Kenoi's personal finances will be under spotlight

[leilanidude]

HOTPE - We don't know what he did with the funds. He could have sold the land and put the funds into his children's accounts.

[shockwave rider]

I remember when he asked for the exception that allowed him to subdivide that land without hooking up to county water, he proclaimed loud and clear the subdivision was just so he could give his kids a lot someday, and maybe sell off one or two eventually to pay for college. At the time I thought it was bad precedence, and it stank to high heaven of special favors for the politically connected, but now we know he was clearly lying about his intent, considering how quickly he turned around and sold several of the lots.

I wonder if any of the purchasers were his "guests" when he was using the P-Card to buy food and drinks?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

We don't know what he did with the funds.

That's true. It's possible he set up savings accounts for his kids with the money.
I'll be curious if it's revealed where the funds were deposited as part of the ongoing investigation.

I'll also agree that even if he didn't set up a fund for his children immediately after the sale, he probably planned to, sometime in the future.

[Chunkster]

Just where or to whom the money from the land sales went is a new and very interesting piece of the Kenoi meltdown story. The judge's decision to allow the state to use an FBI forensic accountant may or may not enlighten us on this, depending on how the sale might be related to the charges in the indictment. Also, it is not unheard of for new charges and indictments to arise out of investigations of existing ones. Failure to report the land sales is a violation of disclosure regulations and a red flag for investigators, even if it is not a criminal offense.

[kalakoa]

he probably planned to, sometime in the future

He probably "planned to" disclose the pCard charges, you know, "sometime in the future".

[Rob Tucker]

Pahoated will be taking a Punaweb vacation for a while.

Assume the best and ask questions.

Punaweb moderator

[Guest]

Did we miss something here, why did PTed Need a Vacation?

Anyway, Our Mayor has plenty of experience when it comes to selling off large amounts of land. Like this Hamakua land worth millions back in 2009.

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2000/0...-timeline/

[TomK]

OK, it was a private party (I think), but jeez, this is not how I'd expect our mayor to behave. At some point, you'd think he'd realize he's an ambassador for and representative of the Big Island.

http://www.civilbeat.org/2016/09/profani...ovt-event/

[kalakoa]

OK, it was a private party (I think)

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/news...ality-room

eliciting laughter and hoots from the room, which contained a mix of elected officials, appointed officials, private developers, land-use attorneys and planning consultants.

I appreciate some good profanity now and then, but this "hospitality room" sounds more like an off-the-record meeting about who will be allowed to build what.

Kenoi, standing next to an ice bucket with several liquor bottles

Hmm, maybe some pCard abuse? Unless the developers/attorneys/consultants were providing the liquor, which is a different problem...

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

I appreciate some good profanity now and then, but this "hospitality room" sounds more like an off-the-record meeting about who will be allowed to build what.

It has been pointed out before that Billy speaks to a gathering in their preferred dialect:

When addressing locals he uses pidgin
When addressing government or business leaders he uses school educated English

I would say when your speech is peppered with profanity, you're swearing to the crowd that you're going to do right by your close friends, cohorts, business associates, and drinking buddies. You're one of them, and you're in on the joke.

“We’ve got to be as clear-headed about human beings as possible, because we are still each other’s only hope,” James Baldwin to Margaret Mead in the book A Rap On Race