We’ve all had our issues with the Judiciary at times, but U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Lloyd King deserves credit for overseeing the sad end of Aloha Airlines with a righteous sense of propriety.
Last Friday, he turned down bonuses of up to $600,000 for former CEO David Banmiller and chief financial officer Jeffrey Kessler for helping to sell off what’s left of the company, which the bankruptcy trustee tried to sell as “fair.”
“I don’t think fairness is an appropriate thing to discuss unless you want to talk about fairness to people who lost their jobs on virtually no notice (and) the hardship that has been imposed upon thousands of people,” King said. “Now we have the top insiders potentially making a big score on this case. I think that’s a very ugly aspect of this motion.
“It simply looks bad when the people who are with the company can make more money when it’s going out of business than when it is a going concern. Should Mr. Banmiller and Mr. Kessler be singled out for such favorable treatment in a Chapter 7 case where the other employees of the company have come out so poorly?”"
Well said. Banmiller and Kessler are already being paid $500 an hour for their services.
This week, King at least temporarily put the brakes on the trustee’s plan to hurriedly auction off the right to pursue Aloha’s lawsuit against Mesa Air Group to one of Aloha’s creditors.
“It seems to me that this whole process is unfair because it cuts out potential bidders,” King said, telling the parties to take another week to review the deal.
The courts have the burden of not only being fair to litigants, but also giving the public at large a sense that justice is being served. King’s recent actions live up to that high standard.
Barack Obama’s win and the local political din top our weekly “flASHback” on Hawai’i’s news that amused and confused:
Obama secured the Democratic presidential nomination, and local supporters invited him home for some surf time before the national convention. He’d like to come, but he’s afraid Hillary would follow and fight him for every wave.
The Institute for Human Services will charge homeless residents $90 a month if they stay longer than three months. You know it’s a bad economy when the cost of poverty is going up.
Legislative Democrats and Gov. Linda Lingle bashed each other for withholding aid to the needy. Playing poor-mouth politics on the backs of the poor is such poor form.
House finance chairman Marcus Oshiro bemoaned lower state revenues, saying “the tough decisions just got tougher.” All we’re missing is tough decision-makers.
Property buyers, sellers and lenders were indicted for working together to carry out a scam. Maybe it’s just as well the governor and Legislature can’t work together.
Sen. Fred Hemmings says Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona will be the GOP candidate for governor in 2010 because “Duke is up to bat and he’s paid his dues.” If the senator mixes cocktails as well as metaphors, make me a frosty one with an umbrella in it.
Aiona recouped some dues he paid by charging well-wishers $100 each to celebrate his 53rd birthday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. For entertainment, the Legislature’s minuscule GOP caucus put on clown suits and showed how they can all fit in a Volkswagen.
The City Council voted to give qualified O’ahu homeowners a $100 property tax credit, half of last year’s. It’s enough to buy a nice frame for the $1 state rebate the Legislature gave us.
Mayor Mufi Hannemann was in San Francisco speaking at a transit conference. He can teach plenty on how rail transports politicians on lots of free trips to nice cities.
The bankruptcy trustee for Aloha Airlines will auction off the right to sue Mesa Air Group Inc. for running Aloha out of business, explaining “a lawsuit is no different than a propeller.” That’s true, a lawyer can sashimi you with either.
And the quote of the week …
… from Councilman Gary Okino, excusing colleague Rod Tam’s “wetbacks” slur against undocumented Mexican workers:
“I don’t think his intention was to be derogatory in any way … I think it was just ignorance.”
Martin Luther King Jr. pegged this council when he said nothing is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Hawai’i election officers couldn’t figure how to count votes and the GOP used cue cards so they wouldn’t have to. Let’s plant tongue in cheek and “flASHback” to our weekly review of the news that amused and confused:
The state has no voting machines for fall elections as a result of a dispute with vendors. Plan B is to have “Survivor” host Jeff Probst organize tribal councils in all precincts.
Sen. Sam Slom rejected Gov. Linda Lingle’s demand to apologize for calling state agency employees “morons.” To borrow from Martin Mull, they make you wonder if politics makes morons out of people or attracts people who are morons to begin with.
Republican leaders used scripts and cue cards to tell state convention delegates how to vote on the party platform. If sheep could vote in regular elections, the GOP might win a few seats in the Legislature.
Lingle said the party’s presidential nominee John McCain faces a tough campaign “because we have a candidate that actually speaks the truth.” Hmmm, the governor had an easy campaign herself in 2006. She should brief McCain on whatever it was that she spoke.
Hawai’i didn’t have the nation’s highest gasoline prices for a change, with eight states topping us. Lucky the Legislature wasn’t in session to fix the anomaly by raising our fuel taxes.
Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona signed a bill making taro Hawai’i’s state plant, correcting a legislative error that delayed the designation until 2025. Activists worried the kalo would be genetically engineered into rutabaga by then.
The city has hired more than 40 former Aloha Airlines employees. Good planning. If the council chooses magnetic levitation for the transit system, they’ll need people to fly the trains.
A taxi driver was convicted of attempted murder for running over a customer who wouldn’t tip him $2. Thank goodness bus drivers don’t expect gratuities.
Four Hawaiian royal societies said the occupation of ‘Iolani Palace grounds led by self-styled queen Mahealani Kahau isn’t pono. Sounds like a polite way of calling her a royal pain.
And finally, did you know that Joe Moore re-upped for 10 more years as news anchor at KHON2? It’s good to see an old warrior still chasing rainbows.
The quote of the week …
… from Big Island Mayor Harry Kim on the health effects of vog:
“Nobody knows the long-term effects of many, many things because it takes long-term studies to know the long-term effects of it.”
Legislators were in a frenzy this week as they faced the final crossover deadline to position bills in the House and Senate for action this year, so that’s where we’ll find most of the news that amused and confused in Hawai’i’s week that was:
The Legislature is moving an anti-nepotism bill that would make it illegal for lawmakers to hire family members for their staffs. It’s mostly for show. Families of campaign cronies get first dibs on the jobs, anyway.
A bill that refuses to die would allow corporate donations to political campaigns to increase from $1,000 to $25,000. With so many companies going out of business, legislators figure they need to squeeze more out of those that are left.
Rep. Josh Green, a doctor, backed off accusations that Judiciary Chairman Tommy Waters, a lawyer, was settling a score over medical tort reform with an ethics bill that would bar Green from working in state hospitals. Green couldn’t get anyone to believe Waters was that clever.
The House passed a new three-year prohibition against publicly urinating and defecating in downtown Honolulu. The hookers were getting tired of slipping on it in their platform heels.
Democratic legislators voted to restrict Republican Gov. Linda Lingle’s power to declare a state emergency without their approval. They started looking at her emergency powers after they ran out of regular powers to strip from her.
Lawmakers abandoned plans to deregulate the tattoo industry after opponents said unlicensed practitioners could make people sick. Sounds like another plot to keep work away from Dr. Josh Green.
An Oahu man is facing jail time for not returning a $27,904 state tax windfall. What kind of double standard is that? The Legislature isn’t even getting a wrist slap for refusing to return the $15 million-a-year windfall lawmakers are skimming from the Honolulu transit tax.
A bidding dispute over new vote-counting equipment purchased by the state is holding up planning for this year’s election. Under contingency plans, voters will make their wishes known by dropping colored pebbles into fish bowls.
The Hawai’i Tourism Authority spent $5 million on charter planes to send home visitors stranded by the Aloha and ATA shutdowns. I thought their job was bringing tourists in, not shipping them out.
And the quote of the week …
… from Aloha Airlines CEO David Banmiller at a congressional hearing:
“We still hold out hope that investors would look at resurrecting Aloha’s entire passenger operation in the future.”
He must have sniffed some of the steroids that Jose Canseco left behind.
There was little April fool’s fun in a news week heavy with the closing of Aloha Airlines and the layoffs of 1,900 of its employees just a week after the shutdown of Moloka’i Ranch. We only wish it was all a joke.
But even in the face of such dismal events, there were stories that amused and confused in Hawai’i’s week that was:
State loan guarantees intended to save Aloha Airlines may still be available to surviving interisland carriers under a bill moving in the Legislature. The money will come in handy for go! to pay the damages if it loses a lawsuit over its predatory pricing that drove Aloha out of business.
The Legislature voted to give away Hawai’i’s electoral votes to whoever wins the national popular vote for president even if the candidate was soundly rejected by local voters. So goes democracy in Hawai’i: One state, no vote.
Lawmakers won’t audit the Department of Education to find out why kids aren’t learning, but they want to audit an Arizona prison to make sure our convicts there are well-treated. I suppose that’s one way of planning for our children’s future.
The state may switch the wiring of freeway lights from copper to aluminum to discourage theft, even though aluminum produces fainter light. I don’t know about that. All those dim bulbs we installed in the Capitol haven’t worked out so well.
The mayor and members of the Honolulu City Council would get 6 percent pay raises under a new proposal being floated. There must have been a lot of inflation since they approved 4 percent raises for most city rank-and-file employees.
City transit planners want to move the UH-West O’ahu stop 1,000 feet further away from the campus to get it closer to the 10,000 homes being built at Ho’opili. From the way some City Council members screamed about it, you’d have thought their parking spaces were being moved.
Hawai’i’s congressional delegation is being criticized by a conservative group for funneling home $220.63 per resident in in “earmark” spending, second most among the states. What, they’re supposed to funnel their pork to the Red States?
A Big Island man has filed suit to stop a European particle accelerator he says could create a miniature black hole that might destroy the Earth. If that happened, it would certainly make the weakening economy seem less important.
Hawai’i hospital patients were less satisfied with their treatment than the sick in other states, according to a federal survey. And they only polled the ones who lived. Imagine how bad it would have been if the others had their say.
A Victoria’s Secret store planned for Ala Moana Center will be five times as big as the company’s lingerie boutiques on the Mainland. I’m not sure if that says more about Hawai’i women or the men who shop for them.
And the quote of the week …
… from Rev. John Allard of Faith Baptist Church, citing Proverbs 15, about a city crackdown on church signs in Kailua:
