State Public Housing Authority director quits
Hawaii Public Housing Authority Executive Director Denise Wise is resigning 18 months after the board hired her to take over the agency.
Wise will leave her job effective Oct. 12, the agency’s board announced Friday.
The departure means the agency will seek its ninth executive director in 14 years.
Barbara Arashiro, agency executive assistant, will serve as interim executive director until the board appoints a successor.
The board didn’t say why Wise is stepping down or comment on the move.
In a four-paragraph announcement issued by board Chairman David Gierlach, Wise made a short statement: "It has been my honor and privilege to serve the staff of the HPHA, our residents and to call this beautiful state home."
Wise previously worked at a rural housing authority on the mainland, and was hired early last year to help HPHA manage its 84 properties with 6,200 units and address a mountain of repair backlogs in part through private-public partnerships.
The HPHA board dismissed the agency’s previous chief, Chad Taniguchi, after 21⁄2 years despite praise from the former Kauai County housing administrator received for balancing the agency’s budget, reducing unit vacancies, increasing rent collection and addressing tenants’ concerns.
HTA taps contractors for Oceania, ‘other Asia’
The Hawaii Tourism Authority named marketing contractors Friday in the "other Asia" market with AVIAREPS Marketing Garden (Holding Company) and the Oceania market with The Walshe Group Pty Ltd. Other Asia will focus on the major market areas of China, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, and Oceania on Australia and New Zealand.
Tokyo-based AVIAREPS Marketing Garden (Holding Co.) has been working with the HTA since 2004. Managing Director Michael Merner leads Hawaii Tourism Asia through offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Korea and Taiwan.
The Walshe Group Pty Ltd. has been working with the HTA since 2004. The Hawaii Tourism Oceania offices are led by Darragh Walshe in New Zealand and Helen Williams in Australia.
Both contracts begin on Jan. 1 and will end on Dec. 31, 2013. The HTA will have the option to extend the term for an additional three-year period from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 31, 2016.
The one-year contract value for the "other Asia" market is $1.95 million and for Oceania is $1.1 million.
Furloughed FAA workers to get back pay
WASHINGTON » Nearly 4,000 workers who were furloughed in a two-week partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration this summer were told Friday in an email that they will receive back pay.
The back pay will be in the workers’ Oct. 18 paychecks, according to a copy of the email from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt.
The FAA said in a separate statement that it’s using authority provided in a bill passed by Congress in August ending the shutdown to award the back pay. The agency was forced to partially shut down after Congress allowed its operating authority to lapse in a partisan dispute between the House and Senate.
The money will come from an aviation trust fund that partially funds FAA programs, including construction and safety grants to airports.
The shutdown cost FAA nearly $400 million in uncollected airline ticket taxes.
The agency also issued stop-work orders on more than 200 airport projects, putting thousands of workers in construction-related jobs out of work.
Feds back 4 more solar loans near deadline
WASHINGTON » The Energy Department on Friday approved four more solar energy loan guarantees worth nearly $5 billion, hours before a controversial loan program was set to expire.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department moved to take away control of a failed solar panel maker from its management and transfer it to a court-appointed trustee.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department completed deals on four projects, including two that were sold late this week by Arizona-based First Solar Inc., a major solar manufacturer that had been seeking three federal loan guarantees for projects in California.
The sales were announced Friday along with the loan guarantees.
The loans were approved under the same program that paid for a $528 million loan to Solyndra LLC, a now-bankrupt solar panel maker that has become a symbol for critics of the Obama administration’s green energy program.
ON THE MOVE
The Aloha Eye Clinic on Maui has appointed Dr. Arlene Ratanasit to its ophthalmology staff. She previously completed her fellowship in cornea and anterior segment surgery at Gorovoy MD Eye Specialist in Florida.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSA) has awarded $1.4 million to the University of Hawaii at Manoa Medical School. The grant will help the medical school to intervene as early as possible in children’s lives to prevent suicide. Youth that live in the rural communities in Hawaii have a higher rate of suicide attempts than in urban communities. Native Hawaiian youth have the highest suicide-related behaviors in the United States compared with other major ethnic groups in the nation.
RevoluSun has announced that Kevin Schneider will fill the role of Hawaii-based residential project manager. He was previously a solar electrician at Rising Sun Solar as well as a principal at Dawn Chorus Energy. He is also a qualified NABCEP-certified photovoltaic installer.
