Two more “oldies” from my files, stemming from investigations in the mid-1980s into improper political activity by the state judiciary and related issues.
First is the Report of the Citizens’ Panel on Judicial Administration in the State of Hawaii, dated March 20, 1986.
It is accompanied by the Report of Consultants to Hawaii Commission on Judicial Administration, prepared by The Institute for Judicial Administration, Inc.
Much of the two reports dealt with improper political activities by Judiciary officials and employees, but they also looked at personnel practices, purchasing, etc.
According to the citizens’ panel’s report:
Deputy Sheriffs have been assigned to drive legislators to various functions, to provide massages to legislators, and to provide after-hours, “bolunteer” services such as parking cars at functions connected with raising money for EGGS, the unofficial Judiciary lobbying group. They have been directly or indirectly requested to donate money or supplies used in EGGS’ lobbying efforts.
The Sheriff’s Office was controlled by the deputy administrative director of the courts. According to the report, his position of “High Sheriff” had been self-created and lacked any statutory authority. Personnel procedures were used “which ensure the advancement of a limited number of employees and precluded other employees from advancing to higher levels.”
This system was used to reward those who participated in or led the improper political activities.
According to the report, the judiciary’s lobbying group used court facilities and employees for political purposes, and was “not accountable to any responsible authority for its actions.”
Until very recently, EGGS and its leaders have been extremely active in campaigning for specific political candidates, even to the point of providing Judiciary employees to waive signs, to canvas voter districts distributing campaign literature, and to work in planning and implementing campaign fundraisers….While some employees may be glad to serve, many of the Judiciary “volunteers” recruited by EGGS are subjected to various types of pressure to ensure their “willingness” to be “ready volunteers” for this political activity.
There’s a lot more. It’s all pretty amazing reading.
And you might want to check out the newspaper clippings from the period, which are in the 1985 & 1986 files in my Common Cause collection.
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I remember the trial of Tom “Fat Boy” Okuda on ticket-fixing charges, who had fixed well over 3,000 tickets for his friends and politicians. The sheriffs at the courthouse treated him like he was a god. I believe it was hard to find a judge to take the case because Okuda held such influence even with judges.
But the system created “Fat Boy” – he couldn’t have done all he did without the collusion of the legislators, court administrator and administrative judge. Too bad they didn’t stand trial with him.
I remember reading an article on Okuda, and what was most notable was that he was a really nice guy who liked to help people. In fact, he was sort of cluelessly innocent, telling the reporter that one of Okuda’s relations worked in a hotel in Vegas and would comp the reporter if he mentioned Okuda’s name. So it’s not just a system but also a kind of friendly, feudal culture in which people are really nice and look out for each other in an unconsciously corrupt way. It is also really uneducated and backward and embarrassing, at least nowadays. It’s not so much “Boss Hogg” or “Serpico” as it is the Beverley Hillbillies. These are generally nice people, and that is at the heart of the problem. They don’t know what they are doing, or at least back in those days they didn’t. Things are more professionalized today, but less innocent.