HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0548.004 2002-2004
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The Honorable Gary Safarik, Chair
Council Members
Committee on Public Works & Intergovernmental Relations
Hawaii County Council
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Re: For Comm. # 548
Thomas Russi Submitting letters from the Office of Information
Pracfices ("OIP") declining to investigate Wended Hatada for Violating
the UIPA
Dear Chair Safarik and Council Members;
Please include the attached information as communications for this agenda item and also
place them on your agenda for the public's review and testimony.
Attached are letters dated June 25, 2003, July 11, 2003 and January 21, 2004 from the
Director of the OIP, Leslie H. Kondo declining to investigate Wendell Hatada for violating
the UIPA for more than two years. This information explains one of the reasons I pursued
this so vigorously and would not have closure even after the Board of Ethics found Mr.
Hatada in violation of the County Code of Ethics. Mr. Kondo has been accused of
destroying records that were with his office concerning Mr. Hatada to cover up his attempt
to dismiss Mr. Hatada's UIPA violation. However, this matter is being investigated by the
State Ombudsman #04-3530 (DW). I have also attached all of the letters in regards to this
attempt by Mr. Kondo to undermine the UIPA.
Sincerely,
rhamay R ws~L
Thomas Russi
73-4422 HoloHolo St.
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740-9307
attachments
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Pc'm: To Fex: 9618912 page L of 13, Tuesday, Mach i6, 2009 7: 0"/pm
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LINDA LINOLE {
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JAMES R NONA JR
W¢O,nY+raoVCLxM LESLIE tl. EONDO
D~ECTOH
STATE OF HAWAII
OFFICE OF THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
OFFICE OF INFORMATION PRACTICES
NC. 1 CAPITOL DISTRICT BUILD[NO
250 SOUTH HOTEL BTRSST, SUITS 109
HONOLULU, HAWAII 96813
TELEPHONE: 90S-SSO-1400 FAX SOB-ESl-1413
?-MniL nirnszcnra.hi.us
WE391TE: _„%AIf_~Ili i~/.1.
June 25, 2003
Mr. Thomas Russi
Ms. Christine Paul
73-4422 Holoholo Street
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 96740-9307
Re: Your Letter of June 19, 2003
Dear Mr. Russi and Ms. Paul:
The Office of Information Practices ("OIP'~ has received your letter and
attachments regarding a pending complaint against Wendell Hatada- It
appears that you are alleging that Mr. Hatada refused to permit you to make
a records request to his office. Your attachments, however, appear to indicate
that certain records maintained by Mr. Hatada's office were previously
provided to you. Based upon the information in your letter and attachments,
the OIP cannot determine how you wish the OIP to assist you. If you would
like the OIIJ to assist you with respect to a record request, please specifically
stats what zssistance pon are raquasting and enclose ropies of the rea..uest
and the agency's response.
Very u yours,
Leslie H. Kondo
Director
LHK: ankd
I
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TEleohone: 18081586-1a00 FA%: 180 81 586-1 412
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July 11, 2003
Mr. Thomas Russi
Ms. Christine Paul
i.5-4422 Holoholo Street
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 96740-9307
Re: Your Letter Dated July 9, 2003
Dear Mr. Russi and Ma. Paul:
Receipt of your letter dated July 9, 2003 is acknowledged.
I have repeatedly told you that the Office of Information Practices would not
open a file relating to your complaint against Wendall Hatada. I am again
informing you that this office does not have any open matters relating to your
allegations against Mr. Hatada. Accordingly, the record that you request does not
exist. For your information, the "pending complaint" remark to which you refer was
a reference to the "pending complaint" against Mr. Hatada that I understood you to
have filed with another agency.
fiery - ul yours,
Leslie H. Kondo
Director
LHK:cy
Prnm: 4o Fex: 96189 L2 Page 4 of 13, muesday, Memh, 16, 2004 AO)pm
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OFFICE OF THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
JAM[t R. AWNA. JR. LELUF N. RONDO
„fl„a„„,~~,,,,a, OFFICE OF INFORMATION PRACTICES o,~~.a„
NO. 1 CAPITOL DISTRICT BUILOINO
250 SOUTH HOTEL STREET, SUITE 1 O]
HONOLULU, MAWAI'I 86873
T41ePN6ne: IBDB) 688.1600 FAX: (8081 688-1412
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January 21, 2004
Mr. Thomas Rusai
Me. Christine Paul
73-4422 Holoholo Street
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 96740-9307
Re: Wendell Hatada, Executive Assistant, County of Hawaii
Deaz Mr. Rusai and Ms. Paul:
The Office of Information Practices is in receipt of your letter dated January
21, 2004, requesting an investigation of Wendell Hatada "for violating the UIPA
10-day rule for 2 years." You attached a number of letters from the Honorable
Hairy Kim and a letter from you to Mayor Kim relating to Mr. Hatada.
We understand your letter to be aslsing this office to review Mr. Hatada's
handling of record requests made under the Uniform Information Practices Act
(Modified), chapter 92 F, Hawaii Revised Statutes, over a two year period. We do
not understand you to be requesting assistance in obtaining a government record
maintained by Mr. Hatada or to relate in any other manner to a pending record
request. Assuming our understanding of your letter to us to be correct, please be
advised that we decline your request that we investigate Mr. Hatada's handling of
past record requests. This office simply does not have the resources to conduct such
an investigation. Given our present staffing and the number of pending matters,
our primary function is to assist members of the public and government agencies .
with issues relating to specific record requests and open meetings.
Very t yours,
Leslie H. Kond~_~
Director
LHK:cy
cc: Mr. Wendell Hatada, Office of the Mayor
From: To Fax: 961093? Page 5 of ll, Tuesday, Mamh 16, 2004 7: 09pm
July 9, 2003
Office of Information Practices
No. 1 Capitol District Building
250 South Hotel Street, Room 107
Honolulu, HI 96813
Re: Your July 7, 2003 Letter (Pending Complaint Against Wendell Hatada,
Executive Assistant, Office of Information and Complaints, County of
Hawari)
Dear Office of Information Practices:
In regards to your understanding of our above-referenced complaint, again your
understanding is incorrect. If your continued misunderstanding of our complaints is due to
anything we have done or the way we pose them to you, please allow us to apologize.
Afer reviewing your July 7, 2003 letter, we made some phone calls including several to
yuur office. After those calls, it is our understanding that when you sign your letters to
anyone with all capitals and the font is larger, it is your way of communicating to them that
you are incensed with them. We understand you have taken offense to us because we are;
? addressing our letters to you by your first name, we will stop doing
that.
? copying your boss on all our communications to you, we will not stop
doing that.
? e-mailing our State Legislators and anyone else we feel may have an
interest in your agency, we will not stop doing that.
If you cannot communicate with us in a professional manner because of any of our above-
listed refusals, please let us know and maybe we can reach a compromise.
From: To Eex: 96189 L2 Page fi of 13, Tuesdey, Mamh 16, 2009 9: p9pm
July 9, 2003
Office of Infoanation Practices
Page 2
Now, for our pending complaint against Wendell Hatada, Executive Assistant, Office of
Information and Complaints, County of Hawaii.
In a letter dated June 25, 2003 you referred to our June 19, 2003 communication by stating,
"The Office of Information Practices ("OIP") has received your letter and attachments
regarding a Wending complaint against Wendell Hatada."(F,mphasis added) And yet, when
we requested in our June 28, 2003 letter for your office to provide us with a case number
on our pending complaint, you now have changed your story and are trying to refer to our
pending complaint by stating, "I am in receipt of your letter to me dated June 28, 2003
regarding Wendell Hatada, Executive Assistant, for the Office of Information and
Complaints, County of Hawaii." What happened to our PENDING complaint against Mr.
Hatada? If you will note, we used all capitals so you would understand us better.
We consider our June 28, 2003 records request to be "real" and ask that you respond to it
as such. Please provide us with any record that reflects our pending complaint number
against Mr. Hatada. Again, our additional complaint to our pending complaint against Mr.
Hatada is that he violated the UIPA for 2 years. If Mr. Hatada's actions are okay with your
office, we can move on but you must say so, this way there is no misunderstanding of our
"real" complaint. If the best you can do is try to ignore our "real" complaint, it will fail.
Again, please sent us a copy of the record which indicates our pending
complaint against Wendell Hatada with the case number that we have already
requested in our June 28, 2003 letter.
Also, because you continue to refuse to acknowledge or refer to the existence of an audio
.wav file, in your possession, of our conversation with Mr. Hatada in July of 2001 in which
he denied us following up on our records request to his office, please provide us with a
copy of it. In other words, we are making a records request to your office for:
a copy of an audio .wav file that you are maintaining of our conversation with
Mr. Hatada. To further assist you with finding it, it was e-mailed to your
offce on June 19, 2003 and resent to you today, July 9°i.
Prom: To Fex: 9618912 Page 1 of 13, 4uesday, Macah L6, 2004 olpm
July 9, 2003
Office of Information Practices
Page 3
date/time stamped copies of our June 19, 2003 and June 28, 2003 letters to
you.
? Please also provide us with adate/time stamped copy of this letter.
( If you respond to this letter within 10 business days, you will not need to
' provide us with adate/lime stamped copy of this letter.)
( If you are sending us a date/time stamped copy and yow office does not
date/time stamp your incoming faxes, the date and time printed by your fax
machine will be acceptable.)
Sincerely,
riw~wlasRws3+~
Chr'%stt.~w ~a.uL
Thomas Russi
Christine Paul
73-4422 HoloHolo St.
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740-9307
c The Honorable Linda Lingle
Lloyd Yonenaka
Sharron Ackles, Govemor's West Hawaii Liaison Office
Andy Smith, Governor's East Hawaii Liaison Office
State Legislators
Eeom: To Fax: 9618912 Page 8 of L3, Tuesday, March 16, L004 7: O~pm
June 28, 2003
Les Kondo
Office of Information Practices
No. 1 Capitol District Building
250 South Hotel Street, Room 107
Honolulu, HI 96813
Re: Your June 25, 2003 Letter (Pending Complaint Against Wendell
Hatada, Executive Assistant, Office of Information and Complaints,
' County of Hawau)
Dear Les:
Thank you for your timel}' response to our above-referenced complaint.
We again apologize for the confusion but, some day, you may want to try this end of a
records request to see how clever and de5ant these agencies really are.
In regards to your request, "please specifically state what assistance you are requesting and
enclose copies of the request and the agency's response."
Since you make 3 requests, we will take them one at a time.
1. What assistance are we requesting? For your office to provide us with your
case number that we have never received and investigate if Mr. Hatada
denying us records for almost 2 years was following the rules under the
UIPA.
2. Copies of the request? The request was made on July 3, 2001 and was oral
and we were never asked to put it in writing. On July 24, 2001, we were
following up on our records request because it was past the 10-day response
time which is included in the audio .wav file we sent you (via E-mail).
3. The agency's response? This is also contained in the audio .wav file. If you
will take the time to listen to the .wav file we have provided you, you will
actually be part of what a citizen is sometimes subjected to when making a
records request. Mr. Hatada repeats his response many times. We did
Fcom: To FeH: 96]8912 Page 9 of 13, Tuesday, MamH 16, 2009 7: D~pm
June 28, 2003
Les Kondo
Office of Information Practices
Page 2
attempt to resolve and straighten out the situation for years with Mayor Kim,
Dixie Kaetsu, Peter Young, the Ombudsman and your office. We were
finally forced to file a petition with the Board of Ethics, County of Hawaii,
which forced them to finally respond to our 2-year-old records request.
As we told you previously, our recovery of this audio .wav file which we could not provide
to Ms. Gray in 2001, is further proof of our complaint against Mr. Hatada violating the
UIPA.
? Please provide us with a dateltime stamped copy of this letter.
( If you respond to this letter within 10 business days, you wi0 not need
to provide us with adate/time stamped copy of this letter.)
Sincerely,
rhomcts~ Rw~;,
Chri~t'rrtei ~aticL
Thomas Russi
Christine Paul
73-4422 HoloHolo St.
Kailua-Kona. HI 96740-9307
Pmm: To Far: 9618912 page 10 of 13, T~avaey, March 16, 2009 L09pm
July 28, 2003
Office of Information Practices
No. 1 Capitol District Building
250 South Hotel Street, Room 107
Honolulu, HI 96813
Re: Request far a Response to our June 19, 2003 letter
Dear Office of Information Practices
We have not received a response to the above-referenced letter that we have included in
this letter again for your convenience.
Our June 19'~ letter asked, "As you know, Mr. Hatada refused us access to making a
records request to his office. Our petition filed against him with the Hawaii County Board
of Ethics for violating the Code of Ethics has generated the attached information being sent
to us. We believe a wise decision was made on Wendell's behalf and as custodian of the
UIPA and with the attached .wav file, what do you think on our behalf?"
In other words, do you feel a sua sponte investigation is in order because it took us
two years to receive the records we requested from Wendell Hatada's office? We
understand you are unable to locate our original complaint we made with Director
Gray against Mr. Hatada? When William Takaba, Finance Director of the County of
Hawaii, violated the UIPA LO-day rule in 2002, the OIP did a sua sponte
investigation on him RFA-P 02-033.
? Please provide us with adate/time stamped copy of this letter, or
If you respond to this letter within 10 business days, you will not need to
provide us with adate/time stamped copy of this letter.
Sincerely,
ritovrtcty R wssG
Chri~t~,ne~ ~aticL
Thomas Russi
Christine Paul
73-4422 HoloHolo St.
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740-9307
Ombudsman
Prom: To Fex: 9618912 page 11 of 13, Tuesday, Namh 16, 2004 l:Olpm
July 13, 2003
r`+Yice of Information Practices
No. 1 Capitol District Building
250 South Hotel Street, Room 107
Honolulu, HI 96813
Re: Your July 11, 2003 Letter, Freedom of Information Request under Part
UIPA (Pending Complaint Against Wendell Hatada, Executive
Assistant, Office of Information and Complaints, County of Hawau)
Dear Office of Information Practices:
First, some concerns about Mr. Kondo's latest attempt to confuse and violate the UIPA.
In every letter to us since Mr. Kondo has become Director, after acknowledging the receipt
of our letter, he explains its contents. In this latest attempt, he does not. He also states, "I
have repeatedly told you that the Office of Information Practices would not open a 51e
relating to your complaint against Wendall Hatada." (Typo noted) He cannot even bring
himself to repeat our complaint against Mr. Hatada. Sad. In regards to Mr. Kondo's
understanding of his use of "pending complaint" and his understanding of it being with
another agency, also sad.
Second, in our July 9, 2003 letter, we made two records requests that are not mentioned in
Mr. Kondo's July 11~' response. Our statement was, "Also, because you continue to refuse
to acknowledge or refer to the existence of an audio .wav file, in your possession, of our
conversation with Mc Hatada in July of 2001 in which he denied us following up on our
records request to his office, please provide us with a copy of it." In other words, w° are
making a records request to your office for:
a copy of an audio .wav file that you are maintaining which contains our
conversation with Mr. Hatada. To further assist you with finding it, it was e-
mailed to your office on June 19, 2003 and resent to you on July 9~'.
date/time stamped copies of our June 19, 2003 and June 28, 2003 letters to
you.
We would also like to add to this records request:
Fcom: To Pax: 9618912 Page 12 of 13, TueaJay, March 16, 2009 I:0]pm
7uly 13, 2003
Office of Information Practices
Page 2
a copy of our July 9, 2003 letter to you.
Finally on this one, because we believe that records of our pending complaint against
Wendell Hatada may have been destroyed or intentionally misplaced, we are prompted to
file a complaint with the proper authorities.
Please also provide us with a dateJtime stamped copy of this letter.
Sincerely,
7'ho~nu~ R wbbv
C1wist~,vte~ ~cucL
Thomas Russi
Christine Paul
73-4422 HoloHolo St.
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740-9307
c The Honorable Linda Lingle
Lloyd Yonenaka
Sharron Ackles, Governor's West Hawaii Liaison Office
Andy Smith, Govemor's East Hawaii Liaison Office
State Legislators
Fvom: To Pax: 9618912 page ll of ll, T~eaday, March 16, 2004 7: 0Ipm
January 21, 2004
Office of Information Practices
No. 1 Capitol District Building
250 South Hotel Street, Room 107
Honolulu, H196813
Re: UIPA Complaint Violation Against Wendell Hatada, Executive
Assistant, County of Hawaii
Dear Office of Information Practices:
We would like to request your assistance in investigating the above-referenced County of
~hwaii employee for violating the UIPA 10-day rule for 2 years.
Attached are letters to and from Mayor Harry Kim acknowledging our complaint.
Sincerely,
rhamc~Rwaa;,
Chri~tlvte ~auL
Thomas Russi
Christine Paul
73-4422 HoloHolo St.
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740-9307
attachments
bc: The Honorable Cindy Evans
The Honorable Paul Whalen