Despite strict rules against using county-issued credit cards for personal purposes, and a prohibition against purchasing alcohol with them, Mayor Billy Kenoi charged $892 on his county card at a Honolulu hostess bar one December day in 2013.
Despite strict rules against using county-issued credit cards for personal purposes, and a prohibition against purchasing alcohol with them, Mayor Billy Kenoi charged $892 on his county card at a Honolulu hostess bar one December day in 2013.
Kenoi said Friday he reimbursed the county for the expense on his purchasing card, or pCard, in March 2014. Finance Director Deanna Sako confirmed the mayor did.
“Any error in judgment in the use of my card is entirely my own,” Kenoi said. “I take full responsibility for the purchases on my card. … Certainly, I could have exercised better judgment.”
Kenoi said he’s used the county card for personal purchases on other occasions, but he always reimbursed the county. It’s not known how often this occurs because repeated attempts by West Hawaii Today to get copies of the credit card statements have been turned back by the county.
The newspaper has, since 2010, regularly requested Kenoi’s county purchasing card statements as a way to monitor the mayor’s travel and spending on the taxpayer dime. County Finance Department officials, however, have in the past refused to provide the actual statements, instead compiling a summary of charges incurred by the mayor and other top officials.
An April 21, 2014, clarification from the newspaper that renewed the request under Hawaii’s open records laws for the actual statements has yet to be fulfilled. The newspaper obtained the December 2013 statement from a different source.
The records request was renewed again March 18. The county, under the state Uniform Information Practices Act, has 10 business days from that date to respond to the request.
Kenoi said any charges found on his account that are not county business will have been reimbursed.
“I’ve used my pCard when I shouldn’t have,” Kenoi said. “But I always try and make sure the taxpayers only pay for official business.”
Kenoi wasn’t clear about why he sometimes used the pCard instead of a personal credit card for personal purchases.
The hostess bar charge came on the same day he charged $215.10 for a round-trip Hilo-Honolulu airplane ticket and a $62.93 rental car on his pCard. Kenoi said he was in Honolulu on county business.
The bar, known as Club Evergreen, is one of several Korean hostess bars in downtown Honolulu, where patrons buy drinks for themselves and for hostesses who sit and enjoy them with the customers.
Open from 2 p.m.-4 a.m., Club Evergreen has received a range of online reviews, from male and female customers who enjoy a third-party sushi bar tucked into the corner, to others accusing the club of being a front for a brothel.
“Yes … this place is not lady friendly … it’s a hostess bar,” said Yelp reviewer Cobra K. from Singapore. “Pay 20 bucks per drink and get a decent looking girl to sit with you and have a conversation. Some of the girls are Chinese, some Korean and some Japanese. If you speak English only, you might have trouble. Not really that fun if you go alone but better if you want to hang out with a buddy and have some juicy girl hanging off of you.”
A woman answering the phone Friday afternoon at Club Evergreen said the restaurant charges reasonable drink prices, from $3 for a beer up to $35 for more expensive alcohol. There also is a choice of food, she said. Speaking in heavily accented English, she declined to give her name.
Asked if the club hosts many government officials, she replied, “no, no, no.”
County policies and procedures for pCard use restrict the purchase of alcohol unless specifically authorized. Some merchant categories, such as dating and escort services, are blocked on the card.
In addition, according to the policy document, the cardholder is responsible for, “Using the pCard only for official purchases for which the cardholder will be responsible. … Not using the pCard for personal use.”
The policy requires “if the pCard is inadvertently used for a personal purchase (i.e., a wrong card is used at a restaurant and the mistake is not noticed until after departing the restaurant), a full report must be submitted to the Director of Finance explaining the mistake, along with proper reimbursement.”
Kenoi said he didn’t submit a report.
The Finance Department, responding to a request for proof of reimbursement of the Club Evergreen expense, provided the newspaper a form showing a March 28, 2014, treasury deposit of the $892 reimbursement along with 24 other reimbursements that were redacted from the report.
It’s not the first time Kenoi’s partying has raised eyebrows.
A post-Merrie Monarch party hosted by the mayor and attended by state and local dignitaries on county property in 2011 was shut down at 3:15 a.m. by the police after neighbors complained about the noise.
That party, at Aunty Sally’s Luau Hale, part of a county park complex near downtown Hilo, included alcohol, although officials couldn’t later confirm an alcohol permit was granted for the event.
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.