Dismissed workers
allege retaliationFormer Waimanalo Health
Center workers say they were
fired for exposing improprieties
Two former employees of the Waimanalo Health Center are alleging they were terminated in retaliation for exposing improprieties by a former executive director and the center.
CORRECTION
Saturday, Sept. 13, 2003>> The last name of Laura Kamalani-Paikai was mistakenly written as Pakai in a subsequent reference of a Page A3 article yesterday about the Waimanalo Health Center.
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Laura Kamalani-Paikai, a former administrative assistant, and Christina Simmons, former program director for the Women, Infants and Children's nutrition program at the center, filed suit yesterday in Circuit Court against the center, Dr. Charman Akina and other, unnamed defendants.
Charles Braden Jr., executive director, said through a spokesman that they have not yet seen the lawsuit and declined comment. Akina did not return calls for comment.
Akina had served as interim executive director after Kawahine Kamakea-Ohelo was fired in January amidst allegations she misused state and federal funds.
The two employees were dismissed at the end of March. According to the suit, Akina told them that the reason they were fired was because Pakai had given Simmons "confidential" information -- specifically, addresses of the board of directors.
However, Kamalani-Paikai and Simmons contend they were fired in retaliation for complaining to state Sen. Fred Hemmings, the Health Department, the center's board of directors and others about Kamakea-Ohelo's allegedly illegal conduct, which resulted in an investigation and her subsequent termination.
Kamalani-Paikai was one of a handful of employees who provided information to the board that Kamakea-Ohelo was allegedly paying for personal expenses from the center's funds, collaborating in welfare fraud with family members and engaging in the center's discriminatory hiring and firing practices.
Simmons had complained to the Health Department that the center was not reporting payments to welfare recipients who worked at the center. She also complained about the improper use of center equipment and employees in support of Democratic campaigning during work hours and the center's rescinding the request for proposals for the Women, Infants and Children program.
A board member had asked Simmons to send the board members information about the issue, so she asked Kamalani-Paikai for the board members' addresses. Kamalani-Paikai obtained the addresses from the telephone directory or the board members themselves and did not use any center records to obtain the information, the suit said.
The suit said Akina and other staffers were close friends and supporters of Kamakea-Ohelo and were antagonistic toward Kamalani-Paikai and Simmons, blaming them for the executive director's firing.
Greig Gaspar, the center's spokesman, had said in April that the employees had been fired "for cause" and not in an attempt to silence whistle-blowers.
