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More time allowed
to pick police chief

The Big Isle Commission sets
a tentative hearing for Jan. 19

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By Rod Thompson
Big Island correspondent

HILO -- The Hawaii County Police Commission will take more time to select a new police chief, in accordance with requests from Mayor Harry Kim and the public.

On Monday, chairman Clarence Mills said the commission might select a chief from the two finalists -- Acting Chief James Correa and Honolulu Major Robert Prasser -- at a special meeting in Kona Jan. 3.

Kim asked the commission to slow down the process and to make it more open. The commission appeared to snub Kim by going into a closed session immediately after his request.

Yesterday, Kona Commissioner Dwight Manago, the person who called for the closed session Monday, said Kona residents were asking for an additional hearing in Kona on the candidates for chief.

"My intent is to give people ample opportunity to voice their concerns," Manago said. "We are basically representing the people in the community, and I'd like to give them that opportunity."

Manago also noted that Kona Circuit Judge Ronald Ibarra handed commission critic Jack Brunton a partial victory last week by determining that the commission failed to follow an openness provision of the law.

Apparently stung by that ruling, the commission was hesitant yesterday about the proper way to set an additional hearing, finally deciding tentatively on Jan. 19, when a regular meeting is already scheduled.

The commission left open the possibility that additional hearings may be held, and a selection might not be made until March.

Mills, who will end a one-year term as chairman following a hearing on the candidates next Thursday, said the past year had been a period of "tribulation."

The reference was to now-retired Chief Wayne Carvalho losing a lawsuit last December accusing him of cheating on department promotions. When Carvalho remained on the job, a year of public criticism of him and the commission followed.

Mills told fellow commissioners: "We should not be ashamed. We should stand tall."

He said he also understood the critics. "These people who challenge (the commission) do it because they are completely frustrated with government agencies," he said. "They have a right to do so."