Honolulu Star-Bulletin from Honolulu, Hawaii • 3

SENATOR SEES NO CONFLICT IN BRONSTER VOTE, A-4 POLICEFIRE, A-5 t'' i City Desk: E-mail: citydesk( 5tarbulletin.c0m Honolulu Star-Bulletin Wednesday, April 21, 1999 A-3 Section 8 tenants warned, reassure Some property owners appear to be laying the groundwork to break free of rent-cap restrictions X.J Newswatch AAA Halawa inmate's death being investigated The Department of Public Safety is conducting an internal investigation into last December's death of Halawa prison inmate Keane Toguchi. The investigation is based on a medical examiner's ruling that Toguchi died from an overdose of the prescription drug Zoloft and Benadryl, an over-the-counter antihistamine, said acting Public Safety Director Ted Sakai. "Our original investigation (into physical abuse) found no wrongdoing," Sakai said. "Based on the medical examiner's determination of the cause of death, we're investigating what the prescription was for, when he got it and how much he was using." Both drugs can be dispensed at the prison, Sakai said. Sport fishing programs getting less in fiscal 'S3 About $31.7 million in U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service funds will go in fiscal 1999 to sport fishing programs in the six-state Pacific region, a 22 percent drop from the year before. The same percentage drop is reflected nationwide and is attributed to an accounti ng change called for by a 1998 congressional mandate. The money comes from hunters, anglers and boaters who pay special excise taxes OD equipment and boating fuels. Funds are being stretched to cover boating safety programs for both 1998 and 1999. the Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance and the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii at a news conference yesterday as two buildings at risk of losing Section 8 status because of recent actions by their landowners.

"The plan is not to displace anybody," said Peter Purtell, regional property supervisor for HAPI Management, which manages the 380-unit Maunakea Tower in Chinatown. A 20-year agreement that requires the landowner to keep the units at no more than $542 a month is being canceled in August, Purtell said. But most of the tenants in the building will be eligible for individual Section 8 vouchers, allowing them to continue paying no more than 30 percent of their income in rent, with the rest of the tab picked up through federal housing assistance, he said. aware that changes to their buildings' policies could leave them displaced. "It's very important to make people aware of the situation, not only the residents but the agencies and government officials, so they can be prepared to deal with the potential problems," Flores said.

Section 8 programs of the 1970s were attractive to developers because they offered incentives such as low-cost loans and rental subsidies. Today, at least some property owners are paying off their loans at an optional, accelerated rate break free of rent-cap restrictions. "There are still a lot of unanswered questions," said Hasegawa, whose agency believes that as many as 2,000 of 3,274 units statewide could be eliminated from Section 8 rolls. U.S. Housing and Urban Development official Michael Flores said Maunakea Tower owner THC-Ginza Joint Venture is expected to apply for state housing tax credits as it refinances and refurbishes the project That should place a ceiling on the maximum amount tenants would have to pay at $863 the HUD-published fair market rent for Oahu in 1999 even if they are not eligible for Section 8 assistance, Flores said.

Norman Shigemura of Loyalty Enterprises, property manager of the 99-unit McCully Circle, said owner Frederic Chun has no intention of ending its project-wide Section 8 assistance agreement with HUD. Shigemura said he and Chun never even discussed the idea of converting the building to market units. Kathleen Hasegawa, executive director of the Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance, said residents of both Maunakea Tower and McCully Circle still need to be watchful despite the assurances of Purtell and Shigemura. Hasegawa said Maunakea Tower residents don't know how much either their vouchers or rents will be under the new setup. She also questions why Maunakea Tower's owner has filed incorporation papers allowing the building to become a condominium.

Hasegawa also noted that McCully Circle's owner has paid off its mortgage to HUD, while Maunakea Tower's owner is in the process of doing so. Such moves call into question the long-term motives of the landowners, she said. Affordable-housing proponents and Flores believe tenants from all Section 8 projects need to be By Gordon Y.K. Pang Star-Bulletin Management companies of the Maunakea Tower and McCully Circle apartments say they have no intention of getting rid of their Section 8 tenants. Affordable housing advocates, however, still are warning residents of other apartments that Changes in the Section 8-subsi-dized status of their buildings may mean higher rents or the sale of the units, which could leave them jpn the street The Maunakea Tower and McCully Circle were spotlighted by A.

A Jervis, under doctor's care, weighs future The Bishop Estate trustee 'is talking to a number of key people in this regard' Making the right moves CVO By Star-Bulletin Staff I L. i- eioaUBOi.y.. fA 4' By Star-Bulletin staff Bishop Estate trustee Gerard Jervis is "seriously assessing his future and is talking to a number of key people in this regard," his attorney said yesterday. "Trustee Jervis has returned to work on a limited basis," said attorney Ronald Sakamoto. "He is still under doctor's care, and he is not prepared to make a statement or answer any questions at this time." Sakamoto would not say if Jervis plans to step down or remain as a trustee.

Jervis, 50, was discharged from Castle Medical Center March 22. He took an overdose of sleeping pills on March 11, the week after an estate lawyer, Rene Ojiri Kitaoka, committed suicide. The day before her death, a security guard at the Hawaii Prince Hotel bad found Jervis and Kitaoka in a compromising position in a hotel re-stroom. Meanwhile, Kitaoka's husband filed a Circuit Court petition yesterday asking that the Honolulu Police Department be ordered to hand over all documents connected to her suicide to determine if any lawsuit will be filed against the city. The petition, filed by Scott Kitaoka, said there was no reason to believe city agencies or workers were liable for her death, but that police reports "will be invaluable" to an investigation of the death.

"This pre-complaint investigation could lead to a decision to not name potential entity who might otherwise have to be named without the 'opportunity to evaluate the requested information," the petition said. It says there is no reason the documents should be withheld, i The police department's legal could not be reached yesterday, nor could Scott Kitaoka's attorneys, L. Richard Fried Jr. and S.K Kekina. An autopsy report said Rene Kitao-ka, 39, died from self-inflicted carbon imonoxide poisoning.

She was found unresponsive in a car parked in the "garage of her Kaneohe home on March 3. What Ever Happened An update on past news AAA Helicopter's aerial advertising ends at city's request QUESTION: What ever happened to the hot-air balloon that claimed its constitutional right to fly over Waikiki with advertising? ANSWER: Skysign International helicopter, not hot-air ballon, took to Waikiki's skies April 5, 1996, with aerial advertising, and voluntarily halted operations 17 days later at the city's request. Officials said city laws and state statute barred the activity, although Skysign thought the Federal Aviation Administration should decide. The city said regulating air space was not the issue billboard advertising was. The City Council passed a bill in May 1996 making it illegal for Skysign to resume its aerial advertising practice over Waikiki.

Skysign filed suit in 1997 asking for an injunction against the city administration, but lost According to Lorrie Chee, deputy planning irector, Skysign had said it would appeal, "but as far as I know they haven't The last time I saw them in the skies was back in 1996." Chee said the last report of Skysign 's aerial adventures was mid-1997 over a Gloria Estefan concert Bv Ken Sakamoto, star-Bulletin y4o participants yesterday showed some of the 36 movements used in luk tung kuen, a Chinese exercise program similar to tai chi that is practiced for health. Bill Lee conducts the Monday and Wednesday sessions at Paki Park in Waikiki. Alumni plead UH health school case Four alumni presidents are encouraged after talking with UH officials about the school's future Queen's, Straub looking Into combining services issue of the public health school, leaving that to the Board of Regents. Woods said some regents have attempted to put the issue on the board's agenda for a meeting tomorrow "but it has been thwarted by the administration." State Health Director Bruce Anderson, a graduate of the school, has said both the public health and medical schools are vital to the state's development as an Asian-Pacific health center. He has been working with the school's interim dean, Bill Wood, on an agreement to provide some faculty support Graduate Nina McCoy said she studied at the school "because it is in Hawaii, part way to the Asia where I knew I would someday return to work in public health and because I could study Vietnamese attheUH.

McCoy is a former professor at the school and past associate director of the Kalihi-Palama Health Center. She now is Australian Red Cross technical advisor to the Vietnamese Red Cross HIVAIDS Prevention Program. She is the first American chosen as a delegate of the Australian Red Cross. "I cannot imagine trying to explain that the university refused to support the school from which I graduated, so it no longer exists," she said. communication by the people who are going to decide the fate of the school." The alumni as school supporters perhaps "can bridge the gap," he said.

The other past presidents at the hour-long meeting were Bet-tye Jo Harris, Lance Segawa and Gwendolyn Costello. Woods said the group presented more than 200 letters to the administrators from alumni around the world urging support for the school. "We think there are solutions that are going to be put on the table that will support the school," he said. The alumni said they recognized the university is dealing with serious budgetary and staffing problems. The public health school has had to limit students to meet accreditation guidelines because it couldn't maintain a required student-faculty ratio, Woods said.

Harris said it is important to maintain the school rather than reduce it to a department in another school "to lend credence of professionalism and to be competitive in the international market" The school was established as a department in 1962 and became an accredited school of public health in 1965. In 1997 it had the university's third largest graduate degree program, after education and business. But when Jerrold Michael retired as dean in 1992 after 20 years, the school began to decline without support from the UH administration. He was the last permanent dean. The late Carol Eastman, who was UH senior vice president and executive vice chancellor, said in 1995 the university lacked resources to maintain public health as a separate school.

She said the administration was looking at ways to restructure it and preserve the quality of programs, perhaps by making it a department The school was given probationary accreditation in 1997 because the accreditation committee felt after talking to Mortimer that the school didn't have his support The committee's opinion wasn't changed during a site visit in March. In a preliminary report, it said: "Prolonged neglect of the school and the unwillingness to invest even minimal resources in rebuilding may well seal the fate of the school in the absence of external intervening forces which are largely political in nature." While advocating preserv ation and possible privatization of the UH medical school, Gov. Ben Cayetano has been quiet on the Ever wonder what happened to a person, event or issue that has been in the news? We'll find out for you if you call tlte City Desk at 525-8640 or write us at P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802. "What Ever Happened runs Wednesdays.

It was written by Kimberly K. Fu, Star-Bulletin. By Helen Altonn Star-Bulletin Four past presidents of University of Hawaii School of Public Health alumni were encouraged today about the school's future after meeting with UH administrators. The former alumni presidents had asked for the meeting to try and save the school from a pending loss of accreditation and closure. William E.

Woods, alumni president from 1985 to 1987, said UH President Kenneth Mortimer made a commitment to support the public health master's program. The form that will take whether in a separate school, as it is now, or in a department in another school still isn't known, he said. He said they discussed various options, and that some proposals to maintain the school with the alumni's support will be presented to Mortimer and the UH Board of Regents. He said there appears to be "a lot of miscommunication or no Star-Bulletin staff Officials of The Queen's Health Systems and Straub Clinic Hospital Inc. are looking into ways their organizations might collaborate to provide health-care services.

Discussions are preliminary, said Queen's President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Griffith and Straub Chief Executive Officer Jon Grimes. I Hospitals nationally, as well as here, are being challenged to re-evaluate how to provide services, they said in a statement Working together, the two medical facilities could enhance current services or offer more comprehensive Services, they said. Discussions are expected to continue for the next few months. i Corrections Kyo-Ya Teahouse was founded by Ernest Y. Yamane, Dr.

Toru Nishigaya and Clara and Harry Funaki. A clarification last Thursday incorrectly stated that the former Mrs. Funaki opened the teahouse in 195a 1.