Keep grants-in-aid process free of political influences

The grants-in-aid Charter amendment was written to take political influence out of the decision-making process by creating a committee of Honolulu residents that would evaluate and rank all grant-in-aid applications. I support this process and believe that it is the fairest and most professional way to determine grant-in-aid allocations.

In 2012, the Honolulu City Council passed a resolution recommending an amendment to our Honolulu City Charter setting aside 0.05 percent of the city’s general funds (received mostly from property tax revenue) for grants-in-aid. Grants-in-aid are financial contributions made by the city to not-for-profit organizations that provide services to certain targeted beneficiary groups that are usually not undertaken by government. In fiscal year 2014, 0.05 percent of the city’s general funded tax revenues amounted to approximately $5.2 million.

As required by our City Charter, the people of Honolulu voted for this proposed Charter amendment, and at that time the debate centered on the need and the amount of the percentage to be set aside for grants-in-aid. At no time were representations made by then-members of the Honolulu City Council that this 0.05 percent set-aside amount was only a starting point, and that more money would be appropriated to grants-in-aid through the old piecemeal earmarks approach. Remember, the custom of loading the federal budget with earmarks by members of Congress was done away with several years ago because of backroom political gamesmanship.

In fact, I believe that if the people of the City & County of Honolulu had been told in November 2012 when they voted on this Charter amendment that it would not replace the old system, and that even more money would be going to grants-in-aid, I do not think the majority of the people would have voted for it.

To argue that the old earmarks system had to be reinstituted because of federal sequestration and federal government shutdown misleads the people. It is not a statement based on the facts at that time because the initiative led by the City Council chairman to earmark grants-in-aid outside of the Charter-approved commission process occurred prior to federal sequestration and the government shutdown.

As all the grants-in-aid commission members are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council — a political process — we instruct the members in writing that "your efforts must be free of any political influence and that your scores on the grants should reflect your sincere belief in the merits of each grant application and its compliance with Council-established priorities and criteria."

Let’s follow the grants-in-aid system proposed by the Council and voted for by the people of Honolulu. The Council’s practices years ago to award federal-funded grants as budget earmarks to not-for-profit agencies was soundly criticized by a federal agency because of the potential that such grants could be based on political influences. To go back to the old earmarks approach of awarding grants-in-aid returns more politics back into the decision-making process, and shows disrespect and disregard for the will of the people.