08-29-2016, 08:46 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Chunkster
A coverup and/or conspiracy come to mind, but I have nothing to base that on other than sheer speculation. Is simple failure to report malfeasance a crime in Hawaii? This case just gets "curioser and curioser" as Alice would say.
My speculation is that it was suppose to work. The Mayor was suppose to avoid detection and get away with it but someone blew the whistle.
I can't help but think that the only way this could have gone down is with the assistance of others in the executive branch of government. Somebody had to, for example, unblock the Mayor's pCard. All vendors have a merchant number code so that they can be tracked. The pCard has a blocked merchant code (MMC) which are the things that the pCard will not process. The bicycle shop has a vendor code which is on the list of blocked merchant codes on that back of the Mayor's pCard. The bicycle should have been declined at the point of purchase. How did Mayor Billy over come this? Who gave him carte blanche to make personal purchases like a surfboard or alcohol when both are suppose to be blocked? How did Mayor Billy get an airline ticket for that young man to travel to Honolulu when airlines are on the blocked (MCC) pCard list? I surmise that the managing director, finance directer, third party pCard administrator and the First Hawaiian bank let him do it without reporting it or dealing with it. To me that means people were getting paid not to do their job.
The Mayor says he will beat the charges and refuses to step down. At the start of this whole mess, Billy said “I'm sorry I did it.” than he said ”I'm innocent”. Now, he's talking about technicalities. It's just a slap in the face. He presided over a very dishonest administration. Two of them. And yet Mayor Billy gave everyone raises this year and the County Council approved them when they approved the budget. Hum.
Mismanagement? Malfeasance in office? These are the issues that are within the Hawaii County Charter which serves as our constitution. In the Charter there is a whole chapter, Chapter two, that deals with Impeachment and what you do when it is time to get rid of an elected officer.
The County Council had the power and the duty to start impeachment proceedings. It should have been easy. Impeach Billy and remove him from the office so he has to defend himself from outside of government and without a salary. The Mayor couldn’t possibly being doing his job now with all of these distractions. The office has been compromised and some of us no longer have trust and confidence in our Mayor.(Some of us never did...)
Now Billy will walk out of the office. No ,he will strut and swagger out of the office, knowing that the legislators decided to let him off the hook.
This issue is a symptom of a problem that has been going on for a long time in government in Hawai'i if not the entire nation.