 I'm Tim Appachella with What's On Your Mind Commentary. When will the botched missile test story vanish from the local and national newspaper headlines? Every few days, the missile attack story just keeps growing legs, only to walk day by day, week by week, into the conscience of the American public. A story that reminds us that things don't work well here in this town. Since January 13, here are those more than embarrassing aspects of the story we wish would just go away. We learned that the employee, the button pusher, did not set off the missile alarm threat by accident. He actually believed Hawaii was under a real nuclear missile attack. This is in stark contrast to the state's initial version that he pushed the button in error. In fact, the employee clicked his mouse with full intention, and in his own words, I did what I was trained to do. He did exactly that, despite what four of his fellow warning officers stated, that they heard on the loudspeaker prior to the drill, exercise, exercise, exercise. We later learned that the emergency management agency had performed issue, had performance issues with this particular employee. For the past 10 years, they specifically reprimanded him, confusing tsunami and wildfire test drills as real events. Note, if you're saying to yourself right now, so why would this employee have the independent authority to enact a missile alert given that history? You would not be alone in that thinking. Number three, emergency management agency and the Federal Communications Commission confirmed there were inadequate safeguards with new alert operational procedures which did not require two independent human beings to agree and together initiate the warning to over one million state residents. Number four, the FCC stated in their final report that the employee was a source of concern and unable to comprehend the situation in hand and has confused real-life event and drills at least two separate occasions. Number five, the Associated Press published a photo inside the Emergency Management Operations Center. In that photo, it was discovered that an operations officer had his password written on a post-it note which was attached to his computer. Real concern surfaced that the hackers could use that password to gain access to the state computers and set off a new round of false emergency alerts. Number six, the 38-minute delay in calling off the false alarm was due in part because state employees attempted to contact FEMA to obtain authorization to cancel the mistake. FEMA stated the state did not need to obtain their permission. But just when you thought you had heard all the embarrassing details of the story, there was yet one more to come. Number seven, on January 23rd, Governor Ege sheepishly admitted in a news conference that he was unable to alert the public that the missile warning was false because he didn't remember or have his Twitter password to gain access into his account. Now we, America and the world, it knows exactly why it took 38 minutes. On February 1, the Washington Post published this, the missile employee messed up because Hawaii rewards incompetence. There it is, the words we did not want or need to see, the words of Hawaii and incompetence in the same sentence. So who is this Washington DC reporter and what thinks he can call Hawaii state incompetent? What does he know about how things work here? Sadly, I just listed seven reasons, seven national headline stories that fed his perceptions and gave motivation for his 10 fingers to fly across his keyboard. This inside Washington reporter isn't an inside Washington reporter. He has roots here in Honolulu. Gene Park, audience editor for the Washington Post reported for the Star Advertiser in civil beat for seven years, specifically reporting on state and city government stories. Also, he was a spokesman for the Hawaii state employee, as Hawaii state employee, working for the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. His claims that state is incompetent is bolstered by examples, several examples of real screw-ups. Number one, the 2012 Honolulu Police Department officer who was fired for falsifying reports and lying to investigators only to be hired by the state of Hawaii as an enforcement officer. This employee was later arrested and convicted for raping a teenage girl while wearing his uniform. Number two, the HPD police chief, Lewis Kaola, continued one year of full and paid employment as he was under investigation for 20 counts of obstruction, bank fraud and identity theft. Also, let's include the $2 million lost in federal housing grants due to poor grant management, or the loss of the inner island state ferry for not requiring the state requirement of an environmental impact statement, or last but not least, the Federal Transit Administration withholding $7,000,000 due to rail mismanagement. Disclosure here, the rail project is a city project. Mr. Park's story in the Washington Post wrote itself. He simply pointed to an organizational culture as a basis to support his claim that the state personnel system is incompetent. Quotes within his article are the following. It took a national embarrassment to dislodge him, the button pusher, from his job. The cultural reward seniority not competence. Local values insist on conformity. The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. And last but not least, the well-known reason why change has resisted and often rejected. That's how things have been done before. It bothers me to see late night comedians get healthy levels of laughter over the missile story. I'll spare you the worst, but here is one from Jimmy Kimmel's monologue jokes. He said, but in fact, it took 38 minutes to getting around to telling people there was not a ballistic missile on the way. This is very Hawaii. It's about as Hawaii as it gets. I couldn't watch late night when Governor E. Gay admitted he forgot his Twitter password. Here's my perspective. Admittedly as a volunteer for a nonprofit disaster relief organization, I spent time in the state emergency operations center working side by side with state employees during the annual natural disaster drills and in the city emergency operations center during real disaster events. For several years, I witnessed individuals who sat in those seats perform their jobs as dedicated conscientious professional employees. I have participated in what is known as a hot wash or lessons learned for them after real disaster events and training exercises. I witnessed honest discussions between employees and senior management on how best to implement operational system improvements. The bottom line is creating organizational change is difficult because it involves changing an organization's culture, a culture which has established patterns and years of how things have always been. I'd like to share one secret to bring on change to an organization. Don't shoot the messenger. Appreciate those few brave employees who care enough and only wanted best for their jobs and the organization's success that are willing to step forward to identify on the job issues or problems. It's my belief that improvements in organizational culture come slow because employees are fearful, managers are insecure and have a tendency to take criticism about policy as a procedure as a personal issue. And senior management does not understand that it's not an act of disloyalty or lack of respect to speak up about problems. It's mostly out of caring that people want to improve something. The real danger is working in an environment where apathy wins over concern. The last thing a CEO, city manager or state director should ever want to hear is the often recited refrain, it's not worth sticking my neck out for. When employees start thinking like this, that's when systems fail. So create a sincere retaliation-free work environment for employees to discuss system problems and issues, and that's when stories of national embarrassment will begin to drop off the pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, Star Advertiser, Civil Beat and Late Night Comedy Routines. I'm Tim Cappicello.