• The mayor and the police commission The mayor and the police commission By Raymond Chuan It’s known around town that the Mayor almost two months ago had finally, under pressure from many sources, including the media, both in Hawai‘i
• The mayor and the police commission
The mayor and the police commission
By Raymond Chuan
It’s known around town that the Mayor almost two months ago had finally, under pressure from many sources, including the media, both in Hawai‘i and on the Mainland, to dismiss the Police Commissioner who used racial slur against then candidate for the Chief position K.C. Lum, in his communication with the Police Departmennt. In conformance with the Charter the Mayor must ask the Council to approve his decision to dismiss a commissioner. (Kauai County Charter Article 23.02B(1)) And the decision of the Council must be made in open session according to the Sunshine Law.
Our council has gone into secret sessions a lot in the last two years, most occasions in violation of the Sunshine Law; and has been told so by the Office of Information Practices (OIP)on nummerous occasions.
It now seems the current Council cannot decide on how to approve, or reject the Mayor’s request to dismiss the errant Police Commissioner in an open session, rather than its common practice otherwise, because recent complaints from members of the public to the OIP have directed attention of the OIP onto the Kauai County Council. The reason for this reluctance and the Council’s weeks long sitting on the Mayor’s request, according to talk around the town, is that there may be four Council members who would deny the Mayor’s request but are reluctant to do so in public as required by law.
Further revelation by a Honolulu newspaper today (Jan 19) that the Council has now decided to conduct a criminal investigation of the Police Department, presumably to serve two purposes: to cloud the issue of the errant Commissioner; and to, somehow, divert public attention from the inevitable Title 9 Civil Rights lawsuit filed by the aggrieved party in the case, or even somehow weaken the Title 9 lawsuit.
Without further tainting its credibility the Council should really get on first with processing the Mayor’s request to dismiss the Police Commissioner, and suffer either the presumed hits from some imagined sector of the public or the Police Department if they vote in the affirmative (dismiss the commissioner), or hits from the general public as well as the aggrieved party who may file the Title 9 lawsuit if they vote in the negative (retain the commissioner.)
In any event, there are more important issues for this council to deal with. So let’s see you get on with the business you have been elected to attend to. And stop wasting the taxpayers’ money that you have been extracting with increasing fervor, to hire expensive outside lawyers!
Raymond L. Chuan is a resident of Hanalei
