Editorials
Wednesday, October 22, 1997THE conviction of former House Speaker Daniel Kihano on charges related to the misuse of campaign funds for personal expenses brings a career in public service spanning three decades to a sorry end. It is also a searing commentary on the corruption fostered by the "high three" pension benefits that the Legislature finally abolished this year after ignoring criticism for decades. Kihano case illustrates
political system’s flawsKihano was found guilty on 15 felony counts of stealing $27,000 from his campaign fund and trying to cover up the theft. He was acquitted of six related counts. It's expected he will receive a prison sentence of five years or less.
The former speaker explained that he found himself in financial distress when a promised position in the state administration did not come through after he retired from the Legislature in 1992. Under the "high three" system, lawmakers' pensions were dramatically increased by working full-time for the state for three years after leaving the Legislature, and Kihano was counting on a state job to finance his retirement.
Kihano said that when the state job did not materialize, he had only his meager legislative pension to fall back on and was forced to dip into his campaign funds. He maintained that he intended to refund the money, but never did, even after landing a job in the Honolulu city-county administration.
The other charges stemmed from the decision to use campaign funds. Testimony that he persuaded friends to lie before a grand jury on his behalf revealed his desperation.
It is no excuse but an important fact that Kihano relied on the "high three" system to boost his pension and resorted to stealing when he didn't get the job he needed.
His behavior is a powerful argument for ensuring that no such benefits are ever again available to legislators. Theirs is intended to be a part-time job, and they must face the need to find legitimate means of supplementing their part-time pensions.
Kihano's prosecution, believed to be the first by federal authorities in Hawaii related to state campaign spending violations, serves notice on other Hawaii politicians that such acts will not be tolerated.
It also strengthens the image of the state Campaign Spending Commission, which had been tarnished by the criminal behavior of its former director, Jack Gonzales. The current director, Robert Watada, worked closely with federal prosecutors on the Kihano case. Watada said that since the trial began he has received phone calls from politicians inquiring about the law to ensure that they are not inadvertently violating it.
More attention should be paid to leftover campaign funds and the temptation to use them illegally. It appears that many violations have been overlooked. Perhaps stronger legal barriers are needed to make it more difficult to get to the money.
DISCARDING advice given in April by the Justice Department's inspector general and its own promise to heed it, the department has hired a scientist with no forensic background to head its troubled FBI crime lab. Continued problems -- if they occur -- are sure to be blamed on the choice of physicist-engineer Donald M. Kerr to head the lab. FBI crime lab head
The public became aware of the lab's sloppy work when defense attorneys in the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial pounced on it along with Los Angeles forensics specialists. In April, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Bromwich criticized the lab for flawed work and inaccurate testimony in major cases, including the Oklahoma City bombing. The crime lab's clumsiness may have resulted in a five-month delay in running tests of paint samples taken from Oahu cemeteries that were vandalized this year, and Honolulu police still await the results.
Bromwich urged hiring a new director with a scientific background, "preferably in forensic science." The FBI promised to hire a director with "an outstanding academic and practical background in forensic science and a reputation for excellence in the forensic community."
Kerr has no such background or reputation. Attorney General Janet Reno said the search for director was broadened to include people with "a high-level background in managing complex and important laboratory issues." FBI Director Louis Freeh said forensic background was reduced to merely "one of the considerations and a factor."
Kerr was head of the government's Los Alamos National Laboratory, which conducts nuclear weapons research, for six years. Most recently he was vice president of a San Diego company that specializes in government contract work, where he was responsible for scientific, engineering and other services to the Energy and Defense departments and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Kerr has an impressive background, but not the kind that was determined to be suitable for heading the FBI crime lab.
READERS of this newspaper are used to finding discouraging results for Hawaii public school students on national tests, but the latest report is stunning. The National Assessment Governing Board found that at least one of three students nationally from the fourth grade on up lacks a basic understanding of science. Understanding science
That's pretty bad, but Hawaii is worse. Here, 58 percent of eighth graders tested at "below basic" levels while 42 percent were at the "basic level" and just 1 percent ranked in "proficient" or "advanced" levels. (The numbers add up to more than 100 percent because of rounding.)
Certainly an understanding of science will be needed by our youth to cope with the rapid advances in technology in our changing world. Hawaii must do better.
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
