The state attorney general said it was unusual — and unnecessary — for the three-member Hawaii County Board of Ethics appointed by Mayor Billy Kenoi to postpone hearing a complaint about Kenoi’s $129,000 in county purchase-card spending until the AG’s office finishes a separate criminal investigation.
"I don’t think it’s necessary for the county ethics board to wait for a criminal investigation to finish up before they make a decision," Attorney General Doug Chin told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser following Wednesday’s unanimous decision by the Board of Ethics.
"Typically, it’s the reverse," Chin said. "Normally you do an administrative action first and then you’d refer it out to check something further. It’s atypical for an administrative panel to wait until a criminal investigation is finished up."
Chin said he cannot comment on the status of the investigation on Kenoi’s "pCard" spending, "but we are continuing to make efforts to investigate this. It’s going to take months to finish up our review of the circumstances that occurred."
Before the ethics board voted Wednesday, even one of Kenoi’s three Honolulu criminal defense attorneys, Howard Luke, told the board, "I will call it misuse of the pCard."
The board members nevertheless voted to let the attorney general’s investiga- tion run its course before considering the complaint filed by Kapaau resident Lanric Hyland, 76, who attended ‘Iolani School and later retired as a California jail administrator.
Hyland wants to see Kenoi put in jail for $129,580.73 in charges on Kenoi’s county-issued pCard since his first of two terms began in December 2008.
County records show that Kenoi used his pCard for lavish outings that included drinks, dinners, luxury hotels and more than $100,000 on trips to Washington, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Texas, the Philippines and Japan. Kenoi also used his pCard to pay for a $1,200 surfboard, his $565 Hawaii Bar Association dues and luxury stays at the Marriott Waikoloa Beach at $469 per night.
He also spent $400 at the Camelot Restaurant and Lounge hostess bar and $892 at the Club Evergreen hostess bar — both in Ho- nolulu.
Kenoi has publicly apologized twice — once at the state Capitol and again before the County Council in Hilo — taken responsibility and reimbursed the county $31,112.59.
Along with the shadow of the attorney general’s criminal investigation, Kenoi’s pCard spending is also expected to be scrutinized in the first audit of the county’s pCard expenditures that began in November by new County Legislative Auditor Bonnie Nims.
Nims previously told the Star-Advertiser that she hopes to produce the pCard audit in June.
On Wednesday, Nims was on vacation and was expected to return at the end of May. Her assistant, Lane Shibata, said the pCard audit is still on schedule.
"It won’t be by early June — probably mid- or late June," Shibata said.
Hyland also filed a separate ethics complaint against Hawaii County Finance Director Deanna Sako, whose office processed Kenoi’s expenditures. The ethics board on Wednesday also postponed hearing Hyland’s complaint about Sako.
Hyland was furious following the Board of Ethics’ decisions, especially because he was not allowed to read four pages of testimony via video conference from Kapaau.
"It’s just ludicrous," Hyland said. "It’s disgusting. They just said, ‘Hell with you, Lanric. We don’t listen to citizens.’ That’s what the board said today: ‘We let the lawyers talk to us and tell us what to do.’"
Before the board voted, Kenoi sat in back of the County Council’s chambers in Hilo, where the board met, and heard public testimony blasting him.
"You’ve done some good things Billy, but you’re a bad boy," said Toby Hazel of Puna, as Kenoi smiled.
Hilo attorney Brian DeLima, who represents Sako, unsuccessfully tried to get the board to dismiss Hyland’s complaint about her, saying it had no merit. The board declined.
As DeLima and Luke addressed the board together, Kenoi moved to the front row of the chamber but did not speak.
Kenoi left as soon as the board voted and declined to speak to reporters.
The board’s decision to defer hearing the complaints against Kenoi and Sako "was pretty predictable," said Todd Belt, a University of Hawaii-Hilo political science professor.
"It’s a matter of resources as well as authority," Belt said. "Of course, there’s the obvious proximity. It’s more difficult to bring charges against someone you see all the time as opposed to someone else doing it, having the state to do it."
