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Kokua Line

By June Watanabe

City says it has no
record of car complaint

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Question: For years, a resident in our building has been using a City & County (of Honolulu) car. He parks the car wherever he pleases. When we call police, they call the city, and he moves the car. No one else gets such treatment. One night we called police because the car was blocking our driveway. They finally called a tow truck. Every time I call the Mayor's Office I am told to call the complaints office. When I call the complaints office, they say they will investigate the complaint, but no one calls me back. I have written the mayor, but he has not done anything except write me a fancy letter telling me he will take care of the problem. I don't think we taxpayers should pay for fancy cars for government officials and their families to use and that police should give special treatment to city workers who are inconsiderate.

Answer: City officials were puzzled by your complaint about not getting any response.

The Department of Customer Services investigated the matter and could find nothing in its files, or in the mayor's files, regarding the official or his vehicle.

There is no record either of the mayor sending a letter to anyone on the matter.

If someone calls or sends in a complaint, even if no action is taken, that complaint would be documented, said George Souza, of the Department of Customer Services' complaints office.

Even if someone makes an anonymous complaint, if an address or some other specific information is given, that complaint would be checked, he said.

"We can query that way," Souza explained. "We don't need someone's name."

There's a similar system in place in the mayor's office, he said, "where they can track all the correspondence coming in."

In your case, "we are coming up zero" in both offices, Souza said.

However, with the license number you provided, officials did speak with the city official assigned to the vehicle, who "voluntarily admitted that one of the nights (he) used the car, it was towed."

He said he had come home late one night, found someone occupying his space, so parked on the street, obviously too close to a driveway, and it was towed.

"But that's the only incident that we could come up with," Souza said.

A check also was made with the Honolulu Police Department, where beat officers could not recall any incident involving the vehicle.

"We've gone as far as we can" on this at this point, Souza said.

As far as city officials using city vehicles, they are allowed to do so "as long as it is used for business," he said.

Mahalo

To the people of Hawaii for the support they gave to Aiea Elementary School during a time of sadness with the loss of Kahealani. -- John Honjo, Grade 6 teacher, Aiea Elementary School

(Eleven-year-old Kahealani Indreginal, a sixth-grader at Aiea Elementary, was found murdered on Dec. 13. Christopher Clayburn Aki, 20, the father of her half-sister's child, has been charged with her murder.)

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Useful phone numbers

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Call 529-4773, fax 529-4750, or write to Kokua Line,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu 96813. As many as possible will be answered.
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