OUT OF THE FRYING PAN...: State Auditor extraordinaire Marion Higa gets her head into the machinery of government and spits out the details of what’s broken in excruciating detail.
But woe is us when state legislators start coming up with ways to fix it.
A good example of this just might play out next January after yesterday’s joint hearing of the Senate and House public safety committees’ reaction to Higa’s audit of the Sheriffs’ Division of the Department of Public Safety.
At the end of the newspaper report on the hearings was this quote:
In response to a question from Senate Public Safety Chairman Will Espero, (Department of Public Safety Director Clayton) Frank and Deputy Director Jim Propotnick said they would support splitting the sheriffs' law enforcement function from corrections responsibilities.
Espero (D, Ewa-Kapolei-Ewa Beach) said after the meeting that he will introduce legislation to create what in effect would be a stand-alone law enforcement agency combining sheriffs with those with police powers now currently in the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Land and Natural Resources and Department of Transportation.
For years, not just the Sheriffs' Division but the DLNR’s Division of Conservation and Recourse Enforcement along with the DOTs harbor police have been anything but ethical and competent models of law enforcement with each force answerable only to their respective department heads. That has created private police forces without any of the civilian oversight that is required of accredited law enforcement agencies across the nation.
That’s led to abuses that spur an inordinate number of complaints about specific actions of specific officers without any accountability beyond an arbitrary and often capricious decision by the politically appointed department head
Just combining these law enforcement agencies and presumably putting them under the governor’s office- as one television news report suggested was part of Espero’s plan- will only create an even bigger monster with even less accountability than the current setup.
All too often legislators- not just at the state but county level too- take the easy way out by giving their respective administrations more power than is wise and then wind up complaining about the abuses of that power.
Certainly something is broken with all these paramilitary groups. But unless accreditation and a civilian board or commission is part of any reform plan it’s bound to be ripped a new one by a future Higa audit.
Showing posts with label Marion Higa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marion Higa. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
GLAD WE DIDN’T STEP IN IT
GLAD WE DIDN’T STEP IN IT: A guy walking down the street at night comes upon another guy down on his hands and knees, searching the ground underneath a streetlamp. The second guy asks the first guy what he’s doing and he says he’s looking for his keys.
“Where’d you lose them?” he asks
“Down there in the middle of the block,” the first guy replies, pointing
“Then why are you looking here?”
“Because the light is better.”
Such is apparently the logic of new County Auditor Ernie Pasion who, if an article in the local newspaper has its facts straight- a big “if” these days with little lost boy Leo Azambuja on the government beat- has turned the best and brightest hope for shining a light on rampant administration corruption and incompetence via performance audits into a busy-work office rechecking old financial audits and assorted irrelevant minutia.
Rather than diving right into long standing, well documented, scandalous situations by examining departmental shortcomings- like the patronage system in the personnel office one of the subjects that the FBI has been investigating, or in public works where multifaceted corruption was instrumental in efforts that wound up in the creation of the office of the auditor itself and in the planning department where the director seems to be unable to enforce zoning laws to name a trio- Pasion, a long entrenched good old boy appointee of the council as Deputy County Clerk, has chosen things like auditing the work of the paid financial/fiscal auditors who present the council with yearly reports replete with required actions to rectify shortcomings, as required by law.
Rather than looking into the decades long scandal over discrepancies in the amount of asphalt used on our roads he’s going to look into one single “major road maintenance program performed in the previous year”.
The well reported performance problems and allegations of corruption in the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) that triggered an attempt at council investigations in the past- and allegations that they continue today- is not on any list but the just completed fire station- which reportedly came in early and under budget- is scheduled for a look- see.
The fact that Pasion is quoted as saying he “will be analyzing implementation of the test projects, identifying successes and making recommendations when necessary” is more telling in what it doesn’t say- anything about identifying failures- than anything it does say... not to mention the “ making recommendation when necessary” part indicating that the likelihood of looking for, much less finding, anything that requires recommend changes wasn’t a likely part of the criteria for choosing a subject for audit.
The long and winding road to this latest attempt by the council to placate critics who bemoan their inability or unwillingness to hold administrations accountable while also assuring that shady administrative affairs are swept under the rug began more than a decade ago with the endless “Developers Gone Wild” hearings when the council decided to invoke section 3.17 of the county charter that enables the council to perform “investigations” in the only exception to the non-interference with administrative affairs clause provisions also in charter section 3.
But after first squabbling over how much money to appropriate then deciding which little trees in the Department of Public Works forest to investigate and finally a seemingly intentionally bungled attempt to set up rules for the investigation, many years later that effort morphed into a non-charter created in-house auditor.
After that one sat on the table unimplemented for another year or so the charter amendment creating a county auditor was finally proposed and accepted by voters- not as an independent much less elected position but as an office administratively attached to- and an individual appointed by- the council.
Worries about the lack of specific wording to stress performance audits and make sure the office was led by someone like take-no-prisoners State Auditor Marion Higa went unheard in the fake excitement over the false hope of holding the administration accountable.
So of course we are left with what appears to be a financial/fiscal auditor’s office and an auditor who has no accounting credentials whatsoever. Now they’re actually talking about hiring at least a CPA to do Pasion’s job for him.
What we’re stuck with is a financial rather than performance auditor of the already audited. The question is who is auditing the auditor?
“Where’d you lose them?” he asks
“Down there in the middle of the block,” the first guy replies, pointing
“Then why are you looking here?”
“Because the light is better.”
Such is apparently the logic of new County Auditor Ernie Pasion who, if an article in the local newspaper has its facts straight- a big “if” these days with little lost boy Leo Azambuja on the government beat- has turned the best and brightest hope for shining a light on rampant administration corruption and incompetence via performance audits into a busy-work office rechecking old financial audits and assorted irrelevant minutia.
Rather than diving right into long standing, well documented, scandalous situations by examining departmental shortcomings- like the patronage system in the personnel office one of the subjects that the FBI has been investigating, or in public works where multifaceted corruption was instrumental in efforts that wound up in the creation of the office of the auditor itself and in the planning department where the director seems to be unable to enforce zoning laws to name a trio- Pasion, a long entrenched good old boy appointee of the council as Deputy County Clerk, has chosen things like auditing the work of the paid financial/fiscal auditors who present the council with yearly reports replete with required actions to rectify shortcomings, as required by law.
Rather than looking into the decades long scandal over discrepancies in the amount of asphalt used on our roads he’s going to look into one single “major road maintenance program performed in the previous year”.
The well reported performance problems and allegations of corruption in the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) that triggered an attempt at council investigations in the past- and allegations that they continue today- is not on any list but the just completed fire station- which reportedly came in early and under budget- is scheduled for a look- see.
The fact that Pasion is quoted as saying he “will be analyzing implementation of the test projects, identifying successes and making recommendations when necessary” is more telling in what it doesn’t say- anything about identifying failures- than anything it does say... not to mention the “ making recommendation when necessary” part indicating that the likelihood of looking for, much less finding, anything that requires recommend changes wasn’t a likely part of the criteria for choosing a subject for audit.
The long and winding road to this latest attempt by the council to placate critics who bemoan their inability or unwillingness to hold administrations accountable while also assuring that shady administrative affairs are swept under the rug began more than a decade ago with the endless “Developers Gone Wild” hearings when the council decided to invoke section 3.17 of the county charter that enables the council to perform “investigations” in the only exception to the non-interference with administrative affairs clause provisions also in charter section 3.
But after first squabbling over how much money to appropriate then deciding which little trees in the Department of Public Works forest to investigate and finally a seemingly intentionally bungled attempt to set up rules for the investigation, many years later that effort morphed into a non-charter created in-house auditor.
After that one sat on the table unimplemented for another year or so the charter amendment creating a county auditor was finally proposed and accepted by voters- not as an independent much less elected position but as an office administratively attached to- and an individual appointed by- the council.
Worries about the lack of specific wording to stress performance audits and make sure the office was led by someone like take-no-prisoners State Auditor Marion Higa went unheard in the fake excitement over the false hope of holding the administration accountable.
So of course we are left with what appears to be a financial/fiscal auditor’s office and an auditor who has no accounting credentials whatsoever. Now they’re actually talking about hiring at least a CPA to do Pasion’s job for him.
What we’re stuck with is a financial rather than performance auditor of the already audited. The question is who is auditing the auditor?
Friday, June 18, 2010
BADGERING THE BADGES
BADGERING THE BADGES: State Auditor Marion Higa’s audit of the much maligned Sheriff’s Division the State Department of Public Safety confirms the dysfunctionality that has been apparent for years.
She rightly criticizes the lack of focus and ever expanding role set for state sheriffs with her prime critique centering around what was summed up in the title of Chapter 2- “Lack of Guidance and Leadership Has Resulted in Defective Law Enforcement”.
That’s the understatement of the year according to our many sources in the judiciary who regularly call us with complaints of abuse of power.
As Higa points out:
(T)he Sheriff Division, saddled with an ill-defined role and a lack of mission clarity, has struggled to uphold its expanded law enforcement duties and responsibilities. As the State’s law enforcement needs have expanded, confusion over the extent of the State’s law enforcement responsibilities has grown. This confusion and uncertainty is the result of vague constitutional language, a broad interpretation of statutory authority, and the consolidation of functions previously deemed incompatible.
As a result, the law enforcement responsibilities of the Sheriff Division have expanded beyond the service of process and the security of state buildings to now include drug enforcement, illegal immigration, homeland security, fugitive arrests, criminal investigations, eviction proceedings, and traffic enforcement.
But what has really evolved since it’s 1989 inception is a secret police department that operates purely at the beck and call of leaders of the judiciary without any oversight.
Judges may order them to do anything they please even if they have questionable motives and with no one to answer to but themselves the division has been all too eager to please. Some higher-ups in the sheriff’s division have even evolved so much power that often it is they, rather than the judges, that have ultimate sway over the division according to judiciary employees past and present.
According to the summery of recommendations:
We recommend that the Department of Public Safety perform a risk assessment of each section of the Sheriff Division in the course of developing a comprehensive strategic plan for the division that, at a minimum, meets the requirements of Act 100, SLH 1999. The department should also consider proposing statutory amendments to align with the division’s duties and functions as indicated by the risk assessment. We also suggest that the department pursue accreditation for the Sheriff Division from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA), to ensure that proper law enforcement policies and procedures are enacted and followed.
It’s not really shocking that there are apparently no administrative rules for their activities- that’s a common denominator of many out of control state departments and apparently without the filing of a lawsuit- in this case to be heard by the very judges that take advantage of the system- it remains up to those in charge to pass Chapter 91 procedures.
But even more important is what is hidden in the last sentence- again to no one’s surprise the Sheriff’s Division is not an accredited law enforcement agency.
One of the main tenets of accreditation is the idea of civilian control of our paramilitary forces- i.e. police- whether local, state or federal.
The Sheriff’s Division joins another out of control secret state police department. the Department of Land and Natural Recourses’ (DLNR) Division of Conservation and Recourse Enforcement (DOCARE) which answers solely to the director of the DLNR with no civilian oversight board or commission.
Unless people demand civilian control of those that carry weapons and have the power to detain and arrest citizens, conditions like those described in this audit will continue to plague law enforcement.
She rightly criticizes the lack of focus and ever expanding role set for state sheriffs with her prime critique centering around what was summed up in the title of Chapter 2- “Lack of Guidance and Leadership Has Resulted in Defective Law Enforcement”.
That’s the understatement of the year according to our many sources in the judiciary who regularly call us with complaints of abuse of power.
As Higa points out:
(T)he Sheriff Division, saddled with an ill-defined role and a lack of mission clarity, has struggled to uphold its expanded law enforcement duties and responsibilities. As the State’s law enforcement needs have expanded, confusion over the extent of the State’s law enforcement responsibilities has grown. This confusion and uncertainty is the result of vague constitutional language, a broad interpretation of statutory authority, and the consolidation of functions previously deemed incompatible.
As a result, the law enforcement responsibilities of the Sheriff Division have expanded beyond the service of process and the security of state buildings to now include drug enforcement, illegal immigration, homeland security, fugitive arrests, criminal investigations, eviction proceedings, and traffic enforcement.
But what has really evolved since it’s 1989 inception is a secret police department that operates purely at the beck and call of leaders of the judiciary without any oversight.
Judges may order them to do anything they please even if they have questionable motives and with no one to answer to but themselves the division has been all too eager to please. Some higher-ups in the sheriff’s division have even evolved so much power that often it is they, rather than the judges, that have ultimate sway over the division according to judiciary employees past and present.
According to the summery of recommendations:
We recommend that the Department of Public Safety perform a risk assessment of each section of the Sheriff Division in the course of developing a comprehensive strategic plan for the division that, at a minimum, meets the requirements of Act 100, SLH 1999. The department should also consider proposing statutory amendments to align with the division’s duties and functions as indicated by the risk assessment. We also suggest that the department pursue accreditation for the Sheriff Division from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA), to ensure that proper law enforcement policies and procedures are enacted and followed.
It’s not really shocking that there are apparently no administrative rules for their activities- that’s a common denominator of many out of control state departments and apparently without the filing of a lawsuit- in this case to be heard by the very judges that take advantage of the system- it remains up to those in charge to pass Chapter 91 procedures.
But even more important is what is hidden in the last sentence- again to no one’s surprise the Sheriff’s Division is not an accredited law enforcement agency.
One of the main tenets of accreditation is the idea of civilian control of our paramilitary forces- i.e. police- whether local, state or federal.
The Sheriff’s Division joins another out of control secret state police department. the Department of Land and Natural Recourses’ (DLNR) Division of Conservation and Recourse Enforcement (DOCARE) which answers solely to the director of the DLNR with no civilian oversight board or commission.
Unless people demand civilian control of those that carry weapons and have the power to detain and arrest citizens, conditions like those described in this audit will continue to plague law enforcement.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
RABID REPROBATE
RABID REPROBATE: As November approaches it gets harder and harder to stomach Governor Linda Lingle and her corrupt, incompetent, self serving, government-by-sound-bite administration.
It’s guaranteed that the closer the end of her slash and burn reign of terror, the more bizarre it will get.
Now she’s claiming that State Auditor supreme Marion Higa is the one who is incompetent and does "shoddy," "unprofessional" and "politically motivated." work for detailing the way the state, seemingly illegally- put taxpayer money into hair-brained investments that ended up essentially frozen when they got taken by some slick wall street firms, selling supposedly liquid investments that have suddenly become all but worthless if we need the money right now... which apparently we do.
The report is only a draft and apparently unavailable in full but media accounts show how, as usual, Lingle answers charges never made and uses personal attacks to substitute for facts, just like she did the last time Higa uncovered corruption/incompetence (take your pick) in Ted Liu’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism when Higa said Liu “should be relieved of his duties due to a ‘troubling pattern on nondisclosure’ of financial details surrounding an overseas trade mission and federal grant program” according to today’s press account.
Higa is know nationally as one of the best at what she does and Lingle’s known as one of the worst- except among the delusional Rush-Rove-Chaney crowd- so it’s pretty obvious why Lingle is left with nothing to do but to attack Higa personally when she “outs” Lingle’s Department of Budget and Finance team as the boobs they have shown themselves to be in this and most other fiscal and financial management blunders.
We’re lucky to have Higa statewide but when it comes to our own newly appointed auditor we’ve yet to see anything out of former Deputy County Clerk Ernie Pasion’s County Auditor’s office except that he’s searching for one.. an office that is.
But even once he sets up shop we don’t expect much from affable, good old boy Ernie whose former job consisted of serving the council in the role of boat-rocking attendant.
The appointment of Pasion was one of the biggest slaps-in-the-face of good governance advocates who waited years through the “hold me back boys” antics of some of the beaten down, former council reformers who, due to pubic outrage almost 10 years ago over illegal land rape by the likes of Jimmy Pflueger and Tom McCloskey, first threatened and funded an investigation under charter provision- 3.17 which allows the council to perform administration investigations.
But there was so much screwed up stuff in the Department of Public Works under Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s administration that they couldn’t decide on what to investigate and then called the matter too expensive anyway.
Next they set up and funded an auditor position by ordinance and then never appointed anyone. That was followed by the last and latest stall tactic of placing a charter amendment to create the new County Auditor position before the people. which passed last fall.
While the promise was to set up a “Marion Higa-style-auditor” the search for a tough, competent, experienced and independent auditor started and ended in the council chambers with the appointment of someone who could be counted on to continue his anti-boat rocking activities when wave-making is exactly what is called for in a management auditor.
For all those who think good governance lies in passing laws and charter amendments- like the one to peg tourism development to growth figures in the general plan, which has apparently died a death by disregard- it’s time to recognize that until we say “enough” on election day we’ll never escape the management-by-incompetence and corruption typified by our current gang of self-serving incumbents whether at the county council/mayor or the state representative/senator/governor level.
---------
We’re losing our editor for the next few weeks to a mainland jaunt so our incomprehensibly long sentences will probably be even more unwieldy and the typos and spell-checker caused glitches will most likely proliferate until then. We’re also going to be a little more intermittent in posting over that period, what with so much college basketball and so little time. Go ‘Cuse.
It’s guaranteed that the closer the end of her slash and burn reign of terror, the more bizarre it will get.
Now she’s claiming that State Auditor supreme Marion Higa is the one who is incompetent and does "shoddy," "unprofessional" and "politically motivated." work for detailing the way the state, seemingly illegally- put taxpayer money into hair-brained investments that ended up essentially frozen when they got taken by some slick wall street firms, selling supposedly liquid investments that have suddenly become all but worthless if we need the money right now... which apparently we do.
The report is only a draft and apparently unavailable in full but media accounts show how, as usual, Lingle answers charges never made and uses personal attacks to substitute for facts, just like she did the last time Higa uncovered corruption/incompetence (take your pick) in Ted Liu’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism when Higa said Liu “should be relieved of his duties due to a ‘troubling pattern on nondisclosure’ of financial details surrounding an overseas trade mission and federal grant program” according to today’s press account.
Higa is know nationally as one of the best at what she does and Lingle’s known as one of the worst- except among the delusional Rush-Rove-Chaney crowd- so it’s pretty obvious why Lingle is left with nothing to do but to attack Higa personally when she “outs” Lingle’s Department of Budget and Finance team as the boobs they have shown themselves to be in this and most other fiscal and financial management blunders.
We’re lucky to have Higa statewide but when it comes to our own newly appointed auditor we’ve yet to see anything out of former Deputy County Clerk Ernie Pasion’s County Auditor’s office except that he’s searching for one.. an office that is.
But even once he sets up shop we don’t expect much from affable, good old boy Ernie whose former job consisted of serving the council in the role of boat-rocking attendant.
The appointment of Pasion was one of the biggest slaps-in-the-face of good governance advocates who waited years through the “hold me back boys” antics of some of the beaten down, former council reformers who, due to pubic outrage almost 10 years ago over illegal land rape by the likes of Jimmy Pflueger and Tom McCloskey, first threatened and funded an investigation under charter provision- 3.17 which allows the council to perform administration investigations.
But there was so much screwed up stuff in the Department of Public Works under Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s administration that they couldn’t decide on what to investigate and then called the matter too expensive anyway.
Next they set up and funded an auditor position by ordinance and then never appointed anyone. That was followed by the last and latest stall tactic of placing a charter amendment to create the new County Auditor position before the people. which passed last fall.
While the promise was to set up a “Marion Higa-style-auditor” the search for a tough, competent, experienced and independent auditor started and ended in the council chambers with the appointment of someone who could be counted on to continue his anti-boat rocking activities when wave-making is exactly what is called for in a management auditor.
For all those who think good governance lies in passing laws and charter amendments- like the one to peg tourism development to growth figures in the general plan, which has apparently died a death by disregard- it’s time to recognize that until we say “enough” on election day we’ll never escape the management-by-incompetence and corruption typified by our current gang of self-serving incumbents whether at the county council/mayor or the state representative/senator/governor level.
---------
We’re losing our editor for the next few weeks to a mainland jaunt so our incomprehensibly long sentences will probably be even more unwieldy and the typos and spell-checker caused glitches will most likely proliferate until then. We’re also going to be a little more intermittent in posting over that period, what with so much college basketball and so little time. Go ‘Cuse.
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