An unhappy reader spotted photos of UH football mascot Vili the Warrior carousing with Duke Aiona, GOP candidate for governor, during the 4th of July parade in Kailua. This was a Twitpic photo posted by Aiona’s campaign. There’s also a YouTube video of the same scene.
How in the WORLD was Vili the Warrior allowed to be a part of Aiona’s Kailua Parade festivities yesterday? There are pictures like the one above all over Facebook now. I haven’t even checked Duke’s or the Rs website yet – but thats just a matter of time.
He’s a UH employee, dressed in his role that UH pays him to be, representing UH AND endorsing/supporting Aiona?
Did he check with any of his superiors to see if this was ok with UH?
In my book, no way is this OK for this man to be literally parading around as Vili the Warrior for any of the candidates, not just Aiona.
At the least, he should be reprimanded, big time.
Just wrong.
I agree that the political implications are troubling, but the situation is not that simple.
Although state ethics laws would bar use of the state seal or other state-controlled brands for political purposes, and “Vili the Warrior” is closely associated with UH football, the image apparently does not belong to the state or the university.
Although “Vili the Warrior” is described as the UH team mascot, he is not a state employee and the image of the warrior is not owned or controlled by UH. Rather, Vili Fehoko is apparently contracted for specific appearances at UH events.
The warrior character is owned by a for-profit company owned by Vili Fehoko and his wife, Linda, according to state business registration records.
MASTER NAME VILI THE WARRIOR INC.
BUSINESS TYPE Domestic Profit Corporation
FILE NUMBER 221691 D1
STATUS 1
PLACE INCORPORATED Hawaii UNITED STATES
REGISTRATION DATE Feb 1, 2008
MAILING ADDRESS 926 KOPKE ST HONOLULU, Hawaii 96819 UNITED STATES
TERM PER
AGENT NAME LINDA FEHOKO
AGENT ADDRESS 1594 PUOLANI ST HONOLULU, Hawaii 96819 UNITED STATES
Vili’s aggressive behavior became an issue in 2003-2004 when complaints were received following several football games.
According to a January 2004 story by Rob Perez:
Some fans blasted what they called his crude or distasteful gestures, such as the time he grabbed the trunk of the University of Alabama’s elephant mascot, stuck the trunk near Fehoko’s rear end and started trotting away, dragging the elephant for a few seconds.
Fehoko clearly has been a huge supporter of UH football, Sadler said, but it is also clear some changes are needed with the mascot program. Performing distasteful acts and telling opponents they are unwelcome, for instance, cannot be tolerated, he added.
Sadler apologized on the university’s behalf to anyone offended by Fehoko’s actions and said the university over the next few weeks will reassess the overall mascot program.
Perez also reported:
There are no behavior guidelines in the contract, but it states that UH is free to end the agreement when such action is in the school’s interests.
The contract in force at that time expired in 2005, and apparently has been replaced by a new agreement. I have not found any public information about the current contract or its terms.
In 2004, Fehoko filed a lawsuit against the Polynesian Cultural Center, where he was formerly employed, charging that he was a victim of discrimination as a Tongan, according to a PBN story about the case.
PCC defended its action, saying that “Fehoko was terminated over an “incident involving a guest who was assaulted and threatened.”
The case was settled in 2007, on the eve of trial. Terms of the settlement were sealed by the court and remain confidential.
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If Vili is a corporation and gets paid for his appearances, how will that be reported by the Aiona committee? Is that a donation of the non-monetary in-kind variety? Obviously if UH football pays him big bucks to clown around in throw-back fantasy Polynesian garb, that has some kind of value. How exactly is that reported to the Campaign Spending Commission? Is there a limit on how many non-paid appearances Vili the Silly can make before Aiona has to pay the corp?
I believe Vili is not UH employee,but, the name is the property of the Aloha Stadium.
Firing would be appropriate!
Firing would be appropriate! This, also, demonstrates poor judgment by Aiona.
For an elected official that seems to be so adamantly opposed to all things, well, rainbow colored, I find the pose Duke and Vili chose as very curious.
that’s much ado about nothing….
there are sooo many other things in our local society to get unhappy about and rail against, methinks….
I beg to differ. Politics and politicians are the root causes and/or the potential solutions to many, if not most, of them.
The fact that you dedicated even 20 seconds to this says all of you have way too much time on your hands. Dissecting state law over “Vili the Warrior” carrying Aiona for a few feet in a small town parade hardly seems to be worthy of the topic of the day. If the newspaper would have printed a silly story like that you all would have skewered them….so it goes.
Some of iLind’s readers aren’t sports fans. It’s been widely reported that Vili is on a contract with UH athletics & not an employee. I’ve seen Vili in character at plenty of non-sports events
PCC defended its action, saying that “Fehoko was terminated over an “incident involving a guest who was assaulted and threatened.”
The case was settled in 2007, on the eve of trial. Terms of the settlement were sealed by the court and remain confidential.
So we would never know what goes on behind PCC and the Vili case.
I suspect he does this partly because PCC, BYU-Hawaii and Hawaii Reserves HRI Administration are going full steam for Mufi Hannemann.
It’s kinda like Lippy Espinda appearing at a political rally. “Hey! Is this this candidate for governor telling us WE gotta drive used cars!?”
It’s the day and age now where people get just a little too offended at too many manini things….
It’s Ian’s blog. It’s his perspective on what’s important. Obviously since this generated comments both pro and con, this is not manini or unworthy of being “topic of the day”.
It is unfortunate that Vili sees himself as a commodity rather than as support for the football team, then again Hawaii sees the team as a commodity rather than as a college sport.
C’mon people, I think Aiona as a gov candidate is a joke and that Vili is no more than a caricature, but they are both public figures, appeared at a Fourth of July parade, and briefly got fresh with each other. How is that a campaign appearance, donation, or endorsement or even remotely an ethics question?
I’m a lefty who is as prone to outrage as anyone but the time/space devoted to this is nothing short of silly.
Over the Top and Rlb – I wonder if you would feel the same way if/when Vili the Warrior ends up on Duke’s commercials? I’m curious to hear from the Mufi and Neil guys on this.
Uh, if we were to apply the what-is-trivial-and-what-is-not standard to all media, I’m afraid the resultant news hole would make the Grand Canyon look like a little pothole.
Just as a recent example. Is what happened to Lindsay Lohan more important for this country than what is happening in, say, Afghanistan?
Anyone want to take a wild guess as to what is getting more media scrutiny?
And that’s the mainstream media we’re talking about.
Besides, as someone has mentioned, it’s Ian’s blog and he can post anything from the sublime to the ridiculous.
It’s a blog, gang.
And this is the comment section Chuck! 🙂
I’m surprised this has generated so much comment!
I saw it as an odd but interesting situation that called attention to the restriction on using public resources for private purposes, whether political or commercial.
In this case, because the warrior character appears to be controlled by a private contractor, it would appear that the legal restrictions would not apply.
Pity the poor blogger! It’s hard to find those high-value, high substance examples every day! Sometimes a little variety can make a point, too. Or so I thought.
You never know what’s gonna get people’s blood running!
Perhaps you intend to dig into the subject later, but how ’bout some discussion of the Governor’s vetoes (other than HB 444)?
For example, you earlier spent quite a bit of time/effort criticizing HB 1212 which would have sealed records of complaints against members of certain regulated vocations/professions unless and until a final determination of misconduct was made. Lingle vetoed that and, with your earlier spade work on the subject, you could have discussed that instead of Silly Vili and Dopey Duke.
I’m certainly not criticizing you for NOT returning to the subject but you did seem to suggest that you were in need of subject matter (altho’ I guess you were referring to the need for examples of “using public resources for private purposes”).