2001-04-20 Police Commission Minutes

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Regular Session Minutes April 20, 2001 Page 2 He asked Lincoln Ashida twice, three times to listen to a tape that could shed some light on what happened. He will not. The former prosecutor will not listen to something that could help him make decisions. He filed a complaint with the Consumer Protection Agency in regards to retrieving tax dollars from Wood & Tait. He received a letter from the Mayor who instructed Lincoln Ashida and Wendell Hatada to investigate whether or not Wood & Tait overcharged the public. That was not his complaint. He covered that with Dixie, and he still has not received anything from the Mayor's office in regards to his complaint. This has been his experience with his government. They never address his complaint. They make up their own. Dixie has promised him that she would look into this personally. He asked if the timer is for per correspondence or per person, to which Corporation Counsel Ashida stated it's at the discretion of the Chair. CORPORATION COUNSEL ASHIDA questioned Mr. Russi if he lived close by. Mr. Russi responded that he lived a 15- minute drive away. Mr. Ashida then asked Russi to get the tape, and he would listen to it. He is not refusing to listen to it. He will take the tape back to his office and listen to it. Mr. Russi agreed. CORPORATION COUNSEL ASHIDA further stated, for the record, that he would like to respond to certain claims and allegations that were made by Mr. Russi. First of all, with respect to the OIP, it's this county's position as practice, and this is not negotiable, that they comply with OIP, whether it's an OIP request or everyday business. But as every government employee knows, the rules concerning the Uniform Information Practices Act is subject to interpretation. So, when any citizen makes a request to any of our agencies, it's not always a clear -cut answer whether they can turn it over or not. The practice with this commission, at least in his experience, and what they recommend to all county agencies, is if you are not sure, ask, because if they turn over something to any member of the public that they're not supposed to, and if they get sued, the taxpayers are at risk, their tax dollars are at risk. Mr. Russi made the request, Josie promptly checked with him, and then they made the determination. They acted prudently and swiftly. She did what she was trained to do. She wasn't sure, she checked. It would have been derelict on her part if she just willingly gave out records without checking if she's not sure. The bottom line in this case is that Mr. Russi made a request and it was given to him well within OIP's ten -day guideline. The second thing he'd like to say is that Mr. Russi made reference to the comment attributable to him bringing in trainers from Oahu from the OIP, and he tagged onto that because our government employees are agents, don't know the law, don't know what they're doing. That's absolutely not true. This was in reference to a conversation he had with Mr. Pranke where it was suggested that, they could bring representatives from OIP in to answer any questions or concerns that any county government employee has. It's not because