Akaku Update: McLaughlin reinstated

Akaku: Maui Community Television had a long, hard summer. Throughout June, meetings were scantily attended, boycotted and cancelled. In July, the Akak¸ board fired CEO Sean McLaughlin with an 8-7 vote. On Aug. 18, chairman Myles Inokuma and board member DeGray Vanderbilt physically assaulted one another. Finally, on Aug. 26, protestors gathered to witness the station’s independent producers take power back from Inokuma and reinstate McLaughlin, who was temporarily living on O’ahu. Crowds of supporters and producers cheered the move.

Midway through the latest meeting, Inokuma and his supporters walked out in protest when other board members called the fistfight ‘inappropriate.’ The pro-McLaughlin faction then demanded an investigation of the altercation and of Inokuma’s past actions before voting to invalidate Inokuma’s vote to fire McLaughlin, along with that of Sadao Yanagi, an ex-board member and Department of Education employee.

With a quorum of eight board members remaining, Inokuma was ousted as chair by a 7-1 vote. ViceChairman Jay April and members Nancy Lee Potter, Benita Brazier, Nikhilananda, Danny Assalog, DeGray Vanderbilt and Tess Cartwright comprised the majority.

Jeff Knight, who was the sole ‘no’ vote, believed that the altercation between Vanderbilt and Inokuma was not cause enough for the chairman’s expulsion and said that the two men had reconciled their differences while urging others to do the same.

The crux of the free-speech controversy lies in the interpretation of Akak¸’s mission statement. One portion of the board claims the station funds should be allocated to public schools to fulfill a requirement to divide money between public access, education and government. Other members believe that they’ve fulfilled their civic duties already and want the focus on public access alone. Add to this the political and social motivations of the board members and you have a dramatic behind-the-scenes look at public television on Maui.

‘Remember that it is not your place as the governing board of Akak¸ to curry favor or personal benefits by offering privilege to special interests, least of all when you are asked to censor or silence the voices of our community,’ said McLaughlin in remarks to the board. ‘Akak¸ belongs to the people of Maui and Kalawao counties. We must remain focused on the mission, ‘empowering our community’s voice through access to media.”

Much of the debate centered on wealthy developers such as Everett Dowling. Ellen Levinsky of Lahaina wrote in a statement to Gov. Linda Lingle, ‘Why areÖcontractors, real estate [agents] and developers being put on the board of Akak¸?’

Three board members–Lynne Woods, former president of Maui Chamber of Commerce; Charlie Jencks, president of Maui Contractors Association and chair of Maui Chamber of Commerce; and Sadao Yanagi–were cast out for their support of what is now called ‘Everett Dowling’s Bill.’ That bill would funnel 50 percent of Akak¸’s funding to state education agencies. The legislation was contested by Akak¸, the Community Television Producers’ Association of Hawai’i, Society of Professional Journalists, Hawai’i’s League of Women Voters, Hawai’i Public Access Media and other public interest groups.

‘If Akak¸ is allowed to be run in a closed, private and exclusive manner–like the chamber of commerce or a country club–then the potential for favoritism and corruption will be unchecked. The powerful temptation to use community media to support special friends, to benefit political supporters and to trade for personal gain is just too great,’ said McLaughlin. ‘Do not be afraid of free speech,’ he urged, ‘and do not be intimidated by powerful interests that seek to control and direct our community’s voice.’

Dale Parsons, broadcast consultant for Akamai Media LLC said, ‘I think they made a terrible mistake in dismissing Sean. Sean has held the entire Akak¸ staff together for years. There are very few people who can work as well with the producers and the staff as Sean has. [As a consultant], I understand the difficulty of dealing with the talent end. Sean understood how to get those people together and get them to produce and I think you have people on the board who don’t understand that end of it and don’t appreciate [Akak¸'s purpose]. What happened here is strictly politics.’

According to Akak¸ board members, the state attorney general’s office will look into the accusations of corruption and favoritism.

Joan Rose Magee

For Djou, they’re swell tolls

Two Honolulu councilmen on opposing sides of the mass-transit debate joined this week in calling for toll bridges connecting West O’ahu and Downtown. Citing the lengthy planning and construction time involved in building what is widely expected to be a rail system, councilmen Todd Apo and Charles Djou urged the city to work with Navy officials to get a bridge system planned and built, possibly as soon as late 2008. The plan would create two additional lanes in peak-commute directions and provide an alternative to the gridlocked Moanalua Freeway.

Apo, who represents ‘Ewa and Wai’anae, has long supported mass transit and voted in favor of Bill 40, which approved an excise tax increase to fund such a system. Still, Apo is realistic about how long rail will take to build and is sensitive to the crushing traffic that plagues his constituents. ‘Even with the transit tax approved, it will take seven or eight years before anyone rides mass transit,’ he said this week. ‘Connecting ‘Ewa to Ford IslandÖcan be completed much sooner.’ While a Navy spokeswoman told the Associated Press that the proposal was ‘infeasible,’ Djou claimed to have heard differently, citing private conversations in which Navy officials expressed cautious optimism about the plan.

The idea involves the construction of two new bridges, one connecting ‘Ewa to the Waipi’o peninsula and the other spanning Pearl Harbor to Ford Island. Drivers could access Kamehameha Highway by taking the existing Ford Island exit. Navy spokeswoman Barbara Mertz cites the likely impact on the island as a serious impediment. ‘[The Navy has] responsibility for historic preservation at Ford Island, which must be taken into account.’

Navy support is plainly critical to the plan–Apo and Djou’s plan calls for the bridges to go up without the use of city funds and relies on a combination of federal highway money and defense appropriations, plus the collection of what they say could be a $2 toll. First, however, the idea must clear the City Council, where any number of monkey wrenches may loom.

Ragnar Carlson

Akamai/Lolo

And they say we’re only interested in bad news. In honor of Labor Day, it’s an all-Akamai week!

As part of what the American Red Cross is calling the largest natural disaster recovery mission in the nation’s history, the Hawai’i Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) is on its way to the Gulf Coast to assist with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The move involves some 50 doctors, nurses and paramedics, as well as mental-health workers and other support personnel. This is DMAT’s first deployment and comes on the heels of a three-day exercise held just this month.

Socially conscious entrepreneurship is the focus of a new radio program debuting this weekend on KKEA AM 1420. Through interviews with leaders of for-profit and nonprofit organizations, Greater Good Radio Hawaii aims to narrow the gap between the two. Hosts Evan and Kari Leong say they want private businesses to incorporate social missions and want to ’stimulate entrepreneurial thinking’ in nonprofits. The show launches at 10am, Saturday, Sept. 3, with guests Kent Unterman, the owner of Pictures Plus, and Adam Wong of Great Harvest Bread Company.

Honolulu councilman Rod Tam has a history of inserting himself into O’ahu’s waste management problems, and East Honolulu residents surely recall his January proposal to begin using Koko Crater as a landfill. Now, Tam wants to insert something else into the dump–Effective Microorganisms. The Honolulu Zoo has already had success using fungi and bacteria to control odor in animal populations, and Tam believes the process will work at Waimanalo Gulch just as well. The process, which is a large-scale version of composting, is being explored at landfills worldwide.

University of Hawai’i interim president David McClain has reaffirmed UH’s commitment to women’s safety, earmarking $1.4 million over the next two years for increased campus security in the wake of recent attacks on women near the university’s Manoa campus. McClain announced at a press conference that ‘UHÖmust be a rape-free zone.’ Some women’s advocates had previously suggested that McClain was not going far enough, saying the university should ‘proclaim’ a rape-free zone, but lawyers worried such a proclamation might expose UH to litigation in the event of future assaults.

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