Fukunaga ought to be thanked

Joli Tokusato’s letter criticizing City Councilmember Carol Fukunaga’s effort to obtain the public disclosure of the Corporation Counsel’s legal opinion on Bill 16 fails to appreciate the extraordinary significance of what took place ("Publicize Council’s advice from counsel," Star-Advertiser, Oct. 16).

Rather than criticizing Fukunaga, Tokusato should be grateful for her effort to increase openness in city government.

Fukunaga was able to convince the Council to break from the past practice of keeping legal opinions hidden from public scrutiny.

The release of the legal opinion on Bill 16 revealed serious flaws in the bill, and I applaud Fukunaga’s work in clarifying all the factors that weighed into the decision-making process.

Regarding the time needed to change established practice, it took hard work to change entrenched behavior because this kind of disclosure has never been attempted before.

I know that Carol Fukunaga always keeps the public interest in mind in all her actions.

Richard Port
Former chairman, Democratic Party of Hawaii Ala Moana

Not voting at all is best choice

How can the Star-Advertiser delude itself into making a political endorsement?

How about endorsing the painful truth instead?

That is, the best choice is to elect not to vote.

Given that candidates for governor and Congress are already long-term Hawaii politicians, isn’t it obvious that if they could fix anything, they would have done so already?

Charles Kerr
Kalama Valley

Friday furloughs were HSTA idea

The National Education Association ads haranguing gubernatorial candidate James "Duke" Aiona for the student furloughs under then-Gov. Linda Lingle are rich indeed.

The truth is that Lingle reduced educational funding when cuts became necessary in order to keep the state budget balanced — a constitutional requirement.

This resulted in a proposal to reduce teacher pay by about 5 percent. Wil Okabe, as head of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, lamented how unfair this was to his members, regardless of the fairness to Hawaii overall.

He insisted that if his members got paid less, they would work less, even if the pay was made up later. Thus the furlough idea was hatched.

HSTA didn’t think Lingle would agree because the political optics were so bad, but, while publicly expressing her distaste about it, she accepted furloughs as the best of bad options.

Unfortunately, only those who stay informed will realize what a joke this is.

Jim Wolery
Kaneohe

Vote for people, not their parties

With the upcoming elections, I would like to remind the voters of Hawaii to please vote for the individual that is running and not the party.

They should vote for whom they think will be best for themselves, Hawaii and our country.

Forget their party affiliations. Pulling the party ticket has gotten us into the mess that we’re in today at both the state and federal levels. The majority ofourincumbents have served only themselves and not their constituents.

Our president ran on the platform of hope and change. Well, the time has finally come for change, and I can onlyhope that it will be in this election.

Fred Remington
Kapolei

Hurricane fund was a disaster

The Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund was founded in 1993 shortly after Hurricane Iniki caused a great amount of damage here.

The Legislature established the fund and required all homeowners to contribute to it in case of another disaster.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie in 2011 used the fund’s entire $132 million to balance the state budget.

That was the beginning of legalized gambling in Hawaii.

Kent Davenport
Kahala

Tuition always free in Germany

I completely agree with Francis Nakamoto’s views about the scandal of the U.S. releasing its children with mountains of debt into their professional adulthood ("Don’t charge people for going to college," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Oct. 14).

He quotes the average debt of $29,000 for undergraduates.

This could easily be doubled for a master’s degree, tripled for a Ph.D., and quadrupled for law and other professional degrees.

However, he is wrong when he writes that Germany recently abolished tuition. Like most continental European countries, Germany never charged tuition in the first place.

Education, from elementary school to the university level, has always been considered a public good and should therefore be financed out of the public fund.

Manfred Henningsen
Professor of political science, UH-Manoa

Yield signs yield honest behavior

I walk around different parts of Ewa Beach four or five times a week and observe vehicle operators while I walk.

I also drive around many parts of Oahu.

While walking and driving, I have noted a great deal of ignorance of traffic laws, or maybe people don’t care about traffic laws. I think that a large percentage of Oahu residents and visitors to Oahu are basically honest people.

However,I’ve noticed that almost 100 percent of drivers do not stop fully at stop signs, unless there are people in the crosswalk or a vehicle is crossing in the intersection.

I make complete full stops at every intersection where the stop sign is present. I think it aggravates the drivers behind me.

In order to keep our honest folks honest, I propose that the city and the state remove all stop signs and replacethem with yield signs. That way, without changing anyone’s driving habits, we would make them all more honest.

Joel Maimon
Ewa Beach

Delaying tactics hurt HPD image

Over the last three weeks we have seen, almost daily, a video clip showing the apparent beating of a woman by an off-duty Honolulu police officer. Only considerably later was additional footage released.

To casual observers, that clip and the lack of official action by police responding to the incident are enough to convince them of inexcusable collusion in the Honolulu Police Department.

This is a matter that should have been handled within two days.

The delaying tactics by all levels of police, including the chief, make it appear HPD is protecting one of its own.

Whatever the final outcome, this incident has dealt yet another blow to public confidence in the integrity of our police force.

Paul Tyksinski
Kailua