Former council member details focus of federal probe into ex-HPD chiefâs payoff
Former council member details focus of federal probe into ex-HPD chiefâs payoff By Lynn Kawano | February 5, 2021 at 5:15 PM HST - Updated February 5 at 6:36 PM
HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - All nine members of the 2017 Honolulu City Council have now testified before a federal grand jury investigating the payoff for disgraced ex-HPD Chief Louis Kealoha.
All of them publicly opposed the deal back then but the Honolulu Police Commission went ahead and approved it anyway after negotiating the $250,000 payoff in secret.
Kym Pine, who was on the council at the time, said the grand jurors had video of the council grilling former commission Chairman Max Sword during a committee meeting four years ago.
Casey Harlow / HPR
21 inmates at a Maui jail are in medical isolation and another 75 are in quarantine as they undergo precautionary testing for COVID-19.
Two inmates at the Maui Community Correctional Center tested positive for the coronavirus. Two staff were also placed on quarantine as a precaution due to possible exposure and told to get tested.
The state Public Safety Department says MCCC is working with state and county health officials, and the National Guard to implement mass testing of the facility s more than 300 inmates.
Maui public defender Ben Lowenthal says he s concerned for his clients safety. They have a special risk because our clients can t control how they social distance a lot of the safety measures and precautions that are in place, they don t have that degree of control, he said.
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Bill 90 (2020) was unanimously passed by the City Council earlier this week creating an expiration date on permits allowing homeowners to expand their houses.
Despite a 2019 law prohibiting the construction of oversized houses on residential lots, they were still being built in neighborhoods across Oʻahu. That s because permit applications submitted before the ban could still be approved allowing homeowners to legally build monster homes.
Council Chair Tommy Waters introduced the measure last year after seeing monster homes being built in Kaimuki. He says under the measure, approved monster home permits would expire after a year, and sooner if the application is pending.
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Among other jobs, it oversees the city’s revenues, expenses, contracts and agreements – as well as providing financial support to all 23 city departments.
Mayor Rick Blangiardi named Andy Kawano as the next person to lead the department. He came to the city from Foodland Supermarket as its director of facilities.
Kawano has been the director-designate of the budget department for the last 12 days. He says his new job is challenging, but interesting. I’m starting to realize the large size of the city, he said. We’re talking about 8,500 employees and a number of different operating departments on the campus. And the fact that we support, serve all of Oahu is kind of mindboggling as well. You go in thinking it’s not that big compared to the state of Hawaii, but it’s a significant operation.