Kailua sewage plant
supervisors indictedThe two face charges
of ordering private work
on the city's tab
An Oahu grand jury has indicted two Honolulu waste-water supervisors for allegedly using city equipment and city employees on overtime to fix the sprinkler system at a private home.
Harry K. Hauck III and Jay S. Gonsalves, supervisors at the Kailua Wastewater Treatment Plant, were charged yesterday in Circuit Court in the four-count indictment.
Hauck is charged with bribing current waste-water employee Norman Salsedo and a former employee, Solomon Silva, between July and August 2001, and one count of second-degree theft of city property -- an amount over $300 -- during that period, said Deputy Prosecutor Paul Mow. Gonsalves was charged with one count of second-degree theft.
Hauck declined comment, saying he had not seen the indictment. Gonsalves did not return a call for comment.
In a March 2002 article, the Star-Bulletin chronicled alleged abuses by management at the Kailua Wastewater Treatment Plant, including employees being made to do work on city time, using city equipment at the homes of relatives.
According to Silva's testimony before the grand jury, he was taken by Hauck, his supervisor, to repair a sprinkler system at the Enchanted Lake home of Gonsalves' mother on a Sunday in 2001. "I didn't question him," Silva said.
He said Hauck took supplies from a city storeroom and told him, "We gonna fix Jay's mom's sprinkler -- you better keep your mouth shut."
Gonsalves, who answered the door when Hauck and Silva arrived, said that if Hauck and Salsedo, a fellow truck driver, had not messed up the installation a week earlier, they would not have had to return to fix it, Silva testified.
Silva said he later learned that a week earlier, Salsedo had been taken by Hauck in a city vehicle to the same home to install the sprinklers, using city supplies. Silva said he and Salsedo were promised promotions and unlimited overtime if they kept quiet.
After they and two other employees met with management to report the alleged activities, Silva said he was harassed and was terminated last September. He had been a truck driver for the city for 15 years.
"Management tried to cover it up, they harassed us, changed our working conditions, cut our overtime," Silva said.
City officials have said that they tried to address problems at the Kailua plant, including reassigning a top manager to the facility.
Carol Costa, city spokeswoman, said yesterday she could not comment on the result of separate investigations conducted by the city Ethics Commission and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission into alleged abuses at the Kailua facility.
She said both Hauck and Gonsalves are supervisors at the Kailua plant. Hauck has been with the city for 19 years, and Gonsalves, 13 years.
In June 2002, Hauck and Gonsalves and several other waste-water officials were named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in state court by Kenneth Mersburgh, Silva, Salsedo and George A. Smith Jr. -- all of whom worked at the Kailua plant. The plaintiffs alleged they were retaliated against when they reported the abuse of overtime and city resources.
The individual defendants have since been dismissed from the case. The city is the sole defendant in the case, which is set for trial in August, said attorney William Sink, who represents the plaintiffs.
According to court documents in the civil case, Salsedo said he had been under the impression that he was to going to do some weed whacking at the Kaneohe facility when he was offered overtime work on July 22, 2001, a Sunday.
Instead of driving to Kaneohe, Hauck told him they were going to Enchanted Lake instead and to "keep your mouth shut and everything will be OK."
In his response to the suit, Hauck admitted to being present with Salsedo and Silva at Gonsalves' mother's home on occasions but denied doing anything illegal. Hauck later maintained that Salsedo did not object to going to the home and stood watching when the repairs were done.
In court documents, Gonsalves has acknowledged that he did repair work on the sprinkler system at his mother's home in July 2001 but not during work hours.
Warrants were expected to be issued for Hauck and Gonsalves. Bail was set at $3,000 for Hauck and $1,000 for Gonsalves.