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At DHHL, it’s time for action, not navel-gazing
To our jaded journalist ears, it sounded more like a Zen gathering than a take-care-of-business directive.
"This is not a time to point fingers, but is a time for self-reflection," reflected state Sen. Brickwood Galuteria in scheduling today’s 2:45 p.m. meeting at the state Capitol to discuss the state auditor’s scalding criticism of the deficient Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
The latest report of chronic problems at DHHL, the agency charged with administering 200,000 acres set aside for agricultural and homestead use to be leased to Native Hawaiians, can be viewed at http://www.state.hi.us/auditor/Reports/2013/13-02.pdf.
But jaded though we are, journalists are also the eternal optimists. So we welcome the "greater transparency and accountability" that Galuteria says DHHL beneficiaries and the public deserve.
Just don’t forget about action and progress.
She said, she said, but what might he be saying?
Who came out of this latest brawl looking better? M.R.C. Greenwood, outgoing University of Hawaii president, or her best friend at the state Capitol, state Senate President Donna Mercado Kim?
Neither one, you say? Probably right.
In a Hawaii News Now interview Monday, Greenwood recounted a tale of being called by Kim and pressed for information on the law school application of Kim’s son, Micah Aiu. By Greenwood’s description, it was a pretty aggressive encounter, with Kim vowing to grill her before the Senate on the issue if the expected answers weren’t forthcoming soon.
Kim responded that the conversation wasn’t hostile and was just a mother-to-mother inquiry to check on whether Aiu had applied at all (he hadn’t yet done so, though now he’s accepted to start later this year).
The person who is probably most unhappy with both of these women? That most likely is prospective attorney Aiu, who surely didn’t expect all this to blow up in a televised interview.
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