Letters | 5-12-15

Two counties? We were outnumbered

If the only thing that Charles Lipps can say good about our mayor is that he has stopped the cries for dividing our county in half, then that is not an accomplishment. Those of us on the west side of the county realized when we are outnumbered 2 to 1 by those on the east side, that we have no chance to divide the county in half. The west side of the county provides the vast majority of the income for our county and only gets a very small minority of the money in return for our improvements to roads and the rest of our infrastructure. Compare the roads in Hilo to the roads in Kona.

As long as we have politicians that say “vote for me” and I’ll take from the west and give to the east, we on the west side have no chance of getting a fair return on our tax dollars. We are outnumbered 2 to 1 at the voting booth.

Now as far as our mayor’s “mistakes” go — I would call it immoral stupidity.

How can Mr. Lipps us the word “mistake?” Billy Kenoi didn’t drop out of school in the first grade. He is a stupid attorney with poor judgment and no morals. “Our mayor” used our money for his personal pleasure, enjoyment and to purchase personal items for himself.

He spent tens of thousands of dollars of our money in violation of the state and/or county rules, regulations and/or laws. He did this dozens of times over the years and did not attempt to reimburse the taxpayers until he was caught. This was no mistake.

If I rob a bank and if I get caught years later and claim it was a mistake and pay back the money, will you still like me?

The only reason that any of “our mayor’s” actions were revealed was because of the persistence of West Hawaii Today newspaper.

This brings up one more question, who is responsible for assuring the taxpayers that our money is spent morally in accordance with the rules and laws of our county and state? Could it be someone who was appointed by our mayor. If any rules or laws are broken, who is responsible for prosecuting the violator? Could it be someone who was appointed by the “mayor?” We need these two people to be elected by the taxpayers, not appointed. Then these people will be beholding to the taxpayers not to the person who appointed them. If we think they are not doing there job, they will probably be exposed by their opponent in the next election and we can vote them out of office. The taxpayers deserve oversight.

Thanks again to West Hawaii Today for exposing our “mayor’s” behavior.

Tom Madson

Kona

Dispensary bill not perfect, but it’s something

Members of the Big Island Chapter, Americans for Safe Access have mixed feelings about the medical marijuana dispensary bill’s passage. Many patients are happy that we will finally have dispensaries. But most don’t like the way it’ll be set up.

For example, legislators allowed for far too few dispensaries, necessitating them to be very large. Most likely the money to fund these giants will come from states where medical and legal pot are well established and the money is there to invest. Local investors will be eliminated with a $75,000 licensing fee.

Another drawback, dispensaries will be the only ones allowed to grow in huge production facilities (3,000 plants) giving a monopoly for growing, manufacturing and retail sales (all under one roof) to only a few companies. Licensed small growers will not be allowed to sell to dispensaries. Bummer.

Additionally, corporation monopolies will charge high prices placing profits before patients resulting in patients continuing to buy from the black market.

Still more hardships for patients is that caregivers who currently provide lower cost legal medicine will be phased out of the program when it starts. Patients cut off from their caregiver’s supply and unable to afford dispensary prices will seek out the black market.

These no sense consequences were not intended from this bill. Bottom line: Legislators failed in doing it right for patients. We’ll try to untangle it during next year’s session.

For now we are content to get the ball rolling as we may not have another chance to pass a dispensary bill during next session given the immense amount of work that went into this one.

We thank the Legislature for its efforts. Were it not for their leaders, we came extremely close to not having a dispensary bill. Reps. Della Au Bellati and Joy San Buenaventura deserve huge credit for keeping the bill alive. Mahalo nui loa.

Andrea Tischler

Chairwoman, Big Island Chapter, Americans for Safe Access

Hilo

Requirements for dispensaries questionable

It is good that the Legislature has recognized the need for marijuana dispensaries.

On the other hand, the financial and residency requirements seem to be designed to fit specific individuals who are not named directly, a common legislative tactic. For example, they must belong-term residents with well over $1 million in cash. It makes me suspect that the qualified applicants will have names we recognize from our history books. The ones who came to do goodand did right well.

Ken Obenski

Kaohe, South Kona