HILO —A move to take
County Council budget planning
behind closed doors will
be heard today by the council
Finance Committee.
Kohala Councilman Tim
Richards wants an ad hoc
committee of four of the nine
council members to meet with
top administrators and, together,
present a budget plan the
rest of the council could discuss
and vote on.
The measure will be debated
when the committee meets
at 9 a.m. at the West Hawaii
Civic Center. The public can also
participate by videoconference
from Hilo council chambers,
the Pahoa and
Waimea council
offices, the old
Kohala courthouse
and the
Naalehu state
office building.
Richards
said he wants
to avoid a repeat of last year’s
council budget process, which
extended almost to midnight in
the final meeting as the council
grappled with raising property
taxes to pay for increased costs.
“That was a sprint from the
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get-go,” Richards told fellow
council members at a Feb. 6
meeting. “The idea is to not go
through the cycle like last year
and be more methodical about
it.”
Richards said a similar
approach is taken by the Maui
council when it works on its
budget.
The state Sunshine Law
allows a subcommittee of less
than a voting majority to meet
privately to investigate matters
and make recommendations
to the full board provided the
scope of the investigation and
scope of each member’s authority
is defined at a public meeting
of the board. The subcommittee
must present its findings at
another public meeting of the
board.
Hamakua Councilwoman
Valerie Poindexter, the chairwoman
of the council, is skeptical.
She points out that the
full council already holds
departmental budget and program
reviews in meetings. In
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Looking to go behind closed doors
RICHARDS PROPOSES AD HOC COMMITTEE OF
FOUR COUNCIL MEMBERS TO BALANCE BUDGET,
REPORT BACK FOR VOTE
BY NANCY COOK LAUER
WEST HAWAII TODAY
ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com
Lightning strikes in two places off the Kona Coast at 7:29 p.m. Sunday amid heavy rain and thunderstorms. KIRK
SHORTE, KIRK SHORTE PHOTOGRAPHY LLC/SPECIAL TO WEST HAWAII TODAY
HOME STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, DOWNED TREES REPORTED AMID STORM
KAILUA-KONA — Lora
Robertson and her husband,
Dale, were home when lightning
struck their home on Kaloko
Drive this past weekend.
“We just sat there hanging on
to each other hoping it wouldn’t
crash into the house,” Robertson
recalled Monday.
Hawaii Island was terrorized
by a thunderstorm Sunday
evening. According to the
National Weather Service,
the storm was triggered by
low-level moisture combined
with a strong upper-level disturbance
that produced widespread
slow-moving heavy rain and
thunderstorms.
A flash flood watch remained
posted through Monday
afternoon.
The lightning started hitting
Robertson’s home around 7:30
p.m. She said it hit somewhere
on the house and there was a
huge flash.
“I thought a transformer blew,
but it blew out the main breaker,”
she said. “It blew the panel
right off the main breaker.”
The lightning struck the house
several times till about 8 p.m.
The strikes blew out the
refrigerator, a brand new washing
machine, microwave, plugin
circuits and the landline.
Robertson said their computer
and TV survived because
they were connected to surge
protectors.
“We had night lights and they
blew out and shattered,” she
added.
On Monday, the couple spent
the day replacing utilities and
restoring power.
“We’ve been hit before about
10 years ago, but not this bad,”
Robertson said. “I’m thankful it
didn’t crash through the house.”
High winds also impacted
properties in West Hawaii.
Ken Love, executive director of
Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers,
has a farm in Kealakekua. He
said five shade houses came
down and a few plants were
damaged during the early morning
hours of Monday.
Later in the day, Love had
friends over helping him get the
shade houses back up.
“The framing was down and
BY TIFFANY DEMASTERS
WEST HAWAII TODAY
tdemasters@westhawaiitoday.com
Lightning
appears
to strike
the ground
near Ellison
Onizuka
Kona
International
Airport on
Sunday.
ZACHARY HART/
SPECIAL TO WEST
HAWAII TODAY
Two large
trees were
taken down
during
the heavy
rain and
thunderstorm
Sunday in the
Keopu area
of Holualoa.
FERN GAVELEK/
SPECIAL TO WEST
HAWAII TODAY
Bill targets
growing
problem of
bogus service
animals
HILO — State lawmakers
have introduced a bill
that would make it a crime
to falsely present an animal
as a service animal.
Senate Bill 2461, introduced
January 19, would
make the act of falsely
claiming an animal to be
a service animal a misdemeanor
offense, punishable
by a maximum penalty
of up to six months in jail
or up to $1,000 for the first
offense.
Senator Russell
Ruderman, D-Puna, who
spearheaded the bill, said
the measure is intended to
prevent people from abusing
the system and bringing
untrained pets into public
places, which can lead to
owners of legitimate service
animals being treated with
suspicion and annoyance.
“There are two kinds
of animals we’re talking
about,” Ruderman said.
“There are the (Americans
with Disabilities Act) service
animals. Then there
are the so-called ‘comfort
animals’ or ‘emotional support’
animals.”
Problems arise,
Ruderman said, when
people attempt to bring an
emotional support animal
— which is, in reality, a pet
with no special training at
all — into a place where it
isn’t allowed. Then, when
challenged, the owner
claims the animal is a service
animal whose presence
is necessary for the owner
to cope with a disability.
“People are cautious
about challenging people
Richards
SEE BUDGET PAGE 4A
Weather wallops West Hawaii
SEE STORM PAGE 5A
SEE BILL PAGE 7A
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