A Hilo man has begun collecting signatures on a petition to recall Mayor Billy Kenoi, who currently is being investigated by the state attorney general and is the subject of an ethics complaint for personal use of his government-issued credit card.
Russell Doi filed an affidavit Thursday seeking the recall, according to records in the county Division of Elections. An attempt to do that earlier last week failed when it was discovered he wasn’t a registered voter. Doi since has registered.
The county charter requires signatures of 25 percent of the electorate that voted in the last mayoral election in order to recall the mayor. That means Doi has 120 days to gather signatures of 15,544 voters, a daunting task at best.
“That’s only one small portion of the pie that Billy did,” Doi said of the mayor’s current problems. “We need to show that we care about this county and not let Billy run wild.”
Peter Boylan, a spokesman for Kenoi, said the mayor will allow the process to take its course.
“Although we haven’t seen the petition, we certainly respect the process,” Boylan said.
Kenoi’s use of his county credit card, or pCard, came under fire earlier this month after Big Island newspapers reported he’d used it to pay bar tabs and for expensive sports equipment, usually reimbursing the county within a month or two. Since then, the mayor released pCard records he’d been withholding from the press and paid for a list of other charges going back as far as 2009.
So far, he’s paid back $31,112.59 of the $129,580.73 he charged during his tenure. He said he cut up his pCard and his account was revoked.
Doi said he was determined to start the process because of his experience with the Hawaii Police Department and the apparent blind eye turned by the mayor, the Police Commission and other county officials about his plight. A police officer, responding to a 2009 dispute between siblings regarding power of attorney over their father, put Doi in a headlock, according to a lawsuit. Doi was arrested on disorderly conduct charges, which later were dropped.
Doi said he still suffers from having his neck twisted.
“They crippled me, they took my family,” Doi said.
Doi acknowledges that gathering more than 15,000 names is an uphill battle. He said many he’s talked with in Hilo either like the mayor or are afraid of retribution if they sign the petition. He said people on the west side of the island seem more open to signing it.
“Even if I don’t pull it off, somebody else can try again,” Doi said. “This is not a one-shot proposition.”
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.
