HILO — Attorneys defending Mayor Billy Kenoi on theft and other charges said in a legal document “the big picture, big thinking mayor had bigger things to do than think about monthly reimbursements” of personal charges made with his county-issued
HILO — Attorneys defending Mayor Billy Kenoi on theft and other charges said in a legal document “the big picture, big thinking mayor had bigger things to do than think about monthly reimbursements” of personal charges made with his county-issued credit card.
Meanwhile, the deputy attorney general prosecuting Kenoi said county attorneys have no grounds to claim attorney-client privilege to keep 40 emails concerning Kenoi’s purchasing card expenditures and media requests to see pCard records secret. That’s because a government attorney’s client is the public — not the mayor or other government officials — and as such the attorney’s responsibility is to serve what’s best in the name of public interest.
Those salvos were fired in court documents filed in the final week leading up to a pretrial hearing to be held at 1 p.m. Friday in Hilo before Honolulu Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario.
Kenoi is scheduled for trial Oct. 10 on two counts of second-degree theft, two counts of misdemeanor theft, three counts of tampering with government records, and one count of making a false statement under oath. The second-degree theft charges are felonies each punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The alleged crimes stem from Kenoi’s misuse of his pCard.
A document filed by Deputy Attorney General Kevin Takata said Kenoi used the card to buy “exorbitant amounts of alcohol.” Attached was a Dec. 15, 2008, memo from then-Finance Director Nancy Crawford to Kenoi and department heads on spending guidelines which said meals for which reimbursement is sought “should be made on an itemized receipt. NO LIQUOR!” (emphasis Crawford’s) The memo said the guidelines were adopted after discussions with Kenoi, who had just taken office, and then-Managing Director Bill Takaba, who approved and signed the memo.
The state also is asking the judge prohibit “all testimony and evidence relating in any way to the accomplishments, achievements, activities, policies, positions, or goals” of Kenoi while mayor, while the defense wants such testimony allowed saying the accomplishments, policies and goals of Kenoi’s administration “intersected when he engaged in the conduct upon which the state has premised its criminal allegations.”
“Sharing an alcoholic drink has always been a common part of doing business and conducting the affairs of government in this country — and around the world,” Kenoi attorneys Todd Eddins and Richard Sing wrote. “Alcohol consumption among business and government officials indisputably serves the goal of developing closer and more meaningful relationships.”
On the other side, Takata is requesting Del Rosario order the Office of Corporation Counsel to turn over 40 remaining emails subpoenaed by the attorney general, arguing Kenoi “is not an appropriate executor of the (attorney-client) privilege in his discussion with county attorneys.”
The document refers to a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in July which states “government attorneys do not act as personal attorneys for officeholders but instead are public servants fulfilling a higher duty to act in the public interest.”
Takata noted that the federal appeals court ruling said “an official who fears he or she may have violated the criminal law and wishes to speak to an attorney in confidence should speak with a private attorney not a government attorney.”
The mayor’s pCard charges became the focus of a yearlong criminal investigation by the attorney general after Big Island newspapers reported on March 29, 2015, Kenoi used it at a Honolulu hostess bar.
In total, the mayor spent almost $130,000 on the card before it was revoked in March 2015. While most of it was for county business, there were numerous personal charges in addition to the $892 hostess bar tab, including $1,219.69 for a surfboard and $1,889 at Bike Works in Kona.
Other charges included $400 at another Honolulu hostess bar and $700 at a Hilo karaoke bar.
The county issued its own pCard audit in July 2015 that found 145 pCard transactions totaling $23,683 in the Mayor’s Office didn’t follow county policy, had a questionable public purpose or might have violated state law. That included $3,689 in charges deemed personal.
Kenoi reimbursed the county for $22,292 in charges between January 2009 and March 2015. He later paid back approximately $9,500 more after the newspapers published their stories examining his pCard use.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
