Two island residents have filed ethics complaints against Planning Department staffers, saying they were laughed at and disrespected when they opposed developments in Pepeekeo and Keaukaha.
Claudia Rohr and Jaerick Mederios-Garcia, coming before the county Board of Ethics on Wednesday, accused county Senior Planner Alex Roy and Planning Program Manager Maija Jackson with violating the portion of the ethics code requiring that “all persons should be treated in a courteous, fair and impartial manner.”
Rohr and Mederios-Garcia, who is president of the Makahanaloa Fishing Association, recounted a May 5 Windward Planning Commission meeting where they and six other people testified about a gate that has, for more than three years, blocked public access to the ocean in Pepeekeo. The gate, erected by a developer, violates a 2005 agreement to allow public access as part of a 2005 rezoning agreement, they said.
“It was hurtful to see the good laugh that they had there the day we testified on the issue,” Mederios-Garcia said, adding that staff took six months to respond to letter detailing his concerns.
“It isn’t fair,” he said. “It’s almost like they’re buying time in favor of the developer.”
While the ethics board doesn’t get involved in the details of a dispute, board members were watching out for indications staffers were biased or disrespectful. They ultimately decided they needed to watch the video of the May 5 meeting before they made a decision, postponing the petition until the board’s January meeting.
Rohr said the two planning staffers were unprepared to answer questions and misled the Windward Planning Commission and the public with inaccurate information.
“They made the subject matter into a joke when it was no laughing matter to the petitioners and the many public who testified,” Rohr said.
But Jackson said any misinformation wasn’t intentional.
“We never go into our work trying to give the Planning Commission false information; we always want to give the best and most accurate information available that we had at that time,” she said.
Rohr also has a separate ethics complaint against Roy. She provided the board an email exchange he had with her Keaukaha neighbors after she complained of an unauthorized school near her bed-and-breakfast, in which Roy states, “I just never thought anyone would be as difficult and disturbed as your neighbor,” adding he “would not rest” until he helped get the project through.
Roy told the board he used a poor choice of words and didn’t intend to disparage Rohr.
“Its part of my job to work with applicants who also have rights as landowners,” Roy said. “Part of our process is to let them know you have issues with the community.”
The board remained skeptical.
“When you throw all this together, it certainly raises concerns about bias, if not bias then the appearance of it,” said Ethics Board Chairman Larry Heinz. “She’s alleging that he is treating her unfairly and that is to say he’s not neutral.”
Planning Director Zendo Kern, while not at Wednesday’s meeting, had addressed the Board of Ethics at a previous meeting on the issue.
“What I’m seeing though is a series of other complaints coming in, in this manner.,” Kern said at the Oct. 12 meeting. “I don’t believe we have a mechanism to stop that weaponizing this process but what I’m seeing is the impact that it has on our team members. The level of stress that that has and creates within their being, is paramount. It’s a really, really big deal.”
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.