 year.
In addition to the 2% raises, the contract includes bonuses of between $1,800 and $2,000 each year per employee, as well as an increase in raises given for reaching a certain number of years of service, known as “step movement” raises.
The new contract runs from July 1 to June 30, 2021.
The firefighters’ contract is closely watched because HFFA is the first of several government bargaining units that have contracts expiring June 30.
On Oahu, funding of the new contract is expected to be taken up by the City Council Budget Committee at its meeting at 9 a.m. Wednesday….
IM: … HELCO proposed a huge yearly capacity payment to Hu Honua combined with a low price for each unit of electricity sold in order for the biomass company to compete with the price of solar….
The Yamamoto Caliboso law firm assigned lead attorney Jennifer Lootens with assistance by attorneys Wil Yamamoto, David Morris, and Dean Yamamoto.
Lootens received her undergraduate degree at Cornell and her Doctor of Law from Tulane University Law School. She went on to serve as First Wind`s Associate General Counsel and SunEdison`s Associate General Counsel.
Yamamoto Caliboso proposed a “Lump Sum Payment” for making the sale of electricity available to the utility and a low cost for the actual sale of electricity.
This guaranteed that the solar company would receive financial compensation while giving the utility greater flexibility to choose when to acquire the power. The risk would be that ratepayers pay for electricity not used. It also made it much harder to determine what the actual wholesale cost of the electricity per kilowatt-hour of sales.
The concessions obtained for each developer were “identical or substantially similar” across the resulting PPAs, including Lump Sum Payment for Dispatchability, wholesale prices, performance ratios, liquidated damages provisions, security funds, among others.
Sellers were able to “exchange price data” through their common relationships with Caliboso Law, which resulted in near uniform negotiated terms on the PPA. This resulting uniformity is within the scope of actions addressed by the Sherman Act.
Identical or substantially identical negotiated PPA terms controlled the price of the power purchased (and therefore the rate passed onto consumers) and was a "naked restraint" of trade that is explicitly anti-competitive.
Caliboso Law’s common, coordinated knowledge of each sellers’ position enabled an illegal sharing of information and horizontal price fixing.
The Consumer Advocate`s Information Requests raised concerns about potential inappropriate collaborations between entities responding to requests for proposals (RFPs) through their common legal counsel, Yamamoto Caliboso, a limited liability law company….
One issued raised was whether the utilities followed the Competitive Bidding Framework….
In response to Consumer Advocate Information Requests. For the Maui PPAs, MECO admitted it had “several concerns” when, after the final award group was named, it learned that all developers were represented by the same attorneys….
HPR: … Two years ago, HMSA altered the way it compensates physicians, all in a bid to control rising costs and improve care. But the transition has been tough on some independent primary care doctors.
When Dr. Melanie Payanal opened her practice in Aiea four years ago, she knew it would be a challenge but she didn’t realize she’d need multiple jobs to keep her doors open.
Payment Transformation is HMSA’s effort to reduce medical expenses by capping the amount it gives primary care doctors for each patient. The program is part of a national movement to align health care costs with value instead of volume.
Doctors get an average payment of $24 per patient each month. The more patients a doctor has, the more money he or she gets.
Payanal said it’s good for medical practices with 1,500 or 2,000 patients. “But if you’re starting out with 639 patients, it’s really difficult for you to make ends meet,” she said….
Fewer visits mean lower costs, and if doctors cut costs, they can keep more of the HMSA payments. But doctors must also prove they’ve used the dollars to meet quality care goals, which can be time-consuming.
“There’s too much [of an] administrative burden, and the pay that we’re getting is too low for what’s being expected,” said Hilo primary care doctor Michelle Mitchell.
She left the Payment Transformation program after participating in a nine-month pilot project. She says she's worried the new system is driving doctors away.
“Some physicians went to a direct primary care practice instead of closing, some physicians closed, some moved to the Mainland and some like me went back to fee-for-service,” said Mitchell….
Hawaiʻi’s doctor shortage is approaching 800 – with a third of that for primary care physicians -- and the scarcity is growing….
Mugiishi said nearly all of HMSA’s primary care doctors are on Payment Transformation. They care for around 450,000 patients.
“Change is always hard and much of the change in this particular program is put on the shoulders of the physicians and their staff,” said Mugiishi.
He said HMSA is working to alleviate the administrative burden. The good news, he said, is data from the program’s first year shows improved access, quality of care, and patient satisfaction. But as far as reduced costs, he said it’s too early to tell….
CB: … At Kanuikapono Public Charter School & Learning Center in Anahola on Kauai’s east side, 32.9% of the 207 students are unvaccinated. And on the Big Island, 37.4% of the 222 students at Kona Pacific Public Charter School have not had their shots….
HNN LIST: What percentage of kids aren’t vaccinated at your child’s school?
HNN: … For homeless people incapacitated by mental illness in Hawaii, years go by and ― for many ― nothing changes.
And their families struggle to get them help, despite a law passed five years ago that was supposed to offer a way out….
Sasaki said the whole family went to see the state psychiatrist for help. That was in the 1970s.
And he had a discouraging message: “He couldn’t do anything because she was not hurting herself and she’s not hurting anybody,” Sasaki said….
So for years, without ever knowing the other existed, a sister and a psychiatrist spent decades attempting to rescue Serikaku from the symptoms of her mental illness.
Both were rendered powerless by the law….
Mental health advocates say despite changes in the law since then, that same explanation has kept Serikaku ― and others like her ― trapped on the streets….
It used to be the only way a person could be forced to take psychiatric medication in Hawaii is if they committed a crime or had a legal guardian.
But in 2014, the state Legislature passed a law called Assisted Community Treatment….
It’s estimated there are up to 600 homeless people who suffer from severe mental illness statewide….
“Right now, our laws focus more on civil rights than protecting their access to treatment,” Phillips said.
On average, it takes a year’s worth of these weekly visits to convince someone suffering from mental illness to start taking medication.
In order to the speed up the process and make any kind of noticeable difference on the streets, mental health advocates say the law needs to change.
Specifically, they say, the definition of what it means to be an imminent danger to self or others needs to be expanded.
That’s why IHS is now backing a proposal at the state Legislature that would make it legal to force treatment not just on people who pose a harm to themselves or others, but on those whose health status is so compromised that if nothing is done they are at risk of serious medical illness or death.
Phillips said the change just makes sense.
Homeless people with severe mental illness are showing up at ERs with serious wounds and rampant infections.
“We end up having to have them hospitalized or amputations because of the degree they’re decompensating in the community. This could all be avoided,” he said.
Since the Assisted Community Treatment law went into effect in 2014, it’s helped just two people a year. Green said that’s two more people a year getting key services.
Advocates also point out that the medication that’s used to treat the severely mentally ill has greatly improved from what it used to be.
A few decades ago, psychiatric medicine left many patients feeling drugged and not like themselves.
The injection is administered just once a month.
And Koyanagi said, it’s a game changer.
Ben Taparra knows that all too well. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and lived on the streets of Kapahulu for 10 years. Two and a half months after his first injection, he moved into a shelter.
He’s been living in his own apartment going on two years and has been reunited with his family.
"I want to thank the people for helping me," said Taparra.
He’s not alone. Since IHS launched it’s psychiatric street medicine program in 2017, it’s been able to treat 60 people.
So far, 40 of those have gotten into housing and the others are expected to be off the streets in the next few months.
CB: … Measures big and small died this session with little fanfare as time runs out to combat the (nonexistent) disastrous effects of a (not really) warming planet. ….
“Our bills are dying without