Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi has likely torpedoed his own future political options now that his rather flexible approach to using a county credit card for personal expenses has come to light.
Well, that’s a bit too passive.
We don’t know exactly how this story developed, but it looks like credit goes to reporter Nancy Cook Lauer at West Hawaii Today. Lauer, aided by a document obtained from an unidentified source, broke the story of Kenoi’s use of a county credit card for a 2013 visit to a Honolulu hostess bar, which in turn pressured the county to finally officially release the mayor’s credit card statements and receipts. The county had previously refused to disclose the records despite Lauer’s public records request.
In a Facebook comment, Lauer wrote: “To me, it’s always been about access to government records.”
Kenoi, it seems, was following in the footsteps of former UH President Evan Dobelle, although on a far smaller scale. When you’re the mayor, or a university president, it’s apparently hard to hear your employees when they try to tell you, “No means no.”
It looks like the disclosure of Kenoi’s improper spending that has done him in.
But I look at the differently. It’s only the belated disclosure that has sunk Kenoi’s political ship.
Would things have gone differently if he knew, back in 2009, that his expenditures made with the county credit card would be regularly scrutinized by enterprising reporters, friend and foe alike? Usually the prospect of having one’s indiscretions revealed on the front pages is a powerful deterrent to official misbehavior.
But the way these things work is that getting away with it once or twice encourages the behavior to continue. Then, in this case, six years later it all comes apart.
If Kenoi had been encouraged to stay on the right side of that thin edge of ethics by the understanding that those spending records wouldn’t stay secret for long, it might have gone differently. And his prospects would still be bright.
So let’s do all of our public officials a big favor and save them from themselves by keeping up the pressure for more transparency at all levels of government.
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I think that it speaks to Kenoi’s integrity, lack of! It’s your established values, how you are raised.
I would say it’s just plain old arrogance that did Mayor Kenoi in. The same kind of arrogance that likewise took down Rene Mansho and Milton Holt. The common denominator is that they all behaved as though their popularity at the polls elevated them above the rules that they were supposed to follow. All of them were warned that they were breaking the law, yet they stubbornly persisted in their actions until it was too late.
There are some 1400 pCard holders. Willing to bet that Kenoi isn’t the only official to have misused this card.
Moreover, who’s in charge of imposing and lifting purchasing restrictions on Kenoi’s pCard? Obviously, someone allowed him to bypass the restrictions on food and liquor charges. That person(s) should likewise be held accountable for any disciplinary actions carried out.
Kenoi’s squeaky close re-election win (100 votes or so) over Harry Kim was quite telling of the voter opinions towards him.
The Hawaii Free Press is reporting more troubling allegations about Mayor Kenoi. Whether they are true or not remains to be seen. http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/53/Billy-Kenoi-at-Shootersmdashand-the-Pali-shootermdashthe-connections.aspx?utm_source=April+5%2C+2015+News+from+Hawaii+Free+Press+&utm_campaign=April+5%2C+2015+Email&utm_medium=email
Perhaps it’s time to look at putting controls on pcards. (They should already be in place for lower-level government employees.) It’s pretty easy these days to restrict amounts, vendors and transactions. The only thing to work out would be how legitimate food and liquor purchases could be made.
Kenoi said he did not have a personal credit card?? That should ring alarm bells somewhere? Pretty hard to do things at his level without at least one credit card.
Many years ago, in a previous career and previous life in pubic service, I learned very quickly that if you work for the government, your being was subject to public exposure at any time. That meant that I had to watch myself 7/24/365. Later on, when I had an assigned p-card to me, I knew very well that the card could very well be a camera looking right at my face whenever it was used. The same rules about being watched 7/24/365 still applied. To even think that Mayor Kenoi throught the rules that apply to the thousands of public servants somehow does not apply to him is astounding. I am just glad that as the story continues to come out, it is showing those who think he should be given a pass that no one in the public realm can be given a pass.
You are exactly right KanaHawaii. As a former state employee I know that controls were overrided in order for Kenoi to charge these things. I remember my pCard being rejected when my supervisor asked me to pick up prepared food for a meeting, ended up paying out of pocket and then having to do a PO to be reimbursed.
Someone care to fact-check Kenoi’s margin of victory over Harry Kim? Office of Elections data states it was by 1,438 votes. Still relatively close, but not razor-thin.
Not a landslide win for Kenoi, but the closeness of the race was largely a testament to Kim’s enduring popularity.
But there’s no question that Kenoi’s reputation as a public servant has been flushed straight down the toilet. Hope he has a plan to earn a livelihood in the private sector.
Given the amount of time lapsed from when the charges on the surfboard and bike were made to when they were reimbursed, it would seem that there was no intent to repay the County. Until he got caught, that is.
Mr. Kenoi’s record in traffic court (http://jimspss1.courts.state.hi.us:8080/eCourt/ECC/PartyIdSearch.iface) seems to show someone who’s always had a hard time obeying the law.
Good catch.
I would prefer a crook with aloha any day over a Mufi type or secretive shady back room dealing Ige
Hawaii Free Press has alleged Kenoi is associated with the Pali Shooter.
Anyone who drops 900 bucks in a dump like that should change his name to Charley Tuna.
And using a county pcard for it was just ridiculous. No excuses.
To be fair, media should now request pcard records from the other mayors and take a look. Maybe nothing to see, but you don’t know if you don’t look.
And they should get a complete list of who else has pcard access, and just take it from there.