[ OUR OPINION ]

HVCB should follow
state conduct rules

THE ISSUE The state visitors bureau has decided not to fire its chief executive but will discipline him for paying for personal expenses with state funds.

THE Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau was sharply criticized in a state audit but is suggesting that it should not be expected to perform like a state agency. It is a nonprofit organization, a creature of the tourism industry, but most of its budget comes from the state. Where tax dollars are involved, expenditures should conform with state accounting and ethical rules. The state legislative auditor's identification of failings in that area cannot not be dismissed as being misdirected.

Chris Resich, the bureau's former chairman, asks whether the bureau is going to be treated like a business or like another state agency, implying that it should be the former. The audit accused the bureau of violating generally accepted accounting principles and inappropriately awarding a marketing contract to a public relations company headed by Wei-Wei Ojiri, who left her job as the bureau's vice president only three days before the contract was signed. Ojiri had announced her intention to leave the bureau for the new job four months earlier.

The bureau seems to be saying the benefits to be derived from the marketing of Hawaii in China override the appearance -- if not the reality -- of self-dealing. The suggestion is that while such conduct is forbidden in government, it is commonplace in the business world, so it ought to be acceptable at HVCB. If it is unacceptable, that should be covered in the state's contract with the bureau.

The bureau's executive committee has chosen to keep its chief executive, Tony Vericella, who came under fire in the audit for spending $670 in state funds on personal expenses, although he will be disciplined in an undisclosed fashion. Vericella says he got $137 in parking tickets while at legislative hearings in the state Capitol and a speeding ticket for racing to the Big Island airport from a marketing events, both of which are job-related.

Two weeks ago, bureau officials described Vericella's personal expenditures with public money as an error in judgment. The committee now says it believes Vericella was not paying attention to details when he spent the money on personal items, which included not only the parking and speeding tickets but $174 for family travel and $359 for in-room movies rented at hotels.

Inattentiveness to detail and judgmental error are not the same thing. But what the heck. As they say, it's close enough for government work, even though it's performed by a private company.

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Isle pitcher revives
interest in baseball

THE ISSUE Waipahu's Jerome Williams is off to an impressive start as a pitcher in his first season in the majors.

SINCE the demise of the Triple A Hawaii Islanders 16 years ago, sports enthusiasts in the islands have been aloof from professional baseball. Local interest has been generated by the success of islanders in the big leagues -- Sid Fernandez and Benny Agbayani filled the bill. Another local star now has started the baseball world buzzing. It's time again for fair-weather baseball fans in Hawaii to take notice.

As last weekend's celebration of Asian Pacific Day at the Arizona Diamondbacks' Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix turned from taiko drums and the lion dance to Hawaiian melodies, a player from the visiting San Francisco Giants stood up in the dugout and started singing. "The guys looked at me and I told them, 'Yeah, that's my heritage,'" explained Jerome Willliams, who knew every word of the songs.

The young Waipahu right-hander gave up only two hits and a single unearned run that Saturday, gaining his fifth straight win and lowering his earned run average to 2.64. In a poll on the Giants' Web site on who among five "subs" on the roster is the most valuable, Williams is far ahead with 59 percent of the votes. He soon should shed the description of "sub."

"The Giants have a very good pitcher and he's just 21," Giants manager Felipe Alou told the Star-Bulletin's Cindy Luis. Williams also embodies Hawaii's diverse ethnicity to the ultimate: Hawaiian, American Indian, African, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Norwegian, Japanese and Filipino.

Fernandez captivated Hawaii baseball fans through an illustrious career of 15 seasons in the majors, most of them with the New York Mets. A two-time National League All-Star, "El Sid" registered a 16-6 win-loss record in 1986 and pitched the Mets to a World Series championship. His No. 50 Mets uniform -- signifying Hawaii's 50th state status -- was passed on for three years to outfielder Agbayani, now playing for the Triple A Omaha Royals and working for a comeback to the majors.

Williams' success is no surprise. Straight out of Waipahu High School, he signed a bonus of $800,000 for the Giants after being 39th pick in the 1999 draft, the highest ever for a Hawaii-born player. After four years in the Giants' farm system, he is poised to be a national star and a pride of Hawaii, where former Mets fans are now rooting for the Giants.