It is is interesting to read the public comments received by the Hawaii PUC back in 2004 in regards to The Carlyle Group purchasing Verizon Hawaii.In my opinion, the comments made by Pat Bustmante,the president & CEO of Pacific LightNet, provide a pretty good summation of most post people’s concerns about this purchase.
The unfortunate aspect of this whole situation was the fact a lot of these concerns were unheeded. Yes,the Hawaii PUC did place stipulations to lessen the debt load Hawaiian Telcom.But I don’t think the PUC did enough to protect the interests of Hawaii’s consumers and businesses. If they did we wouldn’t be facing a very likely Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Hawaiian Telcom.
Robert Thomas provided an interesting insight into the “appellate transfer procedures” of the Hawaii Judiciary. This allows certain cases to bypass the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals “if the issue is one of “fundamental public importance,” or calls for the invalidation of a part of the state Constitution, for example), and those where transfer is discretionary (issues of first impression, for example).”. Two recent appeal cases took advantage of this procedure, the second Hawaii Superferry appeal and Charles & Joan Coupe’s Hokulia bypass appeal.
