HILO – A handful of community members sounded off Wednesday on the recent government purchase card spending fiasco plaguing the office of Mayor Billy Kenoi.
The mayor was harshly criticized Wednesday for his admitted personal use of his pCard during public testimony given to Hawaii County Council Finance Committee. It was the first of three days of special meetings set aside to examine the county budget for the Fiscal Year 2015-2016, and the only chance for testifiers to weigh-in on county spending.
Mayor Kenoi has been under fire for his pCard use ever since the West Hawaii Today newspaper published an article on March 29 reporting the mayor had used his pCard at a Honolulu hostess bar. Further investigation revealed his continued use of the card for personal expenditures, an activity that is forbidden. The mayor apologized and said he repaid his debt to taxpayers by reimbursing all personal expenditures out of his own pocket.
Some testifiers took their comments a step further and detailed what they say is an atmosphere of intimidation cultivated by Mayor Kenoi. Some say they have years of first hand experience of alleged bullying and retribution for supporting Kenoi’s political opponents.
Concern was also expressed over the failure of other officials in the Kenoi administration to put a stop to the mayor’s habits, or to make the financial records more readily available for examination.
Thanks to all those who were willing to appear in public and comment on the corruption and malfeasance of Mr. Kenoi. He has no business continuing as mayor, but his hiring of three top echelon criminal defense lawyers clearly means he couldn’t care less about the people of this county or being their “public servant” as long as he can feed in the trough of taxpayer money for his personal gratification. If Kenoi had an ounce of ethics left in him he’d resign, but we all know that ship sailed long long ago. Just read through a few months of his expenditures of taxpayer money…
what is the big thing?…we all know that he will get away with this…and he is laughing at us small commoners…NOTHING is going to happen…mitch roth…his pal…will not do any thing…not one council person will speak up for us…so lets get over it…billy wins again…correct me if i am wrong….