“It’s complicated.”

That’s a phrase Hawaii government officials often use responding to a problem. Too often it’s an excuse to cover up their failures or blame them on someone else.

It’s not always the big stuff like the rail project or the permit process for the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope. Consider three examples that are lower profile but still involve people in crisis.

In all three cases, government failure is accompanied by a barrage of statements that can be translated: “It’s complicated.”

It’s the Law, But So What?

Say that an elderly family member suffered a serious stroke and suddenly can no longer live on her own. Families in that situation seldom have knowledge about care homes and have very little time to get it. It’s a tragedy made worse by a lack of easy-to-access information.

According to a state law passed three years ago, the state Department of Health is required to post online the results of all of its inspections of the 1,702 care homes across the state.

So the way it should work is this: Access the website. Look at the information. Then choose.

That sounds pretty straightforward, one bright spot to ease the pain of such a sad, sudden situation.

You wish. After three years and a couple of fits and starts, most inspection information still hasn’t been published.

Seems like blatant failure. Pure and simple non-compliance.

Turns out … it’s complicated.

What’s going on? Well, what’s going on are explanations couched in bureaucratic language and broken promises on the part of people who could break this logjam.

Start with the language that DOH uses to describe its part of the non-bargain. According to a high-level DOH official, DOH can’t do it because the agency has a “resource dilemma” and an “unfunded mandate.”

That’s wonkish language, but from the harried family members’ perspective, it’s government saying to them, “We can’t do it, so we won’t do it, mandate or no mandate”

Some legislators disagree with this resource dilemma thing, claiming that the Legislature has given the DOH enough funds to comply.

It is hard to determine who is right here, but for a family involved, what does it matter?

A year ago, Gov. David Ige, who prides himself in his ability to resolve complicated matters, promised to intervene in this DOH matter. 

The results of his intervention so far? Nada, zip.

‘Internal Stuff’

Because of the dengue fever and Zika threats, parents, especially on the Big Island, are seriously concerned about mosquitoes. How do you reassure a child while at the same time spraying her with Deet every time she goes outside?

Officially, the state may be gearing up its fight against mosquitoes, but it’s at a sloth-like pace accompanied by bureaucratic la dee da.

Because it’s complicated.

In 2010 the Legislature cut the number of vector (disease-carrying organisms) control positions in the Department of Health. There was no crisis and money was tight.

The problem with that approach is obvious. When a serious situation does occur, the state is unprepared.

That is exactly what has happened with dengue fever and the Zika virus.

Playing catch-up, the Legislature recently funded 20 new vector control positions.

Sounds like a mandate for swift action, no?  Well, sort of … uh, not really.

None of these positions have even been advertised so far, but what is most frustrating is the nonchalant, stereotypically bureaucratic reason the DOH director gave for this delay.

The director told Civil Beat that DOH has not even advertised these positions because the Vector Control Branch “is pending reorganization, so it’s internal stuff that we have to get done administratively before we can actually start hiring those individuals.”

Internal stuff, pending reorganization. Who talks to the public like that? Also, I spent my career working in a state agency (the University of Hawaii) so I have a well-informed notion of what internal and reorganization means.

It means forever.

The Flood That Keeps Coming Back

The Actors Group (TAG) is a small non-profit theater company operating in Iwilei’s Dole Cannery. Two years ago a rainstorm inundated the theater. A few weeks ago it happened again.

Unlike the previous two examples, the TAG story is not really about non-compliance. It’s about defining a problem in a way that absolves government of responsibility so — bingo! —  there is nothing to comply with because it is the victims’  problem.

Media reports of TAG’s floods focused on individuals — dedicated souls fighting to salvage what they love.

What’s missing from this story is political responsibility, like flood control.

How about fixing the sewers and repairing a drainage system that is often overwhelmed in a hard rain? 

Fixing the sewers, flood mitigation — they always seem somewhere down the road, futuristic, like the driverless car.

Or, as the Honolulu Board of Water Supply put it when a TV reporter asked her why a persistent Palolo water main break hasn’t been permanently fixed: “We have a long-range plan.”

All these failures are more than annoyances, worse than just crazy making. They make people cynical about our governments in Hawaii and lower the public’s expectations.

“Yeah, what do you expect? This is Hawaii.”

Maybe that should be our state motto.