Top city official
gets free city rocks

Managing Director Ben Lee
received the blue-rock curbstones
from a city contractor

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By Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.com

A major city contractor provided city curbstones to build a walkway at the home of a top Harris administration official.

Royal Contracting Inc. delivered dozens of curbstones that date back to the territorial era to Managing Director Ben Lee's Punchbowl-area residence about two years ago, according to Leonard Leong, a vice president with Royal Contracting.

The company, which is under investigation by the state Campaign Spending Commission for allegedly giving excessive political donations to Mayor Jeremy Harris, also hired out its employees to Lee for manual labor, Leong said.

Lee did not pay for the curbstones, nor did he list them as a gift in his annual disclosures with the city Ethics Commission. But Lee did pay for the laborers, who worked on his house as individual contractors and not as employees of Royal Contracting, Leong said.

Lee did not return several calls to his office, and his attorney declined comment.

Leong, who is chairman of the Honolulu Police Commission, said Royal Contracting did not charge Lee for the curbstones because they have no value. He said the curbstones have irregular shapes and are unusable.

According to Leong, the curbstones are technically owned by Royal Contracting, which is responsible under the city's demolition plan to haul away old building materials to a dump site.

"If I gave them to you, you might say, 'Hey, get this thing out of here,'" said Leong, who noted that his company often gets requests for used building materials. "Some people consider it junk; other people would find a use for it."

One city official contacted by the Star-Bulletin said the city typically requires a contractor to return the type of curbstones that were given to Lee. The official said the city does not sell those curbstones and stockpiles them at a yard in Sand Island for reuse.

City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi said she was troubled that a city official would accept property from a contractor given the recent political scandals that have tarnished the city's image.

The past several years have seen the convictions of Council members Andy Mirikitani and Rene Mansho, as well as a criminal investigation of the Harris campaign by Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle.

"It's a real embarrassment to all of us at the city," Kobayashi said. "You don't expect a city official to be doing this."

The 2-by-3-foot curbstones, about 40 in all, now sit in Lee's back yard. According to Leong, Lee intended to build a walkway with the stones, but the project apparently was not completed.

Several curbstones are painted red, indicating that they once stood at a no-parking zone.

Most of the curbs in Honolulu's streets are made of cement. But the curbstones at Lee's home are made of basalt, commonly known as blue rock.

The blue-rock curbstones were placed in Honolulu streets prior to statehood, and some date back to the 1800s. Many of the blue-rock curbstones can be found in older neighborhoods such as Chinatown.

Leong, who has served on the Police Commission since 1996, stressed that the curbstones and the work on Lee's home are unrelated to any city work awarded to Royal Contracting.

Since 1994, Royal Contracting has received more than $38 million in construction work, according to city records. Projects include a $4.5 million road repair contract in 2000 and $10.8 million in emergency sewer line and sinkhole repairs in Moiliili last year.

The city contracts were awarded through competitive bidding.

"Just because you are a public official doesn't mean you are going to live in a grass shack," Leong said. "There's nothing in our relationship that would cause an embarrassment to the city."