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Police meeting
turns into standoff
with audience

By Rod Thompson
Big Island correspondent

HILO -- Squabbles surrounding the status of Big Island Police Chief Wayne Carvalho took a new twist yesterday when the public refused to budge after the Police Commission asked those standing to leave a packed meeting room.

A Fire Department official said people standing in the tiny room and hallway violated the fire code.

During a half-hour standoff, commissioners stared at the public and whispered while members of the audience shouted at them.

A member of the audience, former Idaho police chief Jack Brunton, read from the state Sunshine Law, " ... the Legislature declares that it is the policy of this state that the formation and conduct of public policy ... shall be conducted as openly as possible."

The commission finally promised to reschedule the meeting when a bigger room is found.

The commission was supposed to consider a complaint by officer Tanny Cazimero that Chief Carvalho violated a department order by being involved in a cheating scandal.

In December, Carvalho lost a lawsuit brought by officers who said he cheated them out of promotions from 1984-1994.

Carvalho was deputy chief part of the period and was not in the department during most of the period. He unsuccessfully argued that he only passed word from then-chief Guy Paul about whom Paul wanted promoted.

Although an appeal is planned, Cazimero is among various voices saying Carvalho should resign or be removed.

Other events since December include Carvalho being ticketed for parking in a loading zone, Cazimero being relieved of his badge and gun for refusing a work assignment, and police investigating commissioners and the publisher of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald to learn who leaked Cazimero's work record.