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Ewa Villages
money requests
routine, says ex-
budget chief
Given satisfactory answers
By Debra Barayuga
as to need, he approved an
additional $2 million
and Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-BulletinFormer city budget director Malcolm Tom said he did question why he had to approve $2 million more for the Ewa Villages project even though $4 million had already been spent, but was given satisfactory answers by the now-defunct Housing Department.
When asked if he thought at the time that the need for the additional monies was odd, Tom told a Circuit Court jury this morning: "I didn't look at it from that perspective. Maybe I should have."
Tom, now Mayor Jeremy Harris' third-in-command as deputy managing director, took the stand in the Ewa Villages theft trial. Fired property management branch chief Michael Kahapea is accused of stealing up to $5.8 million from the Ewa Villages relocation fund by steering moving contracts to friends, overbilling the city for moves or for moves that did not take place and accepting kickbacks.
Tom was called as a witness by Donald Wilkerson, Kahapea's attorney, who is arguing that his client's superiors had him shift much of the relocation money for the cleanup of toxic waste.
Tom said he was told by city housing officials that costs were higher than anticipated, noting that he did not think that odd since the department frequently sought additional funds for projects.
"Did you ever ask what's the bottom line here, when do we turn off the spigot?" Wilkerson probed. Tom replied, "No, I didn't and perhaps I should have. My focus was on the project as a whole because this was a major capital investment by the city, and my focus was primarily on when will the total investment be recovered."
About this time, Tom said, he was told by Harris to play a larger role in the project, which involved revitalizing homes in the old sugar plantation neighborhood, because Harris was unhappy by delays and added costs.
He noted also that the additional $2 million requested was part of an $18 million improvements package proposed for Ewa Villages that budget year. He said he was not aware at the time that only 20 or so businesses were being relocated, in total.
The $2 million appropriated for the relocation fund that year turned out to be the last. A year later, Kahapea and the late Norman Tam, the city's fair-housing officer, were arrested and fired from their jobs.
Tom said that while the city's master plan in the early '90s called for redeveloping the commercial mill area -- where the questionable relocations occurred -- and selling it as a commercial center, "I wouldn't say there's any plan" currently.
That's because the city is in the process of getting the area out of its current designation as a flood plain, he said.
During trial yesterday, former city housing director Roland Libby said he did not give Kahapea permission to use Ewa Villages relocation funds to clean up toxic waste.
Libby said he would not have approved the payments had he known the relocations documents were forged or false.
Libby said that when he took over as director in 1995, he was not happy with the way relocations and property management were being run.
There were no records of who the commercial tenants were in Ewa Villages, what site they were leasing or their lease agreements. Also, the "informal" bid process for relocations needed to be improved, Libby said.
The tenants were supposed to be selecting movers on their own, but it was the property management branch that was soliciting bids, he said.
On top of that, the winning bids were going to the same handful of bidders, and their bids were "fairly close," he said. "I was concerned the bidding process be as open and competitive as possible and no opportunity for collusion among bidders."
Kahapea told him that they had sought other bidders but that they were not interested.
Earlier, William Balfour, formerly general manager of Oahu Sugar, testified he told Mayor Harris and "everybody and anybody who would listen" that "it would be a big mistake to revitalize and do something with Ewa Villages."
