{"id":9274,"date":"2016-09-30T23:57:40","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T23:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=9274"},"modified":"2018-06-14T23:04:05","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T23:04:05","slug":"new-noteworthy-westpacs-missing-fad-leithead-todd-remand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=9274","title":{"rendered":"New & Noteworthy: Wespac’s Missing FAD, Leithead-Todd Remand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wespac\u2019s Missing FAD: <\/b>When the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council met in Guam last June, there was a lively discussion about the dearth of fish-aggregating devices (FADs) in waters around the island. The Guam Department of Agriculture and Wildlife said it was doing all it could to deploy new FADs, but the expense of getting them into the water \u2013 about $20,000 per FAD \u2013 was a high hurdle.<\/p>\n

Just one vendor was competent to deploy the buoys, Jamie Bass, in charge of the department\u2019s FAD program, told outraged council members.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are outrageous prices,\u201d said McGrew Rice, a council member from Hawai`i. \u201cSeems like the vendor has you guys bent over.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it happens, two years ago, the council itself reimbursed the Guam Fishermen\u2019s Cooperative Association $24,500 for a barge, trailer, tow gear, and other materials to be used to deploy FADs. At the same time, it paid the co-op $19,500 for a buoy, rope, chain, metal fittings, and navigation supplies needed to outfit a FAD.<\/p>\n

The permit for the FAD, required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was issued to Mrs. Rose B. Simonds (better known as Kitty, executive director of Wespac) in May of 2014.<\/p>\n

Three months later, on August 25, 2014, invoices for the barge and FAD gear, totaling $44,000, were submitted by Manuel P. \u201cManny\u201d Duenas II, president of the co-op \u2013 and also at the time a member of the council. Wespac\u2019s check covering those invoices was signed just four days later, on August 29.<\/p>\n

That FAD has never been deployed nor has the barge to deploy it been used.<\/p>\n

Environment Hawai`i <\/i>questioned Simonds about the FAD.<\/p>\n

She responded: \u201c[T]he project has been delayed due to the health of Manny Duenas, president of the Guam Fishermen\u2019s Cooperative Association. Mr. Duenas is still recovering from a life-threatening, debilitating health condition that required him to be hospitalized off-island for over a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Duenas\u2019 health is improving, and we are hopeful for a full recovery. We anticipate the deployment of the Guam Community FAD within the next 12 months. The barge will be used to deploy future Community FADs and FADs deployed by the Guam Department of Agriculture, as appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"image1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Caption: A Wespac \u201ccommunity FAD\u201d (Credit: Eric Kingma, Wespac)<\/p>\n

Leithead-Todd Case Remanded: <\/b>The Intermediate Court of Appeals has remanded to the 3rd<\/sup> Circuit Court a case challenging the qualifications of the director of the Hawai`i County Department of Environmental Management (DEM).<\/p>\n

Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd \u2013 whose resume includes stints at various times as County Council member, staff attorney with the county\u2019s Corporation Counsel, county legislative auditor, and director of the Planning Department \u2013 was appointed to head the DEM in July 2013. She had held the same position in the administration of former Mayor Harry Kim, starting in 2007, but in 2010 the county charter was amended to require persons holding the DEM directorship have \u201ca minimum of five years administrative experience in a related field and an engineering degree or a degree in a related field.\u201d Leithead-Todd has a degree in English and a law degree.<\/p>\n

Then-Council member Brenda Ford, who had voted against confirming Leithead-Todd, challenged her appointment in a quo warranto<\/i> action in 3rd<\/sup> Circuit Court.<\/p>\n

In May 2015, the lower court determined that the burden of proving that Leithead-Todd was not qualified fell on Ford, who had not met that burden.<\/p>\n

Ford appealed. On September 8, the appellate court vacated the lower court ruling: \u201cIt is not Ford\u2019s burden \u2026 to prove that Leithead-Todd is not qualified for the office she holds. \u2026 Instead, it is Leithead-Todd\u2019s burden to prove that she is qualified for the office she holds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leithead-Todd told Environment Hawai`i <\/i>that she was pleased with the ICA decision. \u201cIt\u2019s consistent with the basic premise that we took when we were appointed,\u201d she said. The ICA remanded the issue to the lower court, she continued, to determine whether her law degree and associated experience counts as a \u201crelated field,\u201d in the language of the charter \u2013 related, that is, to the duties of the department director rather than related to engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause this is a heavily regulated field, complying with the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Health \u2013 basically, state and federal laws, rules, and regulations,\u201d the county administration and the council majority supported her appointment, she said. \u201cSo much is involved in getting the necessary permits that having a legal background is in fact a very good degree for this department.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wespac’s Missing FAD: When the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council met in Guam last June, there was a lively discussion about the dearth of fish-aggregating devices (FADs) in waters around the island. The Guam Department of Agriculture and Wildlife said … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-9274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-october-2016","tag-patricia-tummons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}