The State Boating Division: Hopeless, and Worse
Larry Cobb, property manager of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation, has acknowledged his agency has no handle on tenant accounts. In a moment of uncustomary candor, he told the Board of Land and Natural Resources that statements weren’t issued on a regular basis, that accounts were not current, and that he had no idea what kinds of outstanding balances might be owed to the state.
Contrast that innocence, involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in known obligations, to Cobb’s devotion to detail in calculating what he says are the real costs incurred by his office in providing photocopies to members of the public. A dollar a page, Cobb says, represents only the true cost of the service and is not intended — not at all — to discourage the public from gathering information from his files.
What does it say about the efficiency of Cobb’s office that his charges for copying should be so high, relative to what other public agencies charge?
Federal courts charge 50 cents a page, as do most sister agencies within the state DLNR. Several other state agencies get by with charging 25 cents a page, while some county offices go as low as a dime. At libraries and the state Legislature, copy machines allow the public the privilege of making copies for 10 cents apiece.
Mike Wilson, Cobb’s boss as chairman of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, says he will continue to let his agencies set their own copying fees, so long as they’re reasonable, pending some guidance from the state Office of Information Practices.
One might suggest that a dollar a page isn’t reasonable, thereby pulling one of the two triggers Wilson has set for intervention.
And, in light of the virtual depopulation of the OIP, several lifetimes might pass before instruction is received from that source.
All in all, if public agencies are to behave as petulantly as Cobb’s in establishing their pricing for copies, it should prompt outrage not only from the public, but also from Wilson. That he is so slow to anger is no virtue in this case.
Unequal Treatment
The copying charges are symbolic of all that is wrong with DOBOR. In the Honokohau Harbor case, described in this and past issues of Environment Hawai`i, worrisome suggestions of favoritism emerge. Why can’t Jack Hall, holder of the Kona Fuel & Marine lease, get the state to go after Gentry Marine for its unauthorized sales of fuel? Instead, DOBOR seems intent on ousting Hall, while Cobb obligingly helped Gentry in an effort, thwarted only at the last minute, to relocate its pumps to provide even better access to the public.
In the Ke`ehi Marine case, Cobb appears to have bent over backward to avoid entering arbitration. This, he claims, is to save the state money — a claim that might be taken more seriously if Cobb had ever evinced the same dogged interest in dunning Ke`ehi Marine for payment over the several years its debt of $300,000-plus accumulated. Cobb’s sudden concern for the taxpayer over the matter of a $12,000 arbitration fee rings hollow when seen in the light of his utter disregard for the public’s purse on the more serious issue of property management.
The Land Board’s order for Cobb to submit a full accounting of its record-keeping practices and procedures is long overdue. We’ll be watching.
Mahalo
Hearty thanks to our recent donors:
Barbara Bell; Christopher Bouslog; Carl C. Christensen; Arlene Kim Ellis; Mary Evanson; Diane Faye; Andrew Fisher; Mollie Foti; Betsy Gagne; Cynee Gillette-Wenner; Susan Root Graham; David Hagino; Dana and Isaac Hall; Marion Kelly; Henry Lawrence; Amy Luersen; Francis C.H. Lum; John McLaren; Doug and Chris Meller; John and Patsy Mink; Marie Morin; Steve and Christina Olive; William W. Paty Jr.; Protect Kohanaiki Ohana; Stuart and Frances Ridgway; Robert and Ursula Retherford; Jay Scharf; Ed Stevens; Ron Walker; Rick Warshauer; Chipper Wichman; Jim and Doris Williamson.
Volume 7, Number 2 August 1996