Hawaii is just not the right message to send at this time."

That was the opinion of William Raggio, interim general manager of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions, when asked about whether his staff would be attending a national conference of public pension fund managers in Waikiki in May.

Raggio was quoted in an article by California Watch, funded by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Raggio said he did not "plan on approving anyone to attend this conference given its location."

The National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems will hold its annual meeting at the Hilton Hawaiian Village from May 17 to 23.

California Watch reports that four of the state’s largest retirement systems each will send up to five board members, though the city of Los Angeles and the counties of Contra Costa, Los Angeles and San Diego have systems that are short a total of $17.5 billion in promised retiree benefits.

The annual meeting is billed as the largest of its kind for public pension plans, and it offers, on its website, a "2013 Attendance Justification Tool Kit" as well as seven "Tips for Building Your Case for Attending the Annual Conference."

The organization expects 1,000 delegates to attend.

California Watch quotes a Stanford University professor of public policy as saying, "There’s no such thing as a free trip to Waikiki" — that either taxpayers or beneficiaries or both will have to pay more, given pension shortfalls and the expense of sending delegates to a Waikiki conference.

Despite the alluring promise of an image makeover that Hawaii was supposed to receive from hosting Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in 2011, it would appear that the state of Hawaii just can’t have it both ways, to be both a sun-sand-and-surf destination and a credible location for serious business meetings.

Given the isles’ appearance in travel publications’ "most romantic" "top beaches" and "best luxury hotels" lists, which are great for recreational tourism, it’s mostly monkey business that people associate with travel to Hawaii, versus actual business.

Hawaii executives who had touted APEC’s long-ranging influence were not available for comment on this column.

Twitter user Mark Katches may have nailed the issue with this comment, posted online: "Ever notice when public officials take junkets, they’re never to places like Stockton or Modesto?"

But how’s this? California Watch reported that the Waikiki conference was booked in 2006, before the recession and well before APEC. Nevertheless, the push-back, and Hawaii’s burdensome image as a fun place to travel, continue.

LOCKWOOD NAMED VP AND GM AT KHON

Longtime Hawaii television executive Kristina Lockwood has been named vice president and general manager of KHON-TV by new owner LIN Media, based in Rhode Island.

"I’m so excited to be home in Hawaii and here, back at KHON," she told the Star-Advertiser. Her Wednesday arrival at the station proved "quite the homecoming. I felt … such a warm welcome," she said.

Hawaii’s television market has always been competitive, but with the strength of the alliance of KGMB-TV and KHNL-TV — both top-four-rated stations — that competition has grown more challenging.

Lockwood acknowledges the challenge but said KHON is up to the task.

LIN Media is "committed to Hawaii and to KHON, and they’re investing a lot in terms of resources. They want to do the right thing for the station and bring back our strength in the marketplace as the No. 1 station," and her primary focus will be on "our news product," she said.

"We have a lot of talent here at KHON, and opportunities, and I feel we have the resources to compete even more than before because of LIN Media."

Lockwood returned to KHON from Cox Media, where she most recently served as director of sales for California, which included the cable company’s San Diego, Santa Barbara and Orange County operations.

Lockwood began working in Hawaii broadcast media in 1992 and served in various capacities at KGMB, KITV and KHON, including as national sales manager at the former KHON-KGMB duopoly, and general sales manager at KGMB. Then, in 2007, she left Hawaii for the Cox Media job.

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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.