Ticket leaves bad taste after event
My friend’s car and hundreds of others were ticketed Tuesday night at the Fourth of July parade. We were parked in a lot that we have parked in for every parade for the past 10 years. There are no new signs and no paying station, yet somehow Diamond Parking feels it can issue tickets to hundreds of cars without warning or the proper signage.
With more than 200 tickets issued at $40 a pop, Diamond, who I suspect did this to more parking lots as well, stands to make $8,000 in one night from a lot that they don’t even rent space out for. The parking lot in question services a building that has a few business but all of them were closed at the time. The parade started at 6:30 p.m. We arrived at 6:20 p.m. and departed at 7:40 p.m.
The out of state parking service is located in Seattle but operates across many states and has had issues with its questionable ticketing procedure in all of them. This type of business practice is a great example of the old saying, “give them an inch and they will take a mile.”
The question we have to ask is, who in our state government is going to stop companies from running this type of scam and fleecing money from the hardworking citizens of Hawaii? I suspect we will continue to see our local business outbid by these large mainland companies, and despite living in a small close-knit community, we will see our access to its amenities and beauty auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Duke Kell
Kailua-Kona
Water blame sometimes misdirected
It is not surprising that residents of North Kona are distressed about the possibility of an interruption to our water supply. But the steady stream of complaints aimed at Mayor Harry Kim seems to be misplaced.
Although Mayor Kim would probably accept responsibility for anything that happens on his watch, the fact is that the County Charter sets up the Department of Water Supply as a “semi-autonomous department,” meaning that it is not managed, controlled or operated by the mayor, but rather by a nine-member citizen board.
Now, it is true that those board members are nominated by a mayor for confirmation by the County Council. But because Mayor Kim has been in office only seven months, I suspect that most or all of the present board members are not even his appointees.
Andy Levin
Kailua-Kona