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House Speaker Scott Saiki is tearing up and rewriting portions of his opening-day speech at the state Legislature to urge his colleagues to focus more attention on public safety and disaster preparedness in the wake of Saturday’s missile scare.
Saiki and other lawmakers agreed there has been a surge in interest in emergency management issues after the state Saturday mistakenly issued an alert that a ballistic missile was headed for Hawaii, and Saiki said the false alarm will “make a big impact this session.” This year’s session begins Wednesday.
“The unfortunate part of it is that the Legislature should not have to be involved in administering a program, but it’s almost as if we will have to do that to the extent that we need to know exactly how this program is set up, what the standards are, what the protocols are, whether or not those are being followed, how they can be improved,” said Saiki (D, McCully-Kakaako). “It’s almost like we’ll have to be looking over the shoulders of the administration to ensure that this program is working.”
The House Public Safety Committee and the Senate Government Operations and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs committees have scheduled a hearing at the state Capitol for 10 a.m. Friday to review the circumstances surrounding the incident and the delay in calling off the false alarm.
Senate President Ron Kouchi said leadership in his chamber will meet to discuss whether anything needs to be done beyond Friday’s joint hearing.
Kouchi (D, Kauai-Niihau) said he wants to learn more about what led to the mistake before drawing too many conclusions.
“Having gone through both Hurricane Iwa and Iniki, one of the biggest challenges was incorrect information circulating in the public,” Kouchi said. “Rather than rush to judgment, we certainly need to get the facts out there.”
Saiki said he believes the Friday meeting is “just the beginning,” adding, “This will require a lot of follow-up work and investigation by the Legislature.” He said there is a need to rebuild trust in the emergency response system, and much of the focus this session should be on emergency communications.
Among other issues, Saiki wondered what role the U.S. military should play when there is a false alarm. “Overall, how can the military help us make our system more effective in a proactive way? At this point it’s all about rebuilding the system to make sure that it’s foolproof and that the public is informed and prepared,” he said.
Kouchi and Saiki said it’s premature to say whether staff resignations are in order because of the false alarm, but other legislators are calling for disciplinary action.
“There have to be consequences. The public needs to be assured that what went wrong — I know it was a mistake — but we cannot have those same people who dropped the ball on this incident still remain as government employees,” said state Sen. Glenn Wakai, chairman of the Economic Development, Tourism and Technology Committee.
“I’m not sure how far up the chain of command we should go, but definitely the person who made the double click erroneously was obviously not properly trained,” added Wakai (D, Kalihi-Salt Lake-Aliamanu). “So maybe we also need to look at what type of training was made available to that individual and hold that trainer or immediate supervisor responsible as well.”
Senate Majority Floor Leader Will Espero said the employee who caused the false alarm should be disciplined and reassigned.
“This mistake was so serious that the public demands someone be held accountable,” said Espero (D, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point). “The actual person involved needs to be reprimanded and reassigned.”
State Rep. Andria Tupola (R, Kalaeloa-Ko Olina-Maili) said she hopes someone in government takes responsibility and resigns. However, “knowing our administration, maybe somebody will get a slap on the hand, but I doubt if they’ll fire someone, and I think that is what everyone is wondering,” she said.
“I would hope that there would be some accountability,” said Tupola, who is running for governor this year. “Obviously, the mistake of pressing the button is one thing, but the mistake or the lack of 38 minutes of continued communication to correct the error is what everyone is focusing in on.”
State Rep. Matt LoPresti said his fellow lawmakers had little interest last year in his resolution urging the state to update its decades-old fallout shelter plans, and his proposal died in the Senate. He expects his colleagues will look at the issue differently now.
“It’s great to see so many people interested in this as a real topic now. It’s terrible the way that it came about, but we can’t squander this opportunity for awareness to really drive preparedness,” said LoPresti (D, Ewa Villages-Ocean Pointe-Ewa Beach).
LoPresti and his wife took shelter in the bathtub of their home with their two children, ages 8 and 4, “and I told my children to pray because as far as we knew, there was an imminent nuclear detonation forthcoming.”
“Our plan was we were going to cover them with our bodies when the flash came,” he said.
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