedly told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that “I remember Pearl Harbor.”

[KeaauRich]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but if Jen doesn't feel she can fulfill her duties as a Council Member without putting herself in legal jeopardy, she should resign her position (since it's clear that the issues that put her in conflict will not be resolved anytime soon). However, if she's still cashing her paycheck from the County while maintaining her moratorium on voting, I have a problem with that. She asked the Corporate Counsel for legal reassurance that she was not liable, and the Counsel replied with a brief, but eminently clear opinion that his official opinion was that she would indeed not incur liability by performing her duties. Maybe she would have preferred an expanded treatise on the rationale for the decision, but the conclusion stated in the letter was unambiguous, and would appear to make the County liable for any action raised against her. If that's not good enough to ease her reservations, she should step down.

I understand and can sympathize with both sides of the Hawaii sovereignty issue, and I respect Jen for standing up for her beliefs. But it seems a bit hypocritical to accept a paycheck to serve as a representative of the US-recognized County Government while simultaneously refusing to undertake the main responsibilities of your job in deference to the Hawaii sovereignty concerns.