I’ve gotten questions from readers on how to vote on City Charter ballot question No. 4, changing the way City Council pay raises are determined.
I don’t tell people how to vote, but I’ll explain how I voted and why on this amendment that’s a case of shutting the barn door after the horse escaped.
It started with Council Chair Tommy Waters and Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina muscling through shameless 64% Council pay raises to $113,304 from $68,904, recommended by a Salary Commission effectively controlled by the Council.
The amendment on the November ballot proposes to quell public outrage by tying future Council raises to what other city employees get, capped at 5%.
If this was started at the old Council pay base of $68,904, it would have been a fair solution to the perennial political hot button of fair pay for elected officials.
But the amendment locks in the excessive $113,304 as the base, and annual 5% raises over 10 years could make our part-time Council pay comparable to what U.S. senators get.
Waters, falsely claiming members are full-time workers, pushed the raises through without public hearings or a Council vote.
What’s missing from this charter amendment is language fulfilling the reneged promise of Waters and Kia‘aina to actually make Council members work full time by banning the often-lucrative outside employment they are free to engage in.
Whether the charter amendment passes or not, we’re stuck with the worst of both worlds: part-time Council members with potentially conflicting outside jobs getting full-time pay.
Some big opponents of the 64% raises support this amendment as the best way to prevent outsize future pay raises.
Others, such as the editorial board of this newspaper, reasonably argue that making Council raises a guarantee and removing the ability of members to vote them down is a poison pill too bitter to swallow.
The overall deal stinks, but I held my nose and voted “yes” to take the 5% cap as the least awful option. I’ll understand if other voters can’t hold their noses and the amendment fails.
I express my displeasure about awful options whenever Council members who approved the 64% raises appear on a ballot — Waters, Kia‘aina, Val Okimoto, Tyler Dos Santos-Tam, Matt Weyer and Calvin Say.
I SADLY NOTE the death of friend and colleague Keith Haugen, who died Sept. 26 at 84.
Haugen was a reporter and editor for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin before joining the Ariyoshi administration.
He was best known as a musician who, along with his wife, Carmen, formed the popular traditional Hawaiian music duo Keith & Carmen. They had a 30-year run in Waikiki and beyond, most notably 17 years at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. They hosted a Hawaiian music show on Hawaii Public Radio.
Haugen also loved folk music and during the post-9/11 conflicts sent me his song “Cease Fire Medley” to share on my blog. It interweaves his composition “Cease Fire” and Bobby Darin’s “Simple Song of Freedom.”
It’s more relevant than ever in these times of war, and in remembrance of Keith I’m sharing it again here: 808ne.ws/CeaseFireMedley Opens in a new tab.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
