The manager for Hawaii County’s Department of Water Supply billed the county more than $7,000 for post-meeting lunches with board members over two years, raising concerns that Hawaii island taxpayers have been picking up the tab to have public issues discussed in private.
But a department spokeswoman said no official business was discussed during the lunch meetings, which have been held at public expense because the department "is appreciative of the service and value the Water Board members provide as volunteers with substantial responsibilities."
Quirino Antonio, the Department of Water Supply’s manager and chief engineer, regularly used his county-issued purchasing card — or pCard — to buy lunch for the Water Supply Department’s nine board members and staff primarily at the Hilo Yacht Club and Kona’s Bite Me Fish Market following monthly board meetings.
Antonio is also in charge of overseeing the Department of Water Supply’s pCard expenditures, according to the State Procurement Office.
Use of county pCards has come under intense scrutiny following revelations late last month that Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi billed outings to Honolulu hostess bars and other personal expenses on his county pCard.
A Honolulu Star-Advertiser analysis of pCard receipts from the county Department of Water Supply found that the water board spent $7,366.03 on activities variously described as "Water Board Meeting," "Water Board Luncheon Meeting in Kona" and "Water Board Luncheon" from January 2013 through January 2015.
Nine to 17 people attended the luncheons, according to county pCard records, where the average bill cost the county $294.64. But the lunch bills at the Hilo Yacht Club that Antonio charged to the county averaged $339.35.
The luncheons were not announced to the public, even though the Water Board describes them as meetings.
The regular public monthly meetings begin at 10 a.m. and average 2 hours and 14 minutes in length, according to a Star-Advertiser analysis of the board’s minutes.
The shortest meeting lasted just 38 minutes. The longest took 5 hours and 38 minutes.
Following the board meetings, Antonio charged the county no less than $110.50 at Miyo’s Restaurant in Hilo on Oct. 28, 2014.
The most expensive tab on Antonio’s pCard was the $921.87 lunch bill at the Hilo Yacht Club following the Department of Water Supply’s meeting on Dec. 13, 2013.
His pCard records list only eight people who attended the lunch. But Kanani Aton, the department’s spokeswoman, who is listed as one of the eight people in attendance, wrote in an email that the lunch honored "employees of the quarter, retirees, and outgoing board members with a buffet style meal."
Asked to explain the discrepancy, Aton wrote in a subsequent email that a problem with the spreadsheet of Water Supply pCard expenditures cut off other names.
"There were actually over 20 people in attendance," Aton wrote.
Antonio’s lunch purchases also raise concerns that Water Supply board members could be inappropriately discussing board matters outside of public view, which would be a violation of Hawaii’s open-meetings "sunshine law," said Dan Mollway, former executive director of the state Ethics Commission.
"It’s highly suspicious," Mollway said. "The more it looks like a meeting, the more it deserves inquiry. If I heard a board had a formal meeting and then an hour later went out to a place together, that would be enough to want to know why and to want to make sure nothing inappropriate was being done, either intentionally or out of ignorance. I just don’t know how you don’t get together for lunch and don’t talk about the one thing you all have in common, which is the important matters and crisis in front of you for whatever board you’re on."
Mollway also was concerned that the person in charge of monitoring Department of Water Supply pCard expenditures — Antonio — also racked up most of the costs.
"The rule should be that someone else should oversee it to avoid temptation or overuse," Mollway said.
Aton wrote that no liquor was ever purchased at the lunches, and no board matters were ever discussed.
"Some members have to travel substantial distances, involving hours worth of travel times (to and from) in addition to the board meeting duration," Aton wrote. "Members are not provided per diem for meetings. As such, we provide lunches without alcoholic beverages. The venues we select are reasonably priced, conveniently located with adequate parking."
Aton also wrote that "Water Board members are very cognizant of Sunshine Law requirements and do not discuss board business outside of the official meeting."
Jennifer Brooks, an attorney for the state Office of Information Practices, which handles sunshine law violations, said OIP had not received a complaint about the county Department of Water Supply.
In general, Brooks said, members of some boards are able to meet socially without improperly discussing board matters that should only be aired in public.
"There is a significant difference being all together in a meeting and then being all together a half-hour later at a social occasion," she said. "You can have instances where that can lead to trouble."
