Enough cannot be said about the city leadership’s and City Council’s self-administered pay raises, except to quote kamaaina and surfing great Fred Hemmings: “obscene” and “obscenity.”

There are at least three reasons why the word applies: It is obscene to line your own pockets while you are in office. It is also an obscenity to do it, in office, while raising taxes and on the backs of the public whose money it is; and it is really obscene to make lame, transparent and threadbare excuses for doing it.

Why should elected officials get to essentially raise their own pay? “Obscene” means “offensive to moral principles, repugnant.” It is truly a “mot juste” when it comes to this cabal’s behavior and selfish intentions. Instead of doing their job and finding proper and constructive use for the money, how much more convenient and undemanding to just give it to themselves.

Even if it were a dime raise, surely there are better and more critical uses for this money than to attract even great public speculation about these select individuals’ fitness for office.

James T. Nakata

Kaneohe

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