State Sen. Glenn Wakai delivered a scolding to the leadership of the Hawaii Tourism Authority Wednesday for what he characterized as excessive spending by the agency, but Wakai said he is dropping his earlier proposal to prohibit the HTA from meeting in secret to discuss proprietary information.
The HTA receives more than $108 million a year from the state’s hotel room tax collections to market Hawaii to the world and to operate the Hawai‘i Convention Center, but Wakai protested that the agency last year did not promptly provide him with detailed budget records he requested.
HTA Board Chairman Rick Fried said the agency was trying to ensure that confidential material stays confidential, and agreed that HTA delayed releasing the records to Wakai for too long.
“You’re right, it should have been sooner. You got it all, going forward you will always have it all,” he said. Fried told Wakai he saw little point in rehashing Wakai’s complaint because HTA officials have already apologized.
Wakai has argued the HTA is abusing special exemptions it was granted from the state open meetings law, although HTA President and Chief Executive Officer George Szigeti and Fried have said they comply with the law.
Wakai included language in Senate Bill 1084 to press the issue. The original draft of the bill would have eliminated special exemptions granted to the HTA board that allow it to meet in private to discuss proprietary information.
However, Wakai approved a new draft of the bill Wednesday that deleted those provisions, meaning the board can continue to discuss proprietary information in secret.
Instead, Wakai said he would add language to the law requiring that the minutes from HTA closed-door sessions be provided to any lawmaker who requests them. Those minutes would be kept confidential, he said.
Wakai, who is chairman of the Senate Economic Development, Tourism and Technology Committee, said in an interview he is also asking for more financial documentation.
“They’ve been giving me numbers, and I’m just drilling down now to the point where I’m asking for receipts for office supplies, receipts for meals, receipts for travel expenditures,” he said. “I wanted to see how every single dollar in some of these (budget lines) was being spent.”
“I’ve heard of some very, very suspicious spending patterns here,” he said. He declined to elaborate, saying the information he has received might turn out to be incorrect. “I don’t want to make accusations if they’re unfounded,” he said.
Wakai said at a public hearing Wednesday that records he received show HTA Director of Communications Charlene Chan received a 35 percent pay raise last year after seven months on the job, and two other employees also received significant raises.
The HTA payroll grew from $2 million last year to $2.2 million this year, and “I don’t know how you make decisions on salaries,” Wakai told HTA officials.
“You have three employees there that make more than the governor,” Wakai said. “Mr. Szigeti, you’re the second-highest paid person in government. You make $283,000 a year. You gave yourself a 5 percent raise last year.”
Szigeti denied he gave himself a raise in an interview after the hearing, saying his salary and raises are set by contract. He said he feels justified in the raises he gave out to three staff members “based on higher skill sets and much higher expectations for the position.”
Wakai said the HTA pay increases are a concern because “in government, nobody that I know of gets a 35 percent pay raise. I mean, when the teachers who do the most noble of professions can barely get a 1 percent raise, how in the world can someone who checks press releases get a 35 percent pay raise?”
Wakai also questioned HTA’s decision to increase its marketing contract with Expedia.com from $435,000 in 2015 to $3.5 million the following year.
“What’s more disturbing is you didn’t talk to any of the stakeholders before you embarked on this program, and in fact it’s having some level of backlash with the hotels who now are not getting direct bookings because people are going through Expedia,” he said.
“Your business practices and your management decisions are to me very much in question,” Wakai said. “That’s what I’m finding out as I dig through the numbers that you have reluctantly given to me, and I’m sure I’m going to find a lot more questionable practices in the future.”
HTA officials defended the decision to increase spending on a media buy on Expedia, saying it was done as part of a national campaign that led to a major percentage increase in passengers after six months.
