2008-06-20 Police Commission Minutes

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Hawaii County Police Commission Regular Session Minutes June 20, 2008 Page 7 asked for it. Some of the facts have not found their way within the column width of their two daily newspapers. The whole reason this whole thing started getting momentum in the media was because of a SHOPO representative who filed a prohibitive practices complaint against the department, saying they were never conferred, that SHOPO was never conferred on this. What the article forgot to mention was the fact that this particular SHOPO representative actually sat on the task force that the County Council set up in order to look into obtaining these vehicles. It's not like this was some sneak attack that was thrown on SHOPO. SHOPO had representation during that process. This was a result of a longstanding effort by the West Hawaii Crime Stoppers who were proponents of this. It wasn't the Police Department that wanted it; it was the people who said, "Let's get it." The police are taking licks in the media and AC Ferreira is being criticized because people are saying the cops spent all this money. They don't spend the money. They don't procure it. What they do is they set up the specs for what they want to purchase. They send it to County Finance. County Finance is the one that issues all the necessary purchasing documents to procure the item. The Police Department has no control. The Finance Department does it. The blogs are saying the Police Commission lacks oversight. The commission doesn't have oversight over the Finance Department. So if anybody complains about that, they should have the County Council's newly created auditor position audit the Finance Department because the Police Department did not buy these vehicles; the Finance Department did. He knows as a fact that the Finance Department followed state purchasing laws. When you get down to where things need to be changed, the state legislatures in Honolulu created the state procurement law, and they are the ones who are in a position to make the change. AC Ferreira gets the public criticism based on uneducated, uninformed public. Corporation Counsel Ashida further stated that he is a member of the Big Island Press Club. In this month's newsletter the editor of the Press Club said that what happened to AC Ferreira in the West Hawaii Today's article by that new reporter was totally unethical and unfair, and that her characterization of him came across like he said, "Oh, I don't know." He didn't say, "I don't know." He said he didn't have that information and told her where to get it, but she didn't write that down. The Press Club openly publicly criticized that reporter for that mischaracterization. It's bad when the Press Club criticizes its own people for misinformation. He will forward the newsletter to the commission and AC Ferreira. Chair Lassiter stated that she sat on the marked fleet committee for a year. There were twelve people on the committee. Four came from the Kona side, and all were advocates for high visibility of blue and white cars. She sat next to the SHOPO representative the whole year. He now acts like he didn't know what was going on, but he knew everything that was going on.