Kim administration, County Council cracking down on employee alcohol purchases

HILO — The Hawaii County administration has overturned a 17-year-old policy and instituted strict new rules governing the purchase of alcohol with taxpayer money.

A new alcohol policy issued Monday — just a week into the Mayor Harry Kim administration — replaces a 1999 policy that allowed alcohol purchases by the mayor or County Council for the entertainment of dignitaries, with written approval by the mayor or council chairman.

“We feel that this is something that needed to be addressed,” said Managing Director Wil Okabe. “It starts at the top.”

County Council Chairwoman Valerie Poindexter said Wednesday she’s drafting a similar policy for the legislative branch.

“I’m on the same page with them,” she said.

The new rules, from Finance Director Collins Tomei, come on the heels of alcohol purchases that were questioned during the tenure of former Mayor Billy Kenoi. The former mayor used his county-issued credit card, or pCard, for “exorbitant amounts of alcohol,” according to a deputy state attorney general who unsuccessfully prosecuted him for theft.

An audit by the county legislative auditor also questioned alcohol purchases, as did the Board of Ethics in responding to a complaint against Kenoi. Kenoi’s defense argued that alcohol was an important social component between elected leaders when it comes to relationship building.

The new policy prohibits “the purchase of alcohol by the county … This will include, but not be limited to; the purchase of alcohol by the county for consumption at a restaurant or bar, formal event (including volunteer appreciation) or a hospitality gathering at a conference.”

It bans the use of pCards to purchase alcohol.

It makes one exception to the policy: the purchase of alcohol by the Police Department for training purposes, when the training is a requirement of a formal written instructional or certification program.

“Aside from the police training, this will be a blanket prohibition on the purchase of alcohol,” Kim said.

Other exceptions remain in the rule, but it will be much more difficult to get approval. A request for approval must be made in writing prior to the purchase, including what is to be purchased, the approximate cost of the purchase, who the alcohol will be purchased for and what benefit the county will receive by purchasing the alcohol. The request must be signed by the director of the requesting department, the director of Finance and the mayor prior to the purchase.

The 1999 policy also prohibited alcohol purchases for consumption by employees or for functions involving the county, including alcohol purchases to accompany meals, and alcohol to be dispensed from hospitality rooms at conferences.

“Besides being an inappropriate use of public funds, there are liability issues involved,” the 1999 policy stated.

But it gave broad leeway to the mayor and council chairman to sign off on their own alcohol purchases.

That was an issue for Auditor Bonnie Nims whose July 17, 2015, audit report questioned the practice of buying alcohol as omiyage and other uses when the county has an alcohol-free, drug-free workplace. She also pointed to unclear language that gave county officers plenty of wiggle room in interpreting the rules.

Audit Analyst Lane Shibata said Wednesday he finds it gratifying to see government act on recommendations in the office’s audits.

“Any time an audit results in rules, regulations, memoranda or directive,” Shibata said, “we realize we have an impact from some of our audits.”

Todd Eddins, Kenoi’s defense attorney during his criminal trial, took a dim view of county alcohol policies in his Oct. 31 closing arguments.

“This puritanical, prudish, prissy fixation on alcohol … Is this Prohibition?” Eddins asked, according to trial videos on Na Leo community television. “The mayor of this county can expend money on alcohol. And whether they want to have a toast to a valued employee on virtually his last day at work, he can.”