Hawaii County Councilwoman Margaret Wille said she can no longer use her county-issued purchasing card — or pCard — after she was questioned two weeks ago by the county clerk about two first-class flights and a hotel upgrade to a room with an ocean view.
Wille said that, given the uproar over Mayor Billy Kenoi’s use of his pCard for personal expenses and trips to Honolulu hostess bars, County Clerk Stewart Maeda appropriately flagged the three charges on her own pCard.
"I feel this is the way it should be," said Wille, a two-term councilwoman who represents North and South Kohala. "I don’t think them questioning me is wrong."
Wille said Maeda later told her, "‘We pulled it (pCard).’ I said, ‘That’s fine. I’m good. Just cancel it.’ It’s good what they’re doing. They should question it."
Questions were raised by the county clerk about Wille’s pCard about a week before the media reported details of Kenoi’s pCard purchases of nearly $900 on a hostess bar tab, lavish travel and personal items like a surfboard that amounted to thousands of dollars in reimbursements.
Wille has criticized Kenoi’s pCard purchases.
"I don’t like it where there are different standards," she told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser last week. "The mayor’s not supposed to be above the law."
She also said she wanted Kenoi to be held accountable and to make a public statement before the County Council to allow people on Hawaii island to view it on public-access TV.
Kenoi is facing a possible criminal probe by the state attorney general over his pCard spending, and an ethics complaint has been filed against the mayor and county Finance Director Deanna Sako.
The state Procurement Office, meanwhile, said Thursday that it completely canceled Kenoi’s government-issued procurement account Tuesday. A county spokesman earlier had told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that while Kenoi’s "pCard" had been "cut up," the mayor could still use the account to make travel arrangements.
Maeda could not be reached late Thursday for comment on Wille’s pCard use.
On Jan. 15, Wille checked into the Aston Hotel in Waikiki for the two-day Hawaii State Bar Association Land Use Conference, where she was a speaker.
In an April 2 memo to Maeda, Wille wrote, "The Aston Hotel did not have any standard rooms so I was in an ocean-view suite, which cost $20.81 more than a standard room."
In her meeting with Maeda, Wille said he suggested she might have to reimburse the county for the extra expense, which she said she was willing to do. Wille said she never heard back about whether she owes the county $20.81.
On March 19, Wille said, her secretary used Wille’s pCard to book first-class flights from the Big Island to Oahu aboard Hawaiian Airlines to testify before the Legislature about the transient accommodations tax and whether to allow composting on agricultural land.
In a different memo to Maeda about the first-class flights, Wille wrote, "For the outgoing flight there were coach seats available but at a higher price (about $13 more plus more tax etc). The purpose of requiring coach seats is to save money so we did the common sense choice and purchased the ticket with the lower cost."
For the return flight, Wille wrote, "There were no coach seats available on any afternoon flights until late evening (at about same price or more), therefore I purchased the first class ticket."
Wille said her secretary normally uses the pCard to arrange travel, often for hotel stays in Hilo so she can attend Council meetings.
Wille said she never carried her pCard and prefers to use her personal credit cards for county business and seek reimbursement.
