B.O. bill raises stink

A proposal that raised a stink nationwide over an apparent attempt to criminalize body odor on public buses has been shelved by the City Council.

Bill 59 was deferred by the Council's Transportation Committee yesterday.

Honolulu gained nationwide attention, criticism and ridicule over Bill 59, which proposed a new code of conduct for users of the city's planned rail mass transit system. The code also would have applied to existing transit systems, including TheBus.

Civil rights groups and others criticized a provision that would have made it a crime -- punishable by a fine up to $500, six months in jail or both -- to have offensive body odor.

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For a radio talk show host and newspaper columnist like me, Honolulu City Councilman Rod Tam is the gift that keeps on giving. His latest legislative faux pas, that harebrained idea that we should outlaw smelly people from TheBus and any other public transit systems will provide fodder for conversation and chuckles for ages.

If you were too busy working for a living and raising your children, you may have missed that Tam, along with colleague Nestor Garcia, announced their facilitation of legislation that would make it illegal to “bring onto transit property odors that unreasonably disturb others or interfere with their use of the transit system, whether such odors arise from one’s person, clothes, articles, accompanying animal or any other source.” In other words, no stink for you!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen of Oahu, you have duly elected leaders who are dedicating their time, resources and your dollars to the identification, extrication and prosecution of people who smell bad.

Thank goodness. For a while there, I thought they would be concerned about the looming city budget deficit, the deterioration of our roadways, the potential of a billion-dollar judgment on secondary wastewater treatment and the management of a multibillion-dollar transportation project. Naturally, these areas of concern are mere distractions when we have the scourge of B.O.-emanating, toe jamcrusted and halitosis-disseminating citizens riding TheBus. Somebody, please, elevate the Homeland Security threat level to “Skanky.”

But who is truly surprised this idea has Tam’s fingerprints all over it? While in the state Legislature,Tam cooked up the “Naps and Snacks” proposal. Tam also championed that great idea that Koko Head Crater would make a wonderful alternative to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill.

Councilman Nestor Garcia, co-author of the bill with colleague Rod Tam, said he would work on a new proposal to address constitutional issues raised by the language of the bill. The provision on odor is unlikely to be included.

"One person's smell is another person's perfume, I guess," Garcia said. "We need to try to figure out exactly how we go about that if we are to continue that kind of procedure."

Tam defended the bill, saying it arose out of constituents' concerns.

"It's our job to do it, whether we like it or not, and whether people want to criticize," said Tam, who previously faced ridicule as a state senator for introducing a bill authorizing naps and snack breaks for public workers.

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Councilman Rod Tam has a long-standing record of listening to his constituents and supporting their legitimate concerns. Tam is a man ahead of his time. For example, he once supported a "naps" bill that would allow workers to take a short nap on their lunch hour or during a coffee break. Research, including a Harvard University study, shows that a power nap boosted performance back to morning levels.

I applaud Councilman Tam for his courage in representing his constituents' wishes as far as protecting the right to breathe Hawaii's pure, fresh and clean air while riding buses.