SUPERFERRY ARROGANCE & DECEIT IN THE LAND OF ALOHA
Ship Executives Reject Cooperation & Humility
Honolulu Advertiser - Friday, October 12, 2007
State Senate Democrats yesterday described the Lingle administration's draft legislation to help Hawai`i Superferry as unacceptable, which will delay a decision on whether lawmakers come back into special session to save the project.
The draft, shared with Senate Democrats in private caucus yesterday afternoon and also with House Democrats, would require the state to
perform a full environmental impact statement on $40 million in state harbor improvements for the ferry and the secondary effects of ferry service on the environment.
While the draft calls for an environmental impact statement - rather than the narrower environmental assessment required by the state
Supreme Court - Senate and House Democrats said it fails to include any conditions on ferry service to prevent whale collisions, the spread of invasive species and increased traffic at harbors....
"I don't believe the bill in its present form is something the caucus will go for," state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa said....
But, more ominously for Superferry, several senators said Superferry executives have acted with arrogance and may not deserve any help.
Superferry executives, they said, have communicated mostly through lobbyists and not done the kind of outreach that would help them
now that they are in crisis....
Thousands of people have sent e-mails to lawmakers in the past few days asking for a special session, including many who were directed
by the Superferry's Web site....
Hanabusa said the e-mails generated through Superferry have not been helpful.
She also said Superferry executives should re-evaluate how they have been approaching lawmakers and a special session.
"I will tell you one of the criticisms that people have about the Superferry, and this is something that they should take to heart, is that they have been extremely - to a certain extent - insensitive to the situation," Hanabusa said.
"They have not, as far as I know, other than through their high-priced lobbyists, even approached many of the senators or representatives who really now hold the key to whether they are going to be able to operate.
"But that's not as important as the fact of just coming to tell us what is it that they feel they need, or how do they want to assist us in the
process.
And for us, we want to know how they want to start to help mend the divisions within our community.
So those are very critical issues, and we haven't heard from them...."
"From the beginning, the Superferry has had the wrong approach to this. They have always had a problem in being forthright and talking with us straight," said state Sen. J. Kalani English.
English said Superferry executives have not approached the Senate with "aloha," humility or the spirit of cooperation.
"Every step of the way, the Senate has offered compromise," he said. "And every step of the way, they have rejected it."
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