i L i n d . n e t

Guess what? When you’re looking for a realtor, dentist, plumber, contractor, electrician, or other person hold a professional or vocational license from the state, it’s extremely useful to be able to check their history of complaints. A handful of complaints can always be attributed to customers who will never be happy, while a slew of complaints is a fair warning sign.

Last year, the online complaints database maintained by the Regulated Industries Complaints Office in the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs was checked 438,486 times, and another 20,000 telephone calls regarding complaint histories were also received. Of those calls, 11,500 related to complaints about contractors.

And guess what? The Senate Committee on Judiciary and Labor (Brian Taniguchi, chair; Clayton Hee, vice-chair) has approved SB 2059 that would make all of this complaint history information secret. No more checking on your doctor for malpractice complaints, just take a chance. Testimoney in favor of secrecy was received from the Hawaii Association of Realtors and the Hawaii Dental Association, both of which can be considered active in the realm of campaign contributions and lobbying.

In 2006, the last year for which information is available online, the Assocation of Realtors spent over $144,000 through September 13, and still had nearly $300,000 ready to spend in the general election. During the same period, the Hawaii Dental Political Action Committee had made contributions totalling $36,435.69 and still had $87,684.76 in the bank.

During 2007, the Realtors also spent over $55,000 lobbying, while the dentists only spent $10,500.

As Office of Information Practices director Paul Tsukiyama testified, “it is highly questionable as to how this bill would serve anyone other than the few licensees who want to hide their complaint records from the public’s view.”

Voting for the bill in committee were Senators Taniguchi, Gabbard, Nishihara, and Slom. Hee and Kokubun were excused and not present for the vote.

With a single referral, the bill now heads for the Senate floor.

Let’s see…a reader notes that Advertiser reporter Johnny Brannon has jumped ship and taken a job on Mayor Hannemann’s staff, taking over a position formerly held by Mark Matsunaga, another Advertiser refugee, who is now public affairs officer for the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.

A little friendly advice: If a duck appears quacking happily in your front yard, don’t try to grab a camera in one hand, a bit of bread in the other, and then run down the stairs while trying to get a photo of the disappearing duck before it flees the yard. Bad things can happen. Luckily, during the fall, I instinctively protected the camera. The photo even came out! I didn’t protect myself quite as well, though. Nothing broken, just a couple of sore toes, a skinned knee, and sprained vanity. But I was proud of the protective grip on the camera through the action.

I was sorry to read of Will Butler’s death in yesterday’s Star-Bulletin.

We were mostly one step removed from Butler, having good friends who considered Will among their inner circle. But his commitment to social justice was legendary, as were his outspoken views on war and peace.

A quick trip to my photo files turned up this very typical photo of Butler at a 1971 anti-Vietnam War rally. In this picture, Butler (right), calls for Nuremberg-style “justice” for the political architects of the Vietnam War.