Liquor Commission
looks to mend its
damaged reputation

The Honolulu Liquor Commission is considering internal investigations as a way to boost its image that has been tarnished by a critical city audit and a bribery case.

Wally Weatherwax: The Liquor Commission administrator has refused to step down

The commission yesterday discussed a draft of its proposed strategic plan over the next five years that also includes ideas such as changing its name to "Liquor Control Agency."

Commission Chairman Dennis Enomoto cautioned that the proposal is still a work in progress, but said that change is needed and it's also being called for by both the public and the commission staff.

"It's to set a direction for everybody to work toward. I think everyone wants to do well, everybody is hard-working," Enomoto said. "For us, it's important to be measured, because we get scrutinized by the public so much."

In recent years, the commission has been hammered by scandal and criticism, including the convictions of eight former investigators in 2002 for accepting bribes from bar owners to overlook violations.

Last month, the city auditor released a highly critical report of the management of the commission -- which led to calls for the commission to get rid of Administrator Wally Weatherwax and Chief Investigator John Carroll.

After the discussion on the strategic plan yesterday, Enomoto and fellow commissioners Chu Lan Shubert-Kwock and Danny Auyoung went into closed session to discuss personnel matters.

The commission has the power to dismiss the civil-service administrator for cause.

All this also comes as the commission seeks approval for liquor licensee fee hikes. The fee hikes are stalled in the City Council, which is also considering a recommendation to cut $131,000 in salaries and expenses from the commission budget.

Councilman Charles Djou has said that the Council should not approve those items until Weatherwax and Carroll are gone. Weatherwax and Carroll have refused to step down.

Enomoto said he hopes the strategic plan will lay the groundwork for the commission's future direction.

"We have an opportunity to really make a difference," Enomoto said.

The draft plan calls for meeting five goals over the next five years, including trying to "maintain an efficient, ethical organization with strong, positive employee morale and public trust and support."

The plan also calls for enhancing law enforcement by including contract reserve officers who could be called upon for special operations, stepping up computerization of operations and increasing the number of commissioners to create a separate adjudication board.

However, Alvin Akeo, the commission's training specialist, said he doesn't see enough in the plan to overcome the past shortcomings with corruption and ethics, and was disappointed that change, including the starting of an internal affairs section, won't come for at least another year.

"Two years ago, we sent people to the penitentiary. We still don't have any ethics. We still don't have any internal affairs. We don't have any of those things."

Enomoto said ethics training has been beefed up.

"I assume that on a certain level the people we have are ethical and we're working with a good group now," Enomoto said. "What we've looked at was environment. Now, we've got to change the way we work."