This week, the Hawaii County Ethics Board completely failed to exercise its duty. It was asked to determine if the mayor had behaved unethically. That’s its job — to say whether county officers and employees have acted unethically. In other words, did the mayor steal money from the taxpayers or not? Did that violate the county Ethics Code?
It is a sad day for the County of Hawaii that our mayor should have brought us to this point. He brings shame upon us all. But so did the Ethics Board. The lawyers for Billy Kenoi and Finance Director Deanna Sako — whose clients are paying them hundreds of dollars an hour to be slick — earned their fees by setting up a strawman who they could then knock down to fool the three members of the Ethics Board.
The lawyers suggested it would be unfair for the Ethics Board to conduct its investigation into ethics violations at the same time the Attorney General was conducting a criminal investigation. And it apparently did not matter to the board that the Attorney General disagreed. On April 7, West Hawaii Today reported that Attorney General Douglass Chin said his office could conduct its investigations of criminal wrongdoing at the same time that the Ethics Board and the legislative auditor look into administrative breaches. It also didn’t matter that I objected strongly and said “Why don’t you write the Attorney General and ask him if it’s okay for you to proceed?” They ignored me. Citizens who file complaints apparently get ignored. Wrongdoers’ attorneys apparently get obeyed, with this Ethics Board.
Let me be clear where I am coming from. Billy Kenoi is a pretty good mayor. I voted for him. He has done a good job for six years under difficult circumstances, leading us through lava flows and tropical storms, as well as strained economic times. Okay? But while he was doing that, he was also committing crimes — arrogant crimes, inexcusable crimes, crimes for which he must pay. Crimes which he has confessed to committing. I’m not accusing him of doing something he denies. I am just saying, he needs to do the time for the crimes he admits he committed.
Billy signed an affidavit when he got his pCard. That stands for purchase card. It is a Bank of Hawaii-issued credit card meant to allow county employees to buy things for government purposes without a lot of paper work involved. But it is not for personal purchases.
When you sign for the card, you swear this oath: “I understand that the use of the pCard to make personal purchases is strictly prohibited and unauthorized. I will not use the card, under any circumstances, for personal use.”
Is that confusing? Can you understand what that means? Well, if you graduated from college and from law school, and if you clerked for a judge and you practiced law, and if you got elected mayor twice — don’t you think you should understand that oath? “Strictly prohibited.” “Unauthorized.” “Personal use.” This is the oath Billy signed: “In return for the purchasing authority delegated to me …, I agree to under take the following responsibilities:” He lied.
After six years of illegal purchases, he now claims “As long as I didn’t shift that burden to taxpayers, I thought it was okay.” He claims now that he had “no interest at any time to shift the burden to the taxpayer,” and he also claimed “my administration knew about it.” Really?
Here is what the Penal Code, Section 708-874 reads: “Misapplication of entrusted property. (1) A person commits the offense of misapplication of entrusted property if, with knowledge that he is misapplying property and that the misapplication involves substantial risk of … detriment to the owner [the taxpayer] of the property, … he misapplies or disposes of property that has been entrusted to him as a fiduciary or that is property of the government or a financial institution.”
“Sec. 708-874(3) To ‘misapply property’ means to deal with the property contrary to law or governmental regulation relating to the custody or disposition of that property; ‘government regulation’ includes administrative and judicial rules and orders as well as statute and ordinances.” In this context, misapplication is not theft; there is no intent to permanently deprive the owner [taxpayer] of the owner’s property.”… In this context the misapplication is in terms of improper handling of assets, rather than of outright theft.”
That is just what Billy did. Starting in 2009 (or did he do the same thing when working for Mayor Harry Kim?) all the way to 2015 — he admits to misappropriating pCard funds for personal use and not paying them back until March 2015. Is this theft? Yes. Does that make him a thief? Yes. Does this violate our county ethics code? Yes, a couple different sections of the code.
We are talking of thousands of dollars, not minini money or chump change. And at the same time that he was charging the county over $4,000 in per cash diem to pay for his county expenses, he was “double dipping” by charging meals and hotels to his pCard. This is simple theft, in violation of Hawaii Revised Statutes Sec. 708-830(6)(a), although he did not admit it until after an audit had discovered what he was doing with his pCard. According to the law, that is prima facie evidence he is guilty of theft.
And at the same time, he was accepting gifts and not declaring that he received them, which again violates Hawaii County Ethics Code Sec. 2-91.5. Reporting of Gifts. So what do you think? Did the Ethics Board cop out by passing the buck and refusing to investigate the mayor? Your opinion: Should he resign?
Lanric Hyland is a resident of Kapaau and a petitioner to the Board of Ethics concerning Mayor Billy Kenoi’s actions in office.
Viewpoint articles are the opinion of the writer and not necessarily the opinion of West Hawaii Today.