We need to make it very clear that there are no established standards for bacteria in the sand. I’m not sure what that organization will be looking at.

Basically, there are no standards for bacteria and sand samples, so the question: what does it mean?

That will help us (to) transition people out of the hospital and into the community.

If you open the way and provide a mechanism for people to contact you, they’re going to call. And that’s a good thing. We want to de-stigmatize mental illness. We don’t want to hide them...

We are actually very pleased with the report.

We know it’s not a perfect ranking.

We have never held out or said that we are doing everything perfectly, and we have accomplished everything. We have said that there’s more work to be done, but that we are moving forward.

We are very concerned in Hawaii about the fact we are the western doorway to the United States. We see a large number of visitors … and a good proportion of them are from the...

It’s important for us as the western door of America to be as prepared as we can, to help protect not only our people here in Hawaii but the nation.

All of the evidence that we have says that the beaches are as safe now as they were before the sewage spill.

Because there are no standards in the sand, I’m not sure what that organization will be looking at. Because you need to know what was in there in the first place.