Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi’s use of his county-issued purchasing card is now being investigated by the Hawaii Department of the Attorney General.
Attorney General Doug Chin announced Tuesday that his office will investigate “facts” related to the Kenoi’s use of the pCard following a request by Hawaii County Prosecuting Attorney Mitch Roth.
“In discussions with the county prosecutor and Hawaii County Police Chief Kubojiri, we have concluded an independent investigation may guard against an appearance of conflict under these circumstances,” said Chin. “I appreciate Prosecutor Roth and Chief Kubojiri for their cooperation and support of the law enforcement community.”
Roth, according to a copy of the request to the Department of the Attorney General, said the “events related to the Mayor’s actions have garnered an usual amount of public attention and have called into questions government trust and integrity. For this reason, I believe it is important to restore trust in the Government and that the Mayor’s actions are reviewed in the cleanest most independent and transparent way possible.”
Roth also noted that while he is elected to the position of prosecutor, and not appointed by the mayor, he and First Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Dale Ross each sit in on the Mayor’s Cabinet meetings. Further, he said in the request, his office is preparing its budget for hearings that both the Mayor’s Office and Department of Finance play a major role.
“While we do not believe that either the Mayor or the Fiscal Department would use a review of the Mayor’s PCard use by our Department as a factor in determining our budget, it does create the appearance of a conflict which people already have brought up.”
Facts learned during the course of the investigation will determine whether the Attorney General’s office pursues or recommends criminal charges, administrative discipline or no further action.
Kenoi has not been charged with a crime. A criminal conviction requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt of a violation of law, Chin said.
West Hawaii Today first broke the story Sunday that Kenoi, an attorney and second-term mayor, charged $892 in December 2013 at the Honolulu hostess bar Club Evergreen. Kenoi didn’t reimburse the county until the following March.
The newspaper had obtained the December pCard statement from an alternate source after trying unsuccessfully to get the documents from the county Finance Department, even though they are public records under state law.
At the end of March, the county released the charge card statements and receipts for Kenoi’s reimbursements over the years.
In addition to the Club Evergreen charge, Kenoi had, in September 2009, charged $400 at another Honolulu hostess bar, Camelot Restaurant and Lounge. That one he made good on the next day, so the charge didn’t go through the county, according to the credit card statement.
Between January 2009 and March 2015, Kenoi racked up a total of $122,314.86 on his county-issued card. In those years, he paid back $22,292.81 for personal charges on the card, usually within a month or so.
In addition, Kenoi on March 31 paid the county another $7,503.90 in charges and interest attributed to purchases from 2009 to the present that he says were charged in conjunction with official county business. He paid for them in order to err on the side of caution, he said.