Kaua’i County’s top lifeguard supervisor has been put back on paid status after the Fire Department placed him on an unpaid 30-day leave of absence in December for alleged insubordination. Whether Kaleo Ho’okano was back on the job today, when
Kaua’i County’s top lifeguard supervisor has been put back on paid status after the Fire Department placed him on an unpaid 30-day leave of absence in December for alleged insubordination.
Whether Kaleo Ho’okano was back on the job today, when the suspension had ended, wasn’t known.
The job status also was not known for Myles Emura, a second senior lifeguard supervisor put on 30-day leave for circulating two surveys criticizing the Fire Department’s management of the county water safety division. Emura’s leave also was without pay.
The men were taken off their jobs while the Fire Department conducted an internal investigation of the matter.
Both claimed they were victims of a power play by Fire Department officials to wrest control of the 27-member water safety unit from them.
The struggle has created morale problems among lifeguards and has diminished the effectiveness of lifeguard services, raising the risk for slower responses to drowning incidents, the two lifeguards contend.
Citing confidentiality related to civil service employees, Fire Department officials have refused to comment on the dispute.
Because of the ongoing departmental investigation, officials of the Hawai’i Government Employees Association, which is representing Ho’okano and Emura, said they couldn’t comment on the case.
The dispute’s roots are in the transfer of the water safety program from the county parks and recreation division to the Fire Department in 2000. It was done to enhance the effectiveness of both government agencies, according to officials.
But 17 of 20 lifeguards signed surveys that were sent late this year to fire chief David Sproat and battalion chief Bob Kaden, saying they didn’t want Kaden overseeing the water safety division or firefighters training the lifeguards.
Ho’okano said Kaden can’t properly oversee the water safety program because he serves on the county’s Planning Commission and because he monitors the overall operations of the Fire Department.
“We want a full-time guy to watch over the needs of the lifeguards.” Ho’okano said.
Firefighters, however, have said that Kaden, a former lifeguard with the city and county of Honolulu, is a capable administrator.
Ho’okano and Emura said they met with Sproat last October in an attempt to resolve their concerns. They said that when Sproat didn’t respond, they sent him a memo on Nov. 23.
Ho’okano and Emura said Sproat subsequently placed them on 30 days leave, effective Dec. 31, and told them through a letter that the county would conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the circulation of two surveys.
Ho’okano said he was told he would be investigated for insubordination. “What insubordination are they talking about? I have been charged, but they haven’t specified to me,” he said.
But a Fire Department official, speaking anonymously, said Ho’okano was kept abreast of the details of the charges during the investigation.
Ho’okano said he was offered a compromise – assignment to a lifeguard tower in Kekaha and retaining his salary and civil service rating – but refused because “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Mayor Maryanne Kusaka met with Ho’okano and Emura Jan. 14, but no resolution came out of the meeting.
Ho’okano and Emura said the Fire Department hasn’t kept up with certification for all lifeguards and has yet to develop policies and regulations for the water safety division.
Ho’okano has been a lifeguard 16 years, taking over the head of the water safety division in 1996. Emura has been a county lifeguard for 18 years.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
