15
« on: October 29, 2015, 07:53:26 PM »
Welcome to a rare "Double" report on the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board meeting!
For those that don't know it already, Greg Knudsen managed to fend off a challenge by Natalie Iwasa for the board chair position last month. After months of meetings with no chair, due to the fact that the entire board couldn't be gathered for a vote at the same time, neither of them could meet the 8 votes needed to win. In a great show of class, and in order to move the board forward, Ms. Iwasa rescinded her bid for the chair. GK was duly voted in after a member changed her vote. The rest abstained with the exception of Robert Clark, who voted "NO". This lead to some fireworks later on when Mr. Clark spoke to a presenter without first being recognized by the chair, who promptly derided him for his faux pa. Mr. Clark responded with "Well why don't you recognize me then, so I can continue speaking?" amongst other barbs. I think we can assume he's not a "fan" of the Knudster.
In speaking with another member of the board after the meeting I was told that the board is severely fractured along the lines of those that feel GK should be ousted, or at least step aside to allow fresh leadership and perspectives, and those that are content to putter along as they have with him as chair.
This leads me to the point where I must apologize for not posting a report here last month. I was remiss in my responsibility, and the only excuse I can offer is that I was pissed off.
You see, as I was talking to the other board member outside, GK was leaving the meeting. He gave me a tentative wave, and since I try {!} not to be an asshole, I waved back and said "Hey Greg, congratulations!" His response to me wasn't "Thank you", it was "I saw on the website {this forum} that you feel like you wasted 2 hours of your life, I guess we're not entertaining enough for you."
This irritated me on a couple of levels. first, his "monitoring" of our site, as if I should censor myself because he's "watching", second, well, his attitude was just rude, condescending, and uncalled for. When I report on these meetings I try to keep it factual and not make it personal. He chose to make it so.
Knowing how he loves to come here and read about himself, I chose not to give the prick the satisfaction.
This was selfish on my part, and unfair to you guys. I apologize. I won't let it happen again.
As for you Greg, Kiss my Fat, Hairy, White Ass. This is still the United States of America, and I'll express my opinions any time and any place I so choose. If you don't like them, don't come here and read them. If you like I'll be happy to discuss this , or any other matter, face to face. Here's an observation; If you weren't such a Dick, people would think better of you.
On to this months meeting.
One of the first things I noticed was Mr. Clark was not in his accustomed seat at the table. At first I thought he wasn't there, then I noticed him sitting in the audience.
The reason for this became clear as GK got the meeting underway. Apparently Mr. Clark, after serving on the board for 22 years and being duly reelected this year, had forgotten to formally take his oath of office. Now most people would've just mentioned to him that he needed to clear this administrative matter up, but not our friend GK. He decided to be small and mean about it, because Mr. Clark is a pain in his side, and turn it into an attempt to oust him from the board. His cited reasons for this were: Mr. Clark had performed poorly for his district, that he was an embarrassment to the board because of the issue with the marina dredging { Mr. Clark heads up the marina association } and, apparently most importantly, "He has embarrassed me in publicly and in front of this board with his outbursts and failure to follow rules and procedures." Now Paige Altonn spoke out in support of Mr. Clark by reminding Greggy that the incident with the marina dredging was caused by a subcontractor and not the actions of Mr. Clark or the marina board. since the opinion that Mr. Clark is serving his constituency poorly is just that, as he was reelected by them, we're really left with only one reason: Greg's embarrassment. Apparently the entirety of the board members present felt this wasn't sufficient reason to oust Mr. Clark. They voted against removing him. 12 to 1.
More drama occurred when Mr. Clark went up to take his oath. He stopped in front of Greggy and was apparently informing him of his displeasure with the current situation. Greggy picked up the microphone and began screeching "He's saying he's going to make me pay! That he's going to make me miserable! He's threatening me in public! I want to rescind his taking of the oath!" At this point Ms. Altonn blew up. She started yelling "That's enough Greg! You've embarrassed this man in front of this board and the entire audience! ENOUGH!"
What a little bitch. This reminded of a kid running to the teacher saying "Teacher, teacher! Johnny called me a poo face and said I smell like farts! Kick him off the playground!"
Any man actually packing a pair would've simply told him "Take your best shot." I was almost embarrassed for him, almost.
The rest of the meeting proceeded more or less normally.
The big deal was a presentation by a group calling themselves Imua Maunalua touting a supposedly "new" plan to regulate Maunalua Bay. Turns out this is just an end around by the same entities that were supporting the NOAA land grab for the feds.
This went over about as well as a fart in church as the goal of the plan seems to be to exclude people that use the bay and don't live in the HK area from having input and representation regarding decisions about said regulations. There seems to be no definitive goal other than to "make it better". Try again kids.
The presentations by representatives from the city council, the Mayor, our state Representative and Senator were very brief.
Now it was time for "Board business".
I had stepped out to have a smoke, as this portion generally goes quickly and has little to concern us, but.....
I came back to find Greg reading from a document he had prepared in response to complaints from other board members that meetings were not moving quickly enough. He expounded in excruciating detail on each and every point. Explaining the minutest detail of his thought processes as he wrote this and why he felt it would help.
In the 20 minutes he took to make his case it struck me that he had missed the point entirely.
All too often it is he, Greg Knudsen, that turns a 7 minute presentation with 10 minutes of question and answer into 45 minutes with his endless rehashing of points already made or conceded, and diatribes about how he "feels" about it. Eliminate this and almost every meeting could be shortened by an hour. Rarely do any of the other board members ask for more than clarification on specific points. Even when they do, they tend to be brief and to the point. In the end Marion Grey and Elizabeth Reilly suggested that large portions be cut out and most agreed that time limits should be "enforced". Pending rewrite it was not adopted.
Then came the portion where board members are asked or granted the opportunity to head or join certain committees. Greg decided to make this into a grudge match as well, denying Ms. Iwasa the lead on the transportation committee because he "wasn't sure she was ready for it". He also gave Ms. Reilly a hard time, telling her she "should've told me over the weekend like I asked you to" regarding her committee choice, saying "I haven't decided yet". This devolved into Greg talking into the paper in front of him, blubbering about "the rules and regulations" and how "we haven't even moved to accept these committees". At this point Ms. Reilly took the paper from Greg's hand and simply read off the committees and moved to accept them, it was immediately seconded. The minutes from the last meeting were accepted without comment { unusual } and the meeting was adjourned.
Sorry about the length of this post, and its "He said, She said nature". Hope you found it interesting.
Aloha,
Edster
Show Posts
We all know how "tough" he's been on Obama. 
