Waimea
Food emergency
What’s to keep program from being abused?
I am not against helping the hungry with obtaining food they themselves cannot purchase. I am concerned with potential abuse of Hawaii County taxpayer money.
What checks and balances will you see put in place to ensure Hawaii County emergency funding money will not be abused or misappropriated?
What safeguards will be in place to ensure county food emergency funds will go to help the truly hungry and needy, and not to the just plain greedy who can afford food but will take advantage of free food intended for the truly needy?
Does The Food Basket keep track of who all receive food over-the-counter or at once-per-week provided meal? Does The Food Basket Inc. check for food stamp ID cards to make sure those receiving emergency food qualify?
The Food Basket Inc. should encourage participants to register to receive food stamps in order to make sure the federal program is being used and not just the county program and county funding.
Can the Food Basket maintain a sign-in log for all recipients to keep track of the legitimacy of participants benefitting from county emergency food funding? What is to prevent county residents, who can afford to buy their own food, from posing as the needy and fraudulently usurping county taxpayer funding?
Will there be any requirement for keeping track of where county emergency food funds are spent, such as which grocery stores will benefit from food purchases using the funds? Will the county require funds be spent at food wholesalers to maximize the amount of food purchased for public benefit. Or would it allow certain politically-connected food retailers to make a big profit?
Once any such emergency food provision program is started, what is the plan to wean the public off of “free food” when the economy improves? The moral hazard is once the program is started, how do you keep it from causing property taxes to increase in the future in order to keep the program funded into the future?
Is there anything in the Hawaii County Charter that authorizes taxpayer funds from being used in any on-going basis? Should the taxpayers have a vote on a referrendum to authorize the increase in property tax rates in order to fund any on-going emergency food program?
One last thing: The County Council must make sure emergency fund money will be available for use during any emergency situations that arrise in the future, such as providing food when the food supply might be cut off to the entire county or state, affecting all county residents.
What emergency fund money would be available in the future should a drinking water emergency arise leaving an entire community or communities without a drinking water supply and in need of bottled water for all?
What about any one of the possible natural disasters that might arise bringing about the need for massive emergency fund money that has been exhausted in this current “food emergency”?
Glenn Johansen
Waimea