Two Sunrises for the
Month of August!

Tuesday, August 10
East Oahu Breakfast Club
Hawaii Kai Golf Clubhouse
7 - 8 am

Wednesday, August 11
SBH Board Meeting
SBH Office Hawaii Kai -12 noon

Tuesday, August 17
Aiea-Pearl City Business Association
Pearl Country Club
Noon -1:30

Thursday, August 26
SBH Sunrise Breakfast
Peter Carlisle,
Honolulu Prosecutor
Macy’s Pineapple Room
7 - 8:30 am

Tuesday, August 31
SBH Sunrise Breakfast
Duke Bainum,
Candidate for Mayor
Macy’s Pineapple Room
7 - 8:30 am

SBH TV
Sundays 7:00 pm
Channel 54

Corruption in City Government Runs Deep

By Malia Zimmerman, HawaiiReporter

City Hall has been a recent hotbed of corruption.

As mayoral candidates battle over who will head up the City & County of Honolulu after 2004, it is becoming more and more clear to Oahu taxpayers that the new mayor will have a tough job - especially when it comes to cleaning up corruption within the city administration.

The city has been run by a mayor corrupted by his own power and arrogance, and that attitude has trickled down to a number of city agencies, with many city employees and contractors being busted for illegal acts.

Most recently, former city liquor inspector and deputy state sheriff William Richardson Jr. was sentenced to 20 months in prison after admitting to being part of a ring of 8 liquor inspectors who took bribes and extorted money from those they were inspecting in exchange for ignoring violations. He is the first of the group to be sentenced after federal officials filed a 57-count indictment in May 2002.

Two other city employees, Harry Hauck III and Jay S. Gonsalves, both supervisors at the Kailua Wastewater Treatment Plant, were recently charged with theft and bribing city workers. Hauck pleaded not guilty in First Circuit Court to charges of alleged abuses of overtime and improper use of city resources and personnel.

Several engineers have been arrested by city police or fined by the state Campaign Spending Commission for giving illegal campaign contributions to the mayor.

Most recently, a vice president of SSFM apologized for requesting his family launder over $16,000 to Harris, saying he felt pressured by his boss and the more than 50-year tradition of giving excess contributions to Democrat politicians in hopes of getting government work. Prosecutors estimate more than half of the mayor's $3 million campaign fund war chest was illegally donated. A number of other engineers and professionals are facing fines and criminal charges for their role in what has come to be known as "pay to play." Business people wanting city contracts, zoning and permitting admit to being or feeling pressured to contributing to the mayor's campaign in hopes of bettering their chances.

Other charges have been filed against city officials, including former city council members and employees in the police department and city administration.