HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0383.052 2018-2020 Murashige, Laura
From: Gavin Key <gavinkey@live.com>
Sent: Tuesday,July 23, 2019 11:45 PM
To: Council Testimony
Cc: Eoff, Karen
Subject: Please vote against Anti-TMT Resolution
Aloha Council Members,
I am writing because I recently learned the council has taken the regrettable step of agendizing an unhelpful
resolution sponsored by Councilwoman David in support of State Senator Kahele's ludicrous request for a
moratorium on TMT construction. I strongly urge you all to vote against this resolution. If at this late hour, after
a decade of legal process and straight dealing, after millions of dollars pumped into our local schools, after
winning the trust and support of a strong majority of Hawaii residents, TMT is betrayed by this council, it will
send a catastrophically chilling message to all potential investors in this county. It will signal that they can do
everything right, prove themselves to be responsible stewards of public resources and good neighbors,
provide jobs and scholarships and community support, and still have their project scuttled at the last minute by
opponents asserting unrelated historical grievances. It will also signal to the world and our own children that
the County cares more for recrimination over past injustices than it does for its own future.
TMT has done nothing to deserve this fiasco of intransigence and indecision. They have followed the process,
been scrupulous and forthright, and have by all rights already prevailed. If we are to remain a State and County
ruled by laws, the project must be allowed to proceed without further interference from Sen. Kahele or your
august selves.
On the concerns over county spending in relation to the project recently raised by Councilman Kealii-
Kleinfelder, I would say only this: the taxpayers of Hawaii are not "paying for a project run by a foreign
company," as the councilman well knows. We are paying for the abject failure of the State and County
to enforce their own laws, resulting in further delay, further strain on the personnel and budgets of State and
County departments, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in economic losses to tourism companies, the
existing observatories and the University of Hawaii. These wounds are entirely and evidently self inflicted, and
cannot be used as evidence that the project is a drain on the State. Right now that collective dishonor rests
with our elected leaders and representatives for failing to allow progress, and with we the people for failing to
demand it.
Respectfully submitted,
Gavin Key
Kealakehe, Kailua-Kona
Comm. No. �'��
Ref. To:
1 Ref. Date JUL 3 1 2019