Vicki Kalman responds

Hey Susan,
Just brainstorming—
I used to be a member of California Women Lawyers. About 15 or 20 years ago, CWL noticed that part of the problem for women litigators in the courtroom was the absence of women judges. So they created a mentoring program. They actively recruited women with an interest in serving as judges, helped them get the right training and other opportunities, helped them understand how to get on the governor’s short list for appointments, etc. Two decades later, there are lots of women on the bench and more coming. The atmosphere in the courtroom has improved noticeably, and TV drama routinely shows women as both judges and successful litigators. This is a long way of suggesting that the shortest route to improving local government may be to train our own to be more effective as decision makers. No doubt there is a model somewhere so that we wouldn’t have to reinvent. In fact, isn’t the Chamber promoting just such a program??? Too often it seems people start down the path of political leadership and then, once there, are so disappointed by their inability to impact the status quo. They need decision making tools and the knowledge they have community support so they can make the tough decisions on our behalf.


Also, on transportation—I note the county is looking at changing some parking in the Kainaliu area. I would urge they consider park and ride stations all along the route from Nahalehu to Kona so that the bus can serve more people and that we could have van pools. Same in Kohala.

Meetings: Big meetings can be good, but probably at some point, smaller working groups that meet and report to the body of the whole with a series of single issue “white papers” would be effective to advancing the common body of knowledge, etc.

Mahalo for organizing this meeting,

Vicki Kalman