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Mayor Caldwell makes a good call
It might not clear the salt from the wound, but it should ease some of the sting.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s office said it would be sending letters to traffic court on behalf of some 65 drivers who received tickets during Tuesday’s ZipMobile debacle. The afternoon citations near Waimano Home Road were issued during a preplanned cellphone-use crackdown, before police realized drivers were gridlocked due to the breakdown that went well into the night. It’s fair to think that many of those drivers wouldn’t have reached for their phones if they’d not been unexpectedly delayed.
So let’s hope the courts agree, as the mayor’s office put it, about "the extenuating circumstances on March 31, 2015, and dismiss the citations." But remember, drivers on cellphones (you know who you are): March 31 was a rare day; distracted driving is a no-no every day.
HART director also makes a good call
Dan Grabauskas’ proposal to forgo a potential $35,000 bonus this year as executive director of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation should have been accepted with a quiet nod from the board and a whack of the gavel on Thursday.
Instead, there was actual discussion about it. Most of the seven HART board members agreed that the year of accelerating costs and a push for more tax money was a bad time to seek a little padding for the executive pay packet. However, Grabauskas is likely working around the clock just now, and we figure that he is earning his pay and bonuses approved when times were flush.
The lone dissenter, former state Sen. Robert Bunda, said HART should defend the bonus and not be "wimps." But it’s not wimpy to defend taxpayers, especially when HART is facing a $900 million cost overrun.