Fired employee had previously confused drills

Hawaii issued a false missile alert on Jan. 13, but there was real fallout Tuesday when it was announced that Hawaii Emergency Management Agency administrator Vern Miyagi had resigned, and that the so-called button pusher had been terminated — having at least twice before confused drills for real events.

Findings from the state internal investigation did little to instill public confidence, and perhaps provided more reasons to distrust the agency’s transparency and doubt its competence.

“(Retired Army Maj.) Gen. Miyagi, a respected military leader and honorable man, has taken full responsibility and submitted a letter of resignation today,” state Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Joe Logan, who ordered the state investigation, said Tuesday at a news conference inside Diamond Head, HI-EMA’s headquarters.

As a result of the findings, Logan said, the exempt union worker who set off the alert was fired Friday, another HI-EMA executive resigned after Jan. 13, and a third supervisor is facing suspension without pay. After the false alarm, the fired worker had been on paid leave from his job, which offered an annual starting pay of $41,700.

Brig. Gen. Moses Kaoiwi, director of joint staff of the Hawaii National Guard, has been appointed interim administrator of HI-EMA, a role that will require him to sort out agency deficiencies pointed out in the state investigation headed by retired Brig. Gen. Bruce Oliveira and move to implement at least some of the 23 recommendations contained in the highly critical 13-page report.

“I find a preponderance of evidence exists that insufficient management controls, poor computer software design and human factors” contributed to the false ballistic missile alert and its delayed retraction, Oliveira said.

Oliveira said the button pusher confused the false alert with a real threat, saying he did not hear the beginning of the recording that started with “Exercise, Exercise, Exercise” — although five others handled the alert correctly.

According to Oliveira’s report, the employee has been a source of concern for more than 10 years because of poor performance. Oliveira said the fired employee had previously confused drills for real events, once for a fire and once for a tsunami. Those events were corrected on the spot and the employee was “counseled.”

Oliveira could not say why the employee was allowed to remain in a role that other employees weren’t confident he could perform.

The warning officer, HI-EMA officials revealed last week, was not cooperating with either the Federal Communications Commission or internal investigations. After the incident, co-workers said he didn’t assist in the corrective process either.

“We did ask for voluntary cooperation. He’s the only one that didn’t cooperate,” said HI-EMA spokesman Lt. Col. Charles Anthony, although he added that the man did provide HI-EMA with a written statement.

Since the button pusher was an exempt union employee, authorization for his job had to be extended annually so that he could remain employed, Anthony said.

“There probably should have been actions taken,” he said, adding that the man’s personnel records don’t provide a detailed timeline of supervisory concerns.

As a member of HGEA bargaining unit 3, the warning officer may appeal his termination, but Anthony said the man hasn’t done so yet.

Toby Clairmont, HI-EMA executive officer, was identified as the second HI-EMA employee who resigned, effective last Friday. It was announced last week that Clairmont would retire sometime this year, but no date was given.

“HI-EMA is like any other state agency — underresourced and working within a system that often cannot achieve excellence,” Clairmont posted on Facebook while the news conference about the state’s internal investigation was being livestreamed. “When the matter involves emergency management, the public expects and deserves more. The agency needs the resources and talent in line with what is being asked of it — that has never happened. The best HI-EMA can do right now from their perspective is to play the blame game. Shortsighted at best.”

Replacements sought

Given HI-EMA’s personnel hit, Oli­veira recommended that the agency fill four vacant positions to lessen its burden. HI-EMA personnel were already short one warning officer when they came under fire for disseminating the false missile alert and taking 38 minutes to retract it.

Anthony said Logan has begun seeking a permanent replacement for Miyagi by reaching out to disaster managers nationwide.

“He’s put out several calls and will start conducting interviews pretty quickly,” he said.

Miyagi, who is expected to assist HI-EMA with the personnel transition, issued a statement Tuesday praising his former HI-EMA coworkers for their skills and professionalism and encouraging them to move forward.

“We prepared for numerous tsunamis and hurricanes, and helped Hawaii come to grips with the idea of a North Korean missile,” he said in a statement issued after the state news conference. “You have the skills and capacity to do what Hawaii needs. Don’t give up. Never quit. Lives depend on you.”

Despite the scathing investigative results issued Tuesday and the personnel changes that followed, Gov. David Ige ended the nearly hourlong news conference optimistically, pledging that the state would improve its emergency management operations.

“I wanted to assure you that the men and women who work for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency are committed to ensuring the health and well-being of the community and they do that job well,” Ige said.

The FCC weighs in

But state investigators aren’t the only ones scrutinizing the agency’s actions and making recommendations to get it back on track. On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission also provided the preliminary results of its ongoing probe during a morning commission meeting in Washington, D.C.

A key finding in that report is that the HI-EMA worker who sent the false missile alert to phones across the state believed the islands were actually under attack. Ige and HI-EMA officials, in several public explanations on the false alarm, had never revealed that the agency warning officer actually thought a missile attack was imminent, instead saying that he pushed the “wrong button” or selected the wrong option from a drop-down computer menu.

Ige said Tuesday that he wasn’t aware that the warning officer believed that the threat was real until it was uncovered as part of Oliveira’s assessment.

While a final FCC report has yet to be issued, the initial probe revealed that poor planning, inadequate technology and a series of errors from multiple people contributed to and exacerbated the button pusher’s mistake.

According to FCC investigators, HI-EMA planners didn’t establish proper protocol or resources. They said poor communication between HI-EMA’s day shift and midnight shift supervisors contributed to the day’s confusion. They even called out Ige for contributing to retraction delays when he forgot his Twitter password.

HAWAII’S FALSE MISSILE ALERT

* Brig. Gen. Bruce Oliveira released a highly critical 13-page report Tuesday saying insufficient management controls, poor computer software design and human errors contributed to the Jan. 13 false ballistic missile alert and its delayed retraction.

* Federal Communications Commission investigators released preliminary findings Tuesday saying that poor planning, inadequate technology and a series of errors from multiple people contributed to and exacerbated the button pusher’s mistake.

* Brig. Gen. Moses Kaoiwi, director of joint staff of the Hawaii National Guard, has been appointed interim administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, replacing Vern Miyagi, whose resignation was announced Tuesday.

* Toby Clairmont, former HI-EMA executive officer, resigned Friday, a move he characterized as a planned retirement.

* The button pusher, who is an exempt union employee, was fired Friday after Oliveira’s investigation revealed he misinterpreted a drill as a real threat, erroneously issued a false missile alert, didn’t assist in the corrective process and had a history of poor job performance.

* Maj. Gen. Arthur J. Logan recommended Tuesday that another HI-EMA supervisor, a union member responsible for developing state warning protocol and HI-EMA’s warning checklist, be placed on unpaid suspension.

UP NEXT

* Results of an investigation by the Federal Emergency Management Agency are still pending.

* Brig. Gen. Kenneth Hara, the state’s deputy adjutant general, is conducting a “comprehensive review” and will provide an “action plan to improve state preparedness,” which should be completed around mid-February, followed by a formal report around mid-March.

False Ballistic Missile Alert Internal Investigation by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd