From: HawaiiGay1@aol.com
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 17:24:21 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Incompetence of Hawaii Attorney General. - "Now is the Time"

Aloha Folks,

This article and opinion piece was created as a response to the profoundly
negative incompetence of the Attorney General in conducting the legal
business of the State of Hawaii.  There is more than meets the eye to the
extraordinary incompetence - easy to be seen with the NAKED eye - but being
ignored by the media who benefits directly from the PR machine of the Hawaii
State Government and Bishop Estate to name just a few.

Feel free to reprint giving full and direct credit to the author:  
Willam E. Woods, MPH

Attorney General is Incompent and 
Costly to Good Government.

With the sheer determination of acting big and ignorant, Attorney General
Margery Bronster had decided to go outside common useage language to
determine that businesses that use private insurance providers such as an HMO
and so-called mutual benefit societies such as "Blue Cross" medical plans
(locally HMSA) are not required to comply with the Reciprical beneficiaries
law because she has determined them not to be private health care plans.

Always a step away from the law and logical interpretations, she has already
made press statements about the opinion she is about to issue which is
declaring what is red is blue.

Legislative law and precedence and made the clear distinction between private
and public.  Public being in the government sector and domain and private
being under non-government executive-officer control.  This does not mean
that private is unregulated or cannot have authority only in scope of
government guidelines, but merely that it is operated through
non-governmental executives and legal base.

Bronster who is charged as legal counsel for the government to follow the law
and intent of our laws is once again shrieking her duties and demonstrating
an incompetent and politically motivated legal ruse and abuse of governmental
dollars by going in this direction. 

This current legal shibai may be slight of hand redirection from three more
serious actions she and her large state resources are now involved.

1.  Same sex marriage lawsuit and AG appeal:

2.  Constitutional Convention debacle based upon AG false public education
statements (based on her issuance of erroneous opinion about voting count)
about vote counting prior to the election.

2.  The investigation by her office of Bishop Estate (Kamehameha Schools and
its trustees).

First the same-sex marriage lawsuit.

The attorney general is to uphold the constitution of the United States,
State of Hawaii and all laws within the state.  Taking the limited view of
same-sex marriage as being that of the law vs the rights of us all under the
other two constitutions, has been her perogative and that of her
predecessors.

However, she is bound by the law limiting marriage and passed by the
legislature a few years ago, which for the first time defined marriage as
only between a man and a woman and provided the legislative intent for the
passage of the law by lawmakers and Governor Waihee who signed the bill into
law.   This intent of the law is the only legal basis in which to defend the
law, because it was created with that sole intent only.

The first trial of the lawsuit before Judge Chang showed AG holding to
fighting the intent issue passed by the lawmakers.

However, Bronster has brought in one of the most homophobic legal counsels at
at $75,000 consulting fee (which I am being told has already been
dramatically increased with no actual ceiling for his billings) and has
dumped the law's intent and inserted morality, tradition, and numerous other
challenges unrelated to the law as passed.  In other words, the attorney
general has elected to supercede the law that she is to defend and to counter
the Hawaii State Constitution which she has sworn to uphold using all of our
citizens public resources.

Bronster in this and many other determinations has cost this state literally
millions of dollars by her incompetence in doing her job, misinterpreting law
and process, and in promoting cover up of misdeeds and covert relationships
of the Executive Branch with power and financial sources.

2nd Issue of Constitutional Convention.  The whole mess of the vote counting
and possible federal court forcing of a new constitutional convention ballot
rests 100% with the incompetence of Margery Bronster in operating her office
and issuing her opinion prior to the first ballot in 1996.  Her pre-ballot
opinion stated that blank votes would be not be counted as anything and only
the yes and not votes would determine the outcome of the ballot issue.  In
fact, the statement of the journal of the constitutional convention which
created the vote counting procedure were clear to say that blank votes
counted as no votes.

Thus when she opinioned (second review of the vote counting procedures
following the ballot vote and public concern about the procedure) for the
second time, that her original opinion was accurate and called for
certification of the vote results, it set off legal challenges based on
errors in her two opinions and her misleading the voters prior to the
election through voter education drive based upon her first opinion.

The State Supreme Court found that her opinions were inaccurate and had
falsely mislead the public as to how their votes would be counted.  They also
declared the vote against having a ConCon was valid, based on proper counting
of votes.

However, Bronster's misleading the public before the ballot, triggered those
who wanted a new ballot with accurate voting rules made public before the
ballot, went to federal courts to declare the ballot invalid and to have a
new ballot ordered.  Which was done.  This is where we are now.

Bronster is filing an appeal to that decision (at our cost again) to try to
prevent or delay the ballot vote on ConCon.  What do think an incompetent AG
will show as the result of that?  What do you think the bills are for this
whole mess??????

And third, the recent ordering by Governor Cayetano of AG Margery Bronster to
investigate the alleged wrong-doings of Kamehameha Schools Trustees.

Two of the trustees are (were) legislative colleagues of the Governor when he
was in the State House and Senate.  He was under Trustee Henry Peters when he
was Speaker of the House and was under Trustee Dickie Wong when he was
President of the Senate.

Only a private prosecutor and investigation will get at the reality of the
debacle everyone in Hawaii has witnessed publicly for the past eons (for me
only 27 years of fiscal abuses and conflict of interest abuses by the
trustees).   I am of the belief that the City Prosecutor and the Attorney
General should pick an independent investigator and prosecutor with
absolutely no ties for prior involvement with the trust, trustees,
Legislature, lawwork involving the trust and trustees, Governor, and the AG.

We can no longer treat the AG office with any degree of respect associated
with competence and being in the community interest.  It is clear it is being
maintained not for doing good work for the people of Hawaii but for some
other interests of her office and that of the Governor.  It is now time for
the position to be vacated and community exercise more responsibility to
assure the laws and rights of us all are the basis for its future job holder.

Do good

William E. Woods, MPH