Kenoi won’t get punished
Kenoi, guilty or not, here comes the good-old-boy syndrome. Let’s see now, this morning on the Honolulu news a person robbed a bank with a note and was arrested almost instantly. That person will get some time behind bars for sure. But if he pays it back, all will be forgiven.
Right?
Not!
Billy Kenoi robbed the Hawaii County Bank with a piece of plastic and paid the money back, only after he got caught! There was no intention of paying it back and he told a few lies about it. So all will be forgiven! Slap on the wrist! Just watch.
Jim Wiese
Honokaa
Give me a break, Harry
Harry Kim’s comment about the capital improvement budget passed by the county council is laughable and full of contempt. He states the amount is “frighteningly huge.” “It’s of concern.” “Whoever steps into the office, the fiscal picture is right on your back.”
How quickly Harry has forgotten about the $41 million bonds floated while he was mayor for the development of Kamakoa Nui workforce housing in Waikoloa. Those bond floats benefited 96 families with subsidized workforce housing. So, that means the county of Hawaii spent approximately $400,000 per home for the infrastructure, and site work for the homes built there. Not to mention the county getting into the spec building for the first time ever. Talk about a waste of money.
I was tasked by Mayor Kenoi to straighten out the mess created and left by the Kim administration. Believe me, it was a huge mess. But, with the help of great county staff, we took the project from the toilet to completion, during Mayor Kenoi’s terms in office.
In my opinion, the worst part was Harry Kim was complicit with UniDev, the selected builder, to have all of the homes built in Kamakoa Nui without the benefit of union labor. Some pretty elaborate nonprofit and for profit entities were set up in that process to avoid having to pay for union labor, which is the law for government projects.
So, county taxpayers, beware, because Mr. Kim speaks out of both sides of his mouth when it comes to his political benefit. And, has saddled us the county taxpayers with bond repayments that benefited a very few in the process that will take years or should I say decades to repay.
Stephen Arnett
Kealakekua