Billy Kenoi, the lame duck Hawaii County Mayor, just can’t catch a break these days. His lawyers’ attempts to get criminal charges thrown out before trial was rejected, and then a video surfaced in which the apparently inebriated mayor liberally tosses out F-bombs in a rambling toast of sorts during an after-hours social event at a conference on Kauai.
The Hawaii Congress of Planning Officials Conference was held this week at the Grand Hyatt at Poipu, Kauai.
Civil Beat posted a video of the scene on Thursday (“Profanity-Laced Video Shows Mayor Partying Hard At Conference Party“). It’s a cringeworthy episode, and it’s hard not to feel sorry for the guy as he steers what’s left of his political train into another very big ditch.
Reporter and blogger Joan Conrow (Kauai Eclectic) identified the source of the video.
Though CB branded the video like it was its own, it was actually lifted from the Facebook page of Jonathan Scheuer, a member of the state Land Use Commission. So curious, that CB fails to note the one thing that actually is interesting about this shtick: a public official secretly taping other public officials.
To his credit, Scheuer deleted the two videos he’d taken at the event, and issued a FB apology:
First, the regular folks at the party did not expect to be videoed, even if the videos were not primarily of them. Second, the videos may have given some people the wrong impression that all we do is drink and party at this conference. This was one after-hours gathering at a three-day conference that is digging deeply into many substantive issues that face our islands. I am friends with many, many people at this conference, and many planners around the state, and they are some of the most dedicated people I know. I really regret having posted the videos for those reasons, and apologize to my planning colleagues for the harm this may have caused. I am sorry. 🙁
Conrow is critical of Civil Beat’s use of the Kenoi video.
Though the video has absolutely nothing to do with anything, and isn’t even entertaining, reporter Chad Blair justifies it because “Kenoi has been accused by criminal prosecutors of using taxpayer money to buy, as the prosecutors put it, “exorbitant amounts of alcohol.”
Uh, except that’s totally irrelevant, since no taxpayer money was used to host the after-hours Kauai Hyatt hospitality suite where the toast occurred.
But Conrow is wrong when she says “the video has absolutely nothing to do with anything,” although it’s not Kenoi’s self-destructive monologue that’s of public interest.
It seems to me that there are many potential ethical pitfalls in a setting like this which brings Hawaii’s government and corporate planners together under the sponsorship of many of the same development interests these planners are called on to regulate in their official capacities.
According to Civil Beat:
Kauai County spokesperson Sarah Blane told Civil Beat on Thursday the party was “an informal social gathering that was held after the formal program of events.”
The food and drinks were paid for by “event sponsors and individuals,” Blane said in an email. “The county did not make those purchases.”
…The conference was sponsored by some major corporations who do business in the state, including Kaiser Permanente, D.R. Horton Hawaii, Alexander & Baldwin, Kamehameha Schools and R.M Towill Corp.
The three-day conference included an evening of music and dance which boasted “prizes for best costume!”, a “Casino and Karaoke Night”, and a mid-week golf tournament at the Po‘ipu Bay Golf Course.
“There was also a giveaway contest of three Apple Watches or a two-night stay at the Four Seasons Resort Oahu at Ko Olina,” according to Civil Beat.
So forget Kenoi’s F-bombs. The real issue is ethics. I don’t know about you, but when our public planners are enjoying themselves to the booze and prizes provided by corporate sponsors who they will be called on to regulate when they return to their day jobs, I think that’s a serious concern. And that golf tournament? Did any of the government planners or board and commission members have their entry fees paid by friendly lobbyists? Were development and real estate lobbyists among those registered for the conference? Will all these activities be disclosed?
I hope staff of the State Ethics Commission take a good close look at the various issues raised. At minimum, it would be useful for everyone to have the commission’s guidance on how an organization like the Hawaii Congress of Planning Officials can avoid ethical issues when planning this kind of government-industry gathering in the future.
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Simple question: did those Apple watches or the hotel stay cost more than $25?
If so, there is a gift law… and yes, the State Ethics Commission should be on this immediately. Also, of course, the lawmakers should have known not to participate in the first place. They may also have crossed the line if they gulped more than that value of booze and pupus.
But this is the Kauai County Council, right? The same folks who repeatedly try to skirt the Sunshine Law. There seems to be a pattern here.
Conrow has long had a bias toward Chad Blair and Civil Beat, so I take her writings with a grain of salt. Ian, on the other hand rightfully raises ethical questions concerning this whole event. Kenoi, perhaps should be expelled from the Democrat Party for obscenity and apparent drunkeness. An embarrassment!
Why bother expelling Kenoi from the Democratic Party at this point? His political career is permanently over anyway.
It’s truly sad to see Kenoi carrying on this way. Politics and ethics aside, the man needs help.
I’m sure Billy’s mom would defend her son and disparage his critics too, no matter what they did, Patty. She might even identify herself as such.
That being said, Billy is his own worst enemy.
How very Jonathan-Sheuer-like, posting that video without anyone’s knowledge or permission…
Thanks to Sheuer there’s no doubt Billy blew his credibly
johnson,
This video shows a public official at a public event.
no one needs any permission or even knowledge for any video. Hillary Clinton wouldn’t even bother hiding this video. are you joking? you have got to be kidding. Hawaii isn’t China, yet.
Worse than China. Please see my posts below, and maybe some google to fact check. This really just happened here in Hilo.
Billy Kenoi is following in the steps of Mufi Hannemann and Milton Holt in providing amazing examples of wasted intelligence and talent. As Donald Trump–who has nothing to waste–would say, “Sad!”
I find it disingenuous to compare Mufi to Kanoi and Holt. Mufi lost some elections but has had an honest straight up life. He currently has an important position and has never been involved in scandal like the other two.
What have you done with you life?
Mufi’s legacy is less than half-built. If the city goes bankrupt, the damage will be far worse than any partying on the taxpayers’ or the bishop estate’s dime.
As an example of Mufi’s wasting of his intelligence and talent please read Ian’s story in the 18 December 2013 issue of Civil Beat in which he describes his bullying vendetta against two Blaisdell stage hands which resulted in an excoriating decision from the Hawaii Supreme Court granting them substantial damages, money to be paid, of course, from the revenues of the City. If Mufi could have reigned in his personality he would be governor or a U.S. congressional representative. He couldn’t, and his considerable intelligence and talent are reduced to being used to suck up to the legislature and county councils for the visitor industry. As I said before: Sad!
Calm down, Hal. Wailau didn’t accuse Mufi of any scandal or crime. I totally get the link he was referring to: Milton, Mufi, and Billy have all been thought of at one time as rising political stars who were eventually done in by hubris and a sense of entitlement.
BTW, for someone who has supposedly led an “honest, straight up life,” vicious last minute campaign smears sure had a curious way of following Mufi and working in his favor a couple of times. All purely a coincidence, I’m sure,……
Conrow is way off the mark on this one. The issue is the behavior of a public official. One who appears to be inebriated and tossing out F-bombs is a matter of public interest. That alone justifies running that video.
Great points. Drunken buffoonery is secondary to the ethical morass of the entire conference.
Please take this seriously and help us. The ethics problems in this blog about these meetings of contractors and politicians but no citizens are real and worse than you can imagine. We are having a nightmare crisis on the Big Island over the low income housing developments, the HHFDC, the politicians, the police and others because of the millions for the buildings. The ethics commission too. THEY ARE DIRTY.
Poor families went through hell, a hell that cannot be described in Hilo at the Riverside Apartments. Some of us ended up homeless and were threatened by cops, beat up, could lose their kids over abuse that wasn’t happening from false reports made by the management that everyone knows they could make stick, just plain getting tossed out with no more housing assistance without any legal LA court process, and just plain living in fear. Real fear.
For 2 reasons. Reason 1. A little girl was killed in our building by someone who was in a scam with Big Island Housing. He wasn’t allowed to live there because of his record for child abuse and HUD doesn’t allow it. So they just pay on the side and are not on the lease. Many do it and that money adds up.
The tenants who complained about him were told to keep our mouths shut before and after she was killed, and she was beaten to death by a meth head. Think about dying that way, she wasn’t even 2. The ones who didn’t listen, many wished we had because our lives went to s—. All the things I listed above and more. And many people who were supposed to help us from the police to HUD helped the developers and managers instead of doing there jobs. They told them who was reporting them!!! They got us hurt.
And one result? He was let go after 3 days for lack of evidence and lack of witnesses, and then went on to kill a witness. 3 years after that he was arrested again, and he just took a plea and can be be out 3 years -5 years in jail all together for killing a child and a witness? Disgusting. Sick. I strongly believe this plea was so there would be no trial where all this would come out. His name is Xavier Cortez if you want to google him. This just happened.
Do NOT expect the Ethics Commission in Honolulu to help. You will regret it. Think about it. They are a state agency and they are all friends. About 4 years ago the ethics commission was going to help us. They referred us to tell the hhfdc what was happening before they gave them 7 million for Riverside. And what did the hhfdc do? They also told the buyers and management what was going on. And more people got hurt.
So if there’s anything that can be done about this it will not happen with help from the ethics commission, the Hilo Police or HUD both Honolulu and in San Francisco. They probably talked about controlling this at one of these ugly conferences. We are still afraid here and sick about what they did to us and what happened to her and how they made millions for it. I think the money made them crazy, have no heart and certainly not a conscience.
yes, this is pretty sick:
By JOHN BURNETT Hawaii Tribune-Herald
A former professional boxer once accused of murdering his girlfriend and the woman’s 18-month-old daughter in separate incidents in 2011 was sentenced Friday to 10 years imprisonment for the toddler’s beating death.
According to court records, Kona Circuit Judge Ronald Ibarra also ordered 42-year-old Xavier “Pee Wee” Cortez Jr. to make $54,197 restitution to the state Department of Human Services and Crime Victim Compensation Commission.
In a deal with prosecutors, Cortez pleaded no contest June 9 to first-degree assault.
The beating of the girl, Pomaikai Ferreira, occurred Jan. 2, 2011, in Hilo. She died at The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu nine days later.
Deputy Prosecutor Rick Damerville said the plea bargain was made because of the death of one witness and the refusal of another to testify.
“That made it real hard for the state to go forward to trial,” Damerville said Tuesday.
Court records indicate that Keith Shigetomi, Cortez’s court-appointed attorney, asked the judge to sentence his client to probation and time already served. Cortez has been in custody since his arrest Jan. 28, 2014, following a murder indictment. Shigetomi disagreed with a pre-sentencing report by a probation officer who opined the circumstances that led to the toddler’s death and the strangulation death of the girl’s 20-year-old mother, Sommer Ferreira, were likely to recur, records state.
Records state the judge said during sentencing he found no grounds to justify Cortez’s actions and that Cortez’s character, attitude and prior history of abuse made him a poor candidate for probation.
Ibarra took over the case after both Hilo Circuit judges, Greg Nakamura and Glenn Hara, recused themselves for undisclosed reasons.
Cortez’s sentence is an “open” 10-year term, which means the state Paroling Authority will decide when he will be released. He will receive credit for time served.
Thank you so much for posting this. We are in trouble here, and some of us are still trying to fix this.
I forgot the second reason. Some reported the violations during construction to HUD per procedure. Things like how some of that money was to move us out for the construction but it wasn’t done or correctly and where we got moved to. Short version is, they screwed us while pretending to help us and if you followed the complaint process per instructions it just got much worse.
I’ll bet that happens all the time. But I believe getting witnesses to be silent and getting cops and HUD to help with that is pushing things beyond. wouldn’t you agree? This was a child. She shouldn’t have died and the witness either. Imagine being ordered by your landlord to not call cps or 911 or else. Imagine.
And one family got kicked out for talking to a reporter who turned out to be their friend, but still. This is America. No way.
Many of us recording them. We met secretly because they would have the manager follow sometimes or watch us on the security cameras and corner us later to find out if we were talking about the child. We compared notes and stories. One went to HPS to file a complaint and recorded this. The cop was very nice and concerned. He told this couple he’d take the complaint but said they wait closer to the deadline and after they moved out of Riverside, and better if they moved off island first because the police would not be able to protect them from the backlash they would get. Even the police are aware about the powers of these developers! And their best true advice was they will hurt you and we can’t help you, just being realistic. Something wrong here. We really so need some help.