Cover Story continued

Senator Norman Sakamoto

May 27, 2009

Capitol Yearbook 2009

Norman Sakamoto / What was your biggest accomplishment this session- and what steps did you take to ensure it happened?
“One of the biggest accomplishments this session was that funding was included in the budget to further reduce the Repair and Maintenance backlog at our schools. The $140.5 million will allow the backlog to be reduced by $65 million since new items added annually total $75 million. In addition $30 million was include to complete classroom renovation projects for schools 25 years and older. We worked with the DOE and money committees to seek a multiyear solution to our facility woes.”

With which piece of 2009 legislation are you most proud to be affiliated and why?
“SB 1350 addresses the lack of affordable housing (both for sale and for rent) in the Kakaako area. This bill creates flexible options for developers of larger parcels. By leaving required percentages of affordable housing unchanged for smaller parcels for only five more years, a sense of urgency is created to urge owners of those parcels to act now. This action would help to stimulate our economy by creating construction jobs. Actions taken now would enable thousands of people to live in affordable units sooner. As chair of the Education and Housing Committee, I was charged with working with all parties interested in improving this bill.”

What was the biggest disappointment of the session and how might a similar disappointment be prevented in the future?

“The lingering uncertainty with the collective bargaining negotiations is troublesome. Individual employees feared losing their jobs, feared being forced to pay an additional $250 per month for health coverage, feared being furloughed and losing 10% of their income and feared losing future retirement benefits. The doomsday express seemed to be poised to run over too many people. In the future, realistic scenarios should be painted so that reasonable people can thrash over and eventually jointly agree on the best course of action for our state.”

Debating which issue turned out to be the biggest distraction from your priorities?
“The budget was the biggest challenge for the legislature this year. The attempts to pass HB444 with “no amendments” was the biggest energy sink. When proponents and opponents on an issue are able to suggest amendments, and succeed at working out differences, people feel that time was spent wisely.”

What’s one thing you wish voters better understood about you or the political process as a whole?
“Voters should know that each legislator shapes his or her decisions by depending on the people that talk to us, email us, or write us. I want reasoned conversations with pragmatic solutions to our challenges. The goal for me to have my children’s children say, ‘Hawaii is a good place to live and not Hawaii was a good place to live.’”

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This week

Fortress Oahu

With roots planted in the 1893 overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani and a presence that extends through the entire archipelago, the military’s influence in Hawaii is surpassed only by tourism. The military controls some 236,000 acres throughout the state, including 25 percent of the land mass of Oahu, and thousands of square miles of surrounding airspace and sea.

Breaking The Waves

“I’m having a hard time not swearing right now,” Spike Kane says in his UK accent, all smiles after his first surf session at the second annual Hawaii “They Will Surf Again” event hosted by the Life Rolls On Foundation (LRO). “It just feels so good to be in the water again.” Kane beams.

Greedy, Scheming Saga

Into Willie Sabel’s vast and detailed set enter a cast of rippled sweatshirts and oversized shoulder-pads, thanks to Dusty Behner’s sense of color and history, and Lisa Ponce de Leon’s especially-80s hairstyles. A few of the bunch even manage to hold-their-own against the largeness that is the setting of Dividing the Estate, the newest show to hit Manoa Valley Theatre.

Mayumi Meets Mother Earth

Mayumi Oda, an artist often dubbed the “Matisse of Japan,” is a petite woman with boundless ambitions. In the book Merciful Sea: 45 Years of Serigraphs by Mayumi Oda, meetings with intensely raw and passionate artists, including Ginsberg, Rothko and De Kooning, triggered her to reflect, “I am small.

Editor’s Note

Everything’s coming up mangoes. And last week, we joined the crowd at Foster Botanical Garden to witness the first-ever Honolulu blossoming of Amorphophallus titanium, nicknamed the “Corpse Flower” for its malodorous, fly-catching bouquet.

he’s official

Through the years there have been many mayors who’ve aspired to be governor, but for the first time in Honolulu ’s history, a former governor is running for mayor. At Honolulu Hale on Friday, May 18, as he signed the nomination paperwork making him an official candidate for the 2012 race, Cayetano told the room that, back in January, he made his decision quickly.

Rail suit hangs on

Important back stories are huddled behind last week’s Star-Advertiser headline, “Federal Judge Narrows Lawsuit on Rail.” Foremost is that the lawsuit will go forward unimpeded. The same substantive points of contention including the most important historic and cultural sites are still at issue.

wed lockdown

In announcing his support of same-sex marriage two weeks ago, President Barack Obama reinvigorated a vexed debate. Locally, the wrangle has been deadlocked following the contentious legalization of civil unions and subsequent federal court challenge in January.

outsourced LEI

Thailand grows 75 percent of the flowers used in Hawaiian-made lei, but a flooding in the country last fall destroyed 80 percent of its orchid crops, according to Summer Campos, co-founder of the Hawaiian Lei Company. Together with the graduation season and the growing popularity of lei on the mainland, “All lei prices have inflated due to the orchid shortage,” Campos says.

Bus cuts

Lynne Matusow’s letter [“Goodbye Bus, Hello Rail?” May 16] hit the nail right smack dab on the head. The rail may have its attributes but it seems the more we delve into it the bad seem to outweigh the good.

Second “city”

We have a problem with traffic congestion on the major highways leading into the city; we have the controversy over the issue of rail; and we have the concern over preserving prime agricultural lands. It would seem to me that all these issues point to one thing in one way or another and that is the development of a second city in Kapolei.

Traffic mess

Though you didn’t discuss it in the most recent issue, there was a brief mention of how long it took for the Kinau off-ramp to be completed. Ambulances [had] ALWAYS been able to take the exit BEFORE Kinau, and turn left directly into the Emergency Room.

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