Hawaii House committee member questions probe of state auditor

One of the members of a special House committee investigating state Auditor Les Kondo’s handling of two critical audits of state land management questioned Thursday whether the committee had lost focus.

The questions and concerns by state Rep. Dale Kobayashi (D, Manoa- Punahou-Moiliili) — one of eight House members of the special House Investigative Committee — followed comments Thursday by committee Chairwoman Della Au Belatti that unnamed members of the committee were told that there were “omissions” in an unspecified third audit conducted by Kondo’s office.

Kobayashi said he joined the committee to investigate the findings and recommendations of separate audits of the Agribusiness Development Corp. and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Special Land and Development Fund.

“When you look at that time we’ve spent in our hearings, the problems brought out with SLDF and ADC are basically falling by the wayside while we focus on the auditor,” Kobayashi said.

He unsuccessfully requested that the state attorney general be asked to issue an opinion on whether the House resolution creating the committee allowed it to investigate Kondo and his office.

“Not only am I concerned with the legality, or correctness, of us going outside of what I see as the scope of this investigative committee as set forth by the resolution, but that’s also costing us in terms of getting down to the details of what I thought we were here for: investigate those two agencies and the recommendations and findings from the audit reports on those. If you look at the time that we’re spending on those issues directly relative to issues related to the auditor, it’s not even close. We’re spending so much more time with the auditor.”

Belatti did not bring Kobayashi’s suggestion for an attorney general opinion to a vote and said, “I believe that we are spending sufficient time on the matters.”

The hearings began Sept. 13 and were originally scheduled to wrap up testimony next week, followed by a draft of the committee’s report in November.

But Belatti suggested Wednesday and again Thursday that testimony still could be taken into December, with more witnesses subpoenaed Thursday to testify under oath in person at the state Capitol.

Kondo and the House Investigative Committee are scheduled to have a hearing in Circuit Court on Nov. 3 over Kondo’s motion that he needs additional time to seek outside legal counsel, saying the attorney general cannot both represent him and possibly prosecute him for not complying with the committee’s subpoenas of auditor “work papers.”

Kondo is also seeking a court order to quash the subpoenas.

Also on Thursday, Keith Chun, DLNR’s former state land planning and development manager for its land division, testified that he disagreed with some of Wednesday’s testimony offered under oath, especially the testimony of then-­Administrative Deputy Auditor Ronald Shiigi, who oversaw the DLNR audit.

Chun told the committee under oath that Shiigi said Wednesday that Chun had applied for a job at the auditor’s office but was not given an offer.

“That’s just not true,” Chun said. “I don’t think you’ll see any job application there. I got a call from Les Kondo, who I’ve known since law school, asking me if I’d be interested to come and work there. … One of my conditions is I was only willing to work a three-day workweek. … He said he thought he could let me work four days a week. I told him I didn’t want to add that extra day. … So I think it’s misleading for Mr. Shiigi to say I applied and I was not extended a job offer. … It was inaccurate.”