Mansho back in New leadership at City Hall is allowing City Councilwoman Rene Mansho to travel to Washington, D.C., next month to represent Honolulu at a National Association of Counties conference.
Council’s good graces
Fiery exchanges mark the public
hearings over drive-throughs
on the North ShoreBy Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.comCritics are objecting to the move since only last March, Mansho was stripped of her association duties and told she would no longer be allowed to travel at taxpayer expense after admitting that she was reimbursed for mainland and neighbor island trips from both city coffers and her campaign account. She also was forced to pay some $80,000 in fines and reimbursements.
The uproar over Mansho's trip was just one of several controversies that have erupted at Honolulu Hale since Council Chairman John DeSoto took over on Wednesday.
DeSoto also responded yesterday to criticism over committee assignments.
And on Wednesday night, De-Soto and Mansho got into a verbal clash with Councilman Steve Holmes during a heated public hearing on drive-through businesses in Haleiwa.
Mansho told the Star-Bulletin yesterday that DeSoto has reinstated her as the city's representative to both the National Association of Counties and the Hawaii State Association of Counties and cleared her to travel to Washington from March 1 to 5.
Clayton Wong, the Council's office manager, confirmed that the go-ahead had been given for the trip by DeSoto's office.
Mansho said she will pay for the $3,200 trip with a credit card and will be reimbursed by the Council.
Mansho said she did not ask to be given NaCo and HSAC duties but readily accepted them. If she does not go to Washington, she said, "the perception is that we don't care about federal legislation or participating on the national level."
DeSoto said that Mansho, who is still under investigation by white-collar crime detectives about alleged improprieties, is willing to work with her colleagues. "Somebody's got to go to HSAC; somebody's got to be representing the majority of the Council," he said.
"She wanted to participate with the majority; the others did not," DeSoto said.
Yoshimura, who has been the NaCo and HSAC representative, said he had not been planning to attend. Asked what he thought of Mansho's trip, he said, "It's ironic, because (in March) the members were adamant about ending her Council-sponsored travel."
Yoshimura also noted that his own problems -- with a disciplinary board and Campaign Spending Commission, were cited as a key reason for his ouster.
Holmes and Duke Bainum also objected to Mansho's trip.
"I find that surprising that those privileges would be restored given what's transpired," Bainum said.
Bainum, Holmes and Yoshimura also criticized DeSoto's choices for committee assignments.
Mansho, Romy Cachola, John Henry Felix, Gary Okino and Ann Kobayashi make up the five members on the Budget, Zoning and Planning committees, three of the most important committees on the Council. Cachola is heading Zoning; Kobayashi, Budget; and Okino, Planning.
"It certainly concentrates power in a few people," Bainum said.
"They have every right to do that, but it's certainly not very fair," Holmes said.
Yoshimura said the lineups "offer significant clues" about the political reasons why he was ousted as chairman.
DeSoto said that the criticism is coming from "disgruntled Council members that were asked and declined to be part of our organization."
Late Wednesday night, Holmes touched off a heated exchange when he pointed out that the owner of the Haleiwa McDonald's bussed elderly supporters to Honolulu Hale to testify.
Mansho angrily accused Holmes of being disrespectful to the Haleiwa residents.
Holmes then suggested that DeSoto, as chairman, allowed Mansho to attack him personally. DeSoto then ripped Holmes because "you treat others like trash, and you expect others to treat you the opposite."
Holmes walked out of the meeting in the middle of DeSoto's remarks.
The eyes of Mansho, DeSoto and Holmes all turned watery during the exchange.
City & County of Honolulu
