Miulang
February 6th, 2007, 01:33 PM
Former DOT director Rod Haraga (http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=27451)is now in the spotlight for a deposition he made in Dec. about his being the head of the dept. in name only during his last year and a half of work.
The Haraga freeze-out was made public in motions filed by Pacific Wings attorney Margery Bronster late in January, but the details are in the depositions of Haraga and other Airports Division employees that were made available to The Maui News.
...State law (HRS 26-19 ) states that “the Department of Transportation shall be headed by a single executive to be known as the director of transportation.” Also by statute, only the director is authorized to sign contracts.
Haraga said he continued to sign contracts during his last year and a half but had no other operational functions. He could not, he said, get information about his divisions’ activities from his deputies.
He was left only with administrative functions, he said. Bronster’s motion in 1st Circuit Court said Haraga was “reduced to a mere figurehead
...Go! was at various times headed for the commuter terminal and the interisland terminal, although other depositions indicated that go! originally would have preferred to be in the international terminal.
Pacific Wings contends that the big interisland airlines, Aloha and Hawaiian, maneuvered to keep go! away from their Honolulu operations in the interisland terminal.
Pacific Wings President Greg Kahlstorf also says that Big Island Sen. Lorraine Inouye improperly interfered with the department’s decision-making about where to put go!
...Besides the sidelining of Haraga, which was never announced by the governor, Bronster’s motion alleges that the governor’s office “asked Mesa to pledge that it would not fly any transpacific routes (which would directly compete with Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines).”
Also, Inouye, the Big Island state senator, wrote state transportation officials to demand that Mesa be put in the commuter terminal.
“At that time, Inouye had authority over HDOT’s supplemental and budgetary and CIP (capital improvement projects) requests,” the motion says.
All of this opala is being brought up because of suits by Pacific Wings, but one has to wonder why the Gov. kept Haraga on the job for so long if she didn't think he was doing a good job.
Miulang
The Haraga freeze-out was made public in motions filed by Pacific Wings attorney Margery Bronster late in January, but the details are in the depositions of Haraga and other Airports Division employees that were made available to The Maui News.
...State law (HRS 26-19 ) states that “the Department of Transportation shall be headed by a single executive to be known as the director of transportation.” Also by statute, only the director is authorized to sign contracts.
Haraga said he continued to sign contracts during his last year and a half but had no other operational functions. He could not, he said, get information about his divisions’ activities from his deputies.
He was left only with administrative functions, he said. Bronster’s motion in 1st Circuit Court said Haraga was “reduced to a mere figurehead
...Go! was at various times headed for the commuter terminal and the interisland terminal, although other depositions indicated that go! originally would have preferred to be in the international terminal.
Pacific Wings contends that the big interisland airlines, Aloha and Hawaiian, maneuvered to keep go! away from their Honolulu operations in the interisland terminal.
Pacific Wings President Greg Kahlstorf also says that Big Island Sen. Lorraine Inouye improperly interfered with the department’s decision-making about where to put go!
...Besides the sidelining of Haraga, which was never announced by the governor, Bronster’s motion alleges that the governor’s office “asked Mesa to pledge that it would not fly any transpacific routes (which would directly compete with Hawaiian Airlines and Aloha Airlines).”
Also, Inouye, the Big Island state senator, wrote state transportation officials to demand that Mesa be put in the commuter terminal.
“At that time, Inouye had authority over HDOT’s supplemental and budgetary and CIP (capital improvement projects) requests,” the motion says.
All of this opala is being brought up because of suits by Pacific Wings, but one has to wonder why the Gov. kept Haraga on the job for so long if she didn't think he was doing a good job.
Miulang