HTA probe not retaliation, senator says

State Sen. Glenn Wakai has directed a series of scathing attacks at officials with the Hawaii Tourism Authority in recent months, but denies the suggestion he may be using his office to retaliate or pursue a personal agenda after his wife resigned from her executive position at HTA following disagreements with management.

Wakai is chairman of the Senate’s Economic Development, Tourism and Technology Committee, which oversees HTA. This is the first year he has been given primary oversight over HTA and issues related to tourism, and from that position he has attacked alleged failings and missteps on the part of HTA’s leadership.

HTA receives more than $108 million a year from state hotel tax revenue to market Hawaii and to operate the Hawai‘i Convention Center, and lawmakers are supposed to pose hard questions to public agencies. Wakai’s criticisms have been notably harsh, however.

In recent months Wakai clashed publicly with the HTA in a successful effort to force them to release budget records to him, and criticized HTA spending on salaries and raises for some of its executives. He also complained the authority hasn’t properly consulted with its stakeholders, and said he will continue to probe authority spending.

At a public hearing on Wednesday, Wakai warned HTA board Chairman Rick Fried and Chief Executive Officer George Szigeti that “your business practices and your management decisions are to me very much in question.”

“That’s what I’m finding out as I dig through the numbers that you have reluctantly given me, and I’m sure I’m going to find a lot more questionable practices in the future,” he said.

Wakai, (D, Kalihi-Salt Lake-Aliamanu) said his public criticisms of HTA have nothing to do with his wife, Miki, leaving her job there, and pointed out that he challenged HTA about its lack of a sports marketing strategy last year while his wife still worked there.

“There is no connection whatsoever,” Wakai said. “My wife, because of decisions that were being made, wasn’t happy. They made her feel very uncomfortable for pointing out things that were very suspicious, and so she resigned in July of last year.”

As for any suggestion that Wakai is retaliating against HTA, Wakai replied that, “There is no retaliation whatsoever. My wife was doing the people’s work, pointed out flaws, they made her feel very uncomfortable, it was her decision to leave, and she has gone on to much bigger and better things.”

Miki Wakai worked at HTA as a “tourism brand manager” overseeing marketing efforts to Japan, which is Hawaii’s largest international market. Her responsibilities included making sure that marketing efforts by HTA contractor Hawaii Tourism Japan tracked with HTA’s strategic plan to drive demand for the state, according to the HTA web site.

She joined HTA in November 2013 and departed in August 2016, about a year after new management was installed at the tourism authority. A spokesman for HTA said Wakai made $72,456 a year in that position.

Before she left, the authority offered Miki Wakai a new job under a one-year contract for $85,000 that involved developing a program for evaluating HTA-sponsored festivals and events. The contract included an option for HTA to extend the agreement for up to three years, but Wakai declined the offer, according to an HTA spokesman.

Glenn Wakai said the contract included non-disclosure language that would have prevented his wife from ever disclosing what she knew about “questionable operations” at HTA, and described the offer as essentially “hush money.”

“My wife declined to be bought,” he said in a written statement.

HTA’s Board Chairman Rick Fried said in a written statement that Miki Wakai’s departure “was not acrimonious. In fact, Miki sent me a lovely hand-written note after she left, which I really appreciated.”

As for any speculation that Glenn Wakai might be targeting the agency because of his wife’s departure, Fried replied in a statement that “we hope that’s not the case, and don’t want to speculate. HTA’s sole focus is on moving tourism forward for the betterment of the industry and all those who rely on its success, and we hope Senator Wakai shares that same view.”

Miki Wakai declined to be interviewed, but Glenn Wakai said his wife has since started a consulting company that is “growing quite well, where she is having to turn away business. She just pivoted, she didn’t want to be a part of all of that that was going on there.”

Miki Wakai also works in the office of state Sen. Brian Taniguchi (D, Makiki-Tantalus-Manoa), Wakai confirmed.

Senate President Ron Kouchi said he believes Wakai’s inquiries of HTA have been reasonable and fair, particularly his demands for more information detailing spending of taxpayer money by the authority.

“I certainly thought that he was asking the appropriate questions, and I was in full support of his position that elected members of the Legislature needed to get information so that we could make our decisions,” Kouchi said.

Kouchi said other lawmakers have been getting emails questioning raises that were awarded to relatively new employees.

“To ask those kinds of questions and get the justification, that’s something that we routinely do,” he said.