“I don’t know that I can trust you,” Council Member Kaipo Asing told Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s senior assistant Wally Rezentes, Thursday morning at the council’s regularly scheduled committee meeting. It was an amended ordinance proposed to the council by Rezentes,
“I don’t know that I can trust you,” Council Member Kaipo Asing told Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s senior assistant Wally Rezentes, Thursday morning at the council’s regularly scheduled committee meeting.
It was an amended ordinance proposed to the council by Rezentes, which would have allowed funds to be spent without council approval, that roused Asing’s ire.
The amendment was piggybacked onto proposed Bill #2010, which sought to appropriate $5066 to pay for Mayor Kusaka’s auto allowance and other miscellaneous expenses.
After some discussion, the Finance Committee agreed to pass on the request to reimburse the mayor and cover expenses to the full council.
But the request for a miscellaneous budgetary expense account didn’t fare as well.
“This gives the Administration the ability to move (any) funds to this new (proposed) line-item. The intent of going back to the line-item budget (proposed by Council member Randal Valenciano and passed by the council earlier this year) was to prevent things like this happening,” Asing said.
The council reverted to a line-item budget after three years of a program-based budget, at least partially because of concerns raised when the Administration leased Mayor Kusaka a brand new car without council approval last year.
Her Honor has since returned the vehicle and is driving her own car, hence the need for reimbursement proposed in Bill 2010.
“What I’m talking about,” Asing continued Thursday, ” is, can I trust you? And the reason I went to line-item is because I couldn’t trust you. I don’t know that I can trust you. Your rationale that it is more flexible …. goes right back to a program-type budget,” Asing said.
“Everybody’s got to realize that in operating a business or a government you will have some expenses that are … unforeseen. We are trying to make it easier (to operate),” Rezentes said.
“The issue is not the trust … for me. It’s the accountability,” Council member Jimmy Tokioka said.
“If you do this, where’s the limit (in spending)?” Council Member Randal Valenciano asked rhetorically (there was no limit specified in the proposal).
“It’s about management … not making it easier to spend other people’s money. It feels like this is being slipped in. To me it’s no big deal (to have an account for expenses. But now thanks to Council Asing, I find out it is a big deal,” Council member Gary Hooser said.
Council did not pass the proposal along to the full council for approval as proposed.
