2aHawaii
General Topics => Legal and Activism => Topic started by: aieahound on February 21, 2018, 01:07:43 AM
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Oh, and I had mentioned in some thread that there was no video available of several of the committee hearings where these legislators said, or didn't say, why they voted the way they did, nor what the intended impact of the bill was. It's a mystery unless you were there in the room. Now this (read it and weep):
http://www.civilbeat.org/2018/02/the-only-three-legislative-committees-youll-almost-never-see-on-tv/
The Only Three Legislative Committees You’ll Almost Never See On TV
Despite the difficulties of attending legislative hearings in person in Hawaii these House committee chairs have nixed televising their hearings.
The House Finance, Judiciary and Transportation committees have taken action on dozens of bills since the legislative session began in January. Just last week, the committees passed or killed measures ranging from taxing real estate investment trusts to increasing fines for campaign finance violations to cracking down on drunken driving.
But if you weren’t at their hearings, you wouldn’t have been able to see what they were doing. None of the oral testimony, none of the questions, none of the decision-making.
That’s because the chairs of these committees — Reps. Sylvia Luke, Scott Nishimoto and Henry Aquino, respectively — refuse to allow their hearings to be broadcast on public-access TV stations such as Olelo.
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“We are not stifling transparency,” said Nishimoto, who heads the Judiciary Committee, which hears hundreds of bills each session, often dealing with controversial topics.
He said he’s worried that it costs hundreds of dollars per hearing, depending on its length, to broadcast it on public-access stations. He wasn’t opposed to other committees broadcasting their hearings but said it was important to contain costs where possible."
Hundreds of dollars! Hundreds! Not thousands.
Contain costs where possible?
Yeah, let's choose the committees that are some of the most powerful and controversial to contain costs and eliminate public acces to.
Is he shitting us ?!
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“We are not stifling transparency,” said Nishimoto, who heads the Judiciary Committee, which hears hundreds of bills each session, often dealing with controversial topics.
He said he’s worried that it costs hundreds of dollars per hearing, depending on its length, to broadcast it on public-access stations. He wasn’t opposed to other committees broadcasting their hearings but said it was important to contain costs where possible."
Hundreds of dollars! Hundreds! Not thousands.
Contain costs where possible?
Yeah, let's choose the committees that are some of the most powerful and controversial to contain costs and eliminate public acces to.
Is he shitting us ?!
He's shitting on us. He knows it. And he delights in it. Because he can. :shaka:
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The mechanisms in this state are designed to make people feel politically powerless. It's democracy-colored wall paper covering up rotten good old boy networks.
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The mechanisms in this state are designed to make people feel politically powerless. It's democracy-colored wall paper covering up rotten good old boy networks.
Just in case there might be a new lurker reading out there, I will post for the umpteenth time: Hawaii has no provisions for Initiative, referendum, recall or term limits. it is the only state in the United States with no such legal possibilities for government accountability via citizen action.