Editorials

[ OUR OPINION ]

Mansho’s aloha
a long time coming

THE ISSUE In the face of possible criminal charges, the beleaguered Council member resigns.

RENE Mansho takes her leave of the City Council bearing the common label of crooked politician. After more than 13 years of public service and all the good she may have done for her constituents, Mansho will be remembered largely as a council member who was caught misusing her office and campaign money.

For more than a year, Mansho has been the target of investigations by federal and local authorities. Last spring, the state Campaign Spending Commission fined her $40,000 for illegally using campaign funds. She had to reimburse the city another $40,000 after the Ethics Commission found she had her staff work on campaign and non-city-related events.

Mansho, who usually wore bright, splashy muumuu and tooled around in an electric car, cut a colorful figure around town. Her visibly cheerful nature was reflected in some of her Council doings. At one time, she introduced a resolution to have city employees answer phones with "Aloha." That same sunny disposition may have led her to believe that her efforts to recreate the "boat days" of old -- when cruise ships were greeted with dancers and music -- warranted use of city staffers to do the work.

Whether Mansho knew what she was doing was wrong may be left undetermined. Her resignation came on the day a grand jury was to consider criminal charges against her and it is possible she quit as part of a plea agreement or to avoid prosecution. Whatever plays out, however, does not discount the fact that she had gone off track. Many of the voters in her district, which runs from the North Shore through Wahiawa and Mililani, wanted her gone, petitioning the Hawaii Supreme Court to impeach the former school teacher.

It is a pity that people who may have started off in public office with honorable intentions become fouled by a sense of entitlement. Years of wheeling and dealing in the political realm often round off the hard edges of ethical behavior. Benevolent objectives are gained through moral shortcuts, with misguided notions that the ends justify the means. New term limits would have kept Mansho from returning to City Hall. Maybe she should have left sooner, for the voters' good and for her own.

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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.

Don Kendall, Publisher

Frank Bridgewater, Editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, Assistant Editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, Assistant Editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.com

Mary Poole, Editorial Page Editor, 529-4790; mpoole@starbulletin.com
John Flanagan, Contributing Editor 294-3533; jflanagan@starbulletin.com

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