Senate enters UH fray seeking accountability

Messages you don’t want to hear: "The doctor called." "There’s a crew from ‘60 Minutes’ in the front office." And, "Donna Mercado Kim wants you to appear before her committee."

The former city councilwoman and veteran Democratic state legislator has a deserved reputation as a tenacious questioner.

Although she is a businesswoman, not an attorney, she has a good trial attorney’s understanding that you ask questions only when you already know the answer. Woe betide any witness who tries to spin or embellish the answer.

So when state Senate President Shan Tsutsui announced last week that he was appointing Kim head of a special committee to take a look at that mess up at the University of Hawaii, there must have been a special shiver running through the bureaucrats in Manoa.

Officially the committee’s scope is "to conduct an informational briefing or briefings, as may be necessary, to review the oversight, accountability and transparency of the operational and financial management of the University of Hawaii system, including but not limited to the University of Hawaii at Manoa Athletics Department."

Kim explains that this isn’t a true investigative committee. The Legislature has the power to convene such a committee with subpoena powers and the ability to place witnesses under oath, but the Legislature has to be in session and an actual resolution passed to authorize it.

So this committee will just be looking and asking questions and taking testimony in public. The gavel, however, will be firmly in Kim’s well-manicured hand.

Hearings are not expected to start until the end of this month, Kim says. The meetings will focus on the questions of accountability at the university and who does exactly what.

Kim says she is concerned that since the Legislature approved a constitutional amendment giving the UH autonomy and after it was ratified by the voters, there have been questions about what exactly UH is doing and how much it is costing.

The opening act was the blunder of the UH athletics department trying to book Stevie Wonder for a fundraising concert only to discover that $200,000 in public funds was wired off into Never-Never Land. After suspending the athletic director and head of the Stan Sherriff Center, the duo were reinstated after Jim Donovan, the athletic director, threatened to sue. But Donovan was then given a new job and a new $200,000-a-year salary and no responsibility except to do something for UH public relations.

The regents then went to the mattresses and held an all-day closed-door meeting, then emerged to announce that everyone apologized and so now it is OK and there’s nothing more to see here, just move along.

"We are getting calls and calls, people are saying there is no accountability, and there is no transparency," Kim says.

She cautions that her committee is not out to be the judge and jury of either the regents or M.R.C. Greenwood, the UH president.

"There is a misconception that we can fire the president, it is not us — that is the job of the regents. The purpose of this committee is not to get anyone’s job back, the purpose is accountability," Kim says.

The publicly dysfunctional appearance of UH operations, however, now will get a through review, Kim promised, adding that she would like to know the history behind canceling the contracts of UH chancellors, the buyouts offered and the reasons for them.

"With autonomy comes accountability," Kim says.

If these hearings merit further investigation, the 2013 Legislature could order up an investigative committee complete with the powerful legal club of taking testimony under oath. An extensive examination could also lead to more questions about the leadership at the university and the future of Greenwood’s presidency.

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Richard Borreca writes on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays; email him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.