Too bad the University of Hawaii won’t get that $50,000 Mercedes the FBI recovered from the guys who stole the Stevie Wonder money. That would be a nice company car for the next athletic director to run through the drive-through, picking up the Happy Meals with which to woo the big corporate sponsors now that expenses will be closely monitored.
You gotta feel for that AD search committee. Good luck finding someone capable who wants to jump into this cluster of chaos that has gotten so crazy people are just numb to it already.
Potential NCAA violations! Ho hum. $1.3 million in freebie tickets! Meh. Hey, they caught the thiefs! Big deal, wake me when they fire the prez.
We’re all more jaded than we were before July, when what seemed like a good idea to some UH employees to stage a benefit concert turned into a disaster. How many times can one be flabbergasted and shocked at ineptitude, lack of accountability and arrogance?
Too bad there’s no solace to be found on the football field. The athletic department’s popular breadwinner is 1-7 with no sign of short-term relief (some would say long-term, too).
The department is hemorrhaging money like a ’75 Dodge Dart leaks oil, but that’s the least of it.
State senate investigations. Audits. Shoddy bookkeeping, questionable expenditures. Lawyers for the lawyers. Board of Regents changing its own scoreboard from 15-0 to 11-4 with no public explanation. Autonomy in jeopardy. Did I mention the NCAA?
All because of a little con job. Well, not "all" and not "little" … the kindling was always there at Manoa, it just needed a spark. And $200,000 isn’t chump change, at least to those of us who work for much less than that in a year. … But, still … Wonder Blunder, my how you have grown in just four months.
Forty years ago, another two-bit (relatively speaking) crime spawned a scandal of daily expanding proportions that involved wire transfers, the FBI and politics and exposed a public institution’s sordid secrets. That time, United States Sen. Daniel Inouye was on the right side of public opinion, grilling the bad guys at the Watergate hearings.
We’d heard Inouye was some kind of ally of UH president M.R.C. Greenwood, and that was confirmed with his letter, lauding Greenwood and asking she be allowed to keep her job.
Political wise guys tell me this is about Inouye taking a shot at Gov. Neil Abercrombie as much as it is about concern for his alma mater and trying to save UH from another big-bucks buyout.
Remember when Greenwood cried foul, claiming political pressure from the governor and others to keep athletic director Jim Donovan onboard after the concert fumble? Now, with her job on the line, it appears she has a powerful political ace in Inouye.
"No surprise, since Abercrombie and Inouye have had their differences," said one veteran observer. And another: "It’s a flashpoint. They won’t say it, but everyone who follows politics in Hawaii is noting it. Politicians always look for opportunities to test each other’s strength. They’re like jocks that way."
Donna Kim, Slam Slom and the rest of the state senate snipers aren’t done; they have an open hearing Nov. 19 to release a preliminary report of their findings.
"For Senator Inouye to say how wonderful (Greenwood) is, that’s fine. For the governor to say we’ve had enough hearings, that’s fine," Slom said. "We’re just looking for positive changes and solutions because a massive outpouring of people in all stations of life wanted us to."
Meanwhile, the fallout continues.
Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783.
