HILO >> Mayor Billy Kenoi spent four hours on the witness stand Wednesday defending alleged personal charges to his Hawaii County-issued pCard that Kenoi said were for legitimate county purposes at a time of economic uncertainty.
Kenoi, who is on trial on theft and related charges, testified that his then-managing director and others in his administration said he did not have to repay the charges — including several for alcohol — because they were for legitimate county purposes to help stimulate the Big Island economy as a recession took hold.
In the first three years of his first term in office, Kenoi said, he had to cut 225 jobs during an unprecedented financial crisis. But Kenoi said he repaid the pCard — or purchasing card — expenses, anyway, out of his family’s personal accounts.
If his “personal” pCard purchases were in the best interest of Hawaii island, Kenoi said, the practice in his office was, “If you make (re)payment, no need to disclose. That was our understanding. We were never contradicted.”
Kenoi said Hawaii County Managing Director William Takaba told him, “‘No pay ’em back, Billy.’ I said, ‘No big deal. Just pay ’em back.’”
At the beginning of his testimony, Kenoi teared up when he spoke of his hardscrabble upbringing in Kalapana, where the family of eight children had to use an outhouse. The lessons of humility and aloha, Kenoi testified, helped guide his approach to running the Big Island and are values he works to impart to his three children.
Kenoi’s mood turned stern under cross-examination from state Deputy Attorney General Kevin Takata, who hammered Kenoi about the timing of the mayor’s reimbursements to the county.
Takata suggested Kenoi repaid the charges on his pCard only after media requests for his spending, particularly by Big Island newspaper reporter Nancy Cooke Lauer, who was the first to report on Kenoi’s pCard use.
Kenoi acknowledged that he repaid the county sometimes hundreds of days after the original transactions. One repayment was not made until 802 days after the purchase.
But asked earlier by his defense attorney, Todd Eddins, whether he ever intended to defraud the county, Kenoi angrily replied, “Never. Never. I would never do anything to hurt this island. … I’m offended to be accused.”
Kenoi was the last witness in the case. Closing arguments are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Monday, followed by jury deliberations.
Kenoi originally faced eight counts related to 15 transactions that he charged to his pCard from 2011 to 2014. But Judge Dexter Del Rosario dismissed three counts related to tampering with government documents, leaving Kenoi to face four counts of theft — two of them second-degree felonies and two third-degree — and one count of making a false statement under oath.
The theme of Kenoi’s defense has been that the charismatic and personable mayor used his connections from Washington, D.C., to Honolulu to the Big Island to regularly entertain people in government and private business — often in after- hours gatherings involving alcohol — to keep money flowing to Hawaii island.
Defense witnesses also testified that Kenoi went out of his way to thank platoons of volunteers.
In one example, in 2013, Kenoi said, he attended Sam Choy’s annual poke festival at the Sheraton Keauhou resort, followed by the adjacent “Luck of the Irish” annual event that raised $125,000 for United Way — donations that were needed to help struggling families. But as he changed clothes for the “Luck of the Irish” fundraiser, Kenoi testified, he saw volunteers still cleaning up after the poke contest while high-powered, potential donors were being feted nearby.
“These guys sweating,” Kenoi said. “You feel bad. ‘Hey, bruddah. You guys need? … ‘Yeah, brah.’”
So Kenoi said he went to Longs, five minutes away, and “grabbed some liquor” and had “one drink with them” before returning to the “Luck of the Irish” event.
Kenoi’s defense earlier Wednesday received support from two employees from the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Conference of Mayors who testified separately that they relied on Kenoi to represent the interests of U.S. mayors to the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, then head of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Kenoi had interned for Inouye early in his career and considered Inouye a mentor. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, in turn, considered Kenoi its entry to the U.S. Senate, particularly to restore expected cuts to Community Development Block Grants that are used by municipalities across the country for a wide array of projects.
The mayor of Des Moines, Iowa, at the same time, was considered the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ point person with the U.S. House of Representatives, David Gatton and David William Burns III testified separately.
“We were facing talk and proposals of significant cuts in the CDBG program and other programs as well,” Gatton said. “CDBG is the No. 1 program for mayors, in their mind. He (Kenoi) was absolutely key, an extremely key figure.”
Gatton said his organization considered Kenoi “an advocate, a gateway for us,” adding, “It was very clear to us that he knew the (congressional) staff and that he had a history with Sen. Inouye. So we worked with him to set up some critical meetings in 2012.”
Kenoi’s spending on alcohol at a Washington, D.C., Hilton bar at the time is at the heart of one of the charges against him.
The head of the Conference of Mayors later contacted Kenoi to say that his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren were going to be on the Big Island. Kenoi said he was asked, “Could I take care of them? I said, ‘Shoots, it would be an honor to host them.’”
His staff learned that one of the children was celebrating a birthday, so Kenoi’s staff bought a birthday cake, along with a present of Big Island “goodies.”
“The whole (mayor’s) staff surprised them and sang ‘Happy birthday,’” Kenoi said.
Asked by Eddins whether he made a “false statement” on county documents for the expenditures, Kenoi testified, “absolutely not. They were U.S. Conference of Mayors visitors.”
“It’s relationship-building,” he said.
