HTA chief gets support despite e-mail porn
Rex Johnson's future is still uncertain after board members don't dole out punishment
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After a grueling, nearly seven-hour, closed-door meeting yesterday, the Hawaii Tourism Authority left the employment status of its embattled top executive hanging in the balance.
Rex Johnson, the agency's president and chief executive officer, faces possible termination for using a state computer to e-mail pornography to friends.
Public support for Johnson at the HTA meeting was overwhelming. About 52 people submitted written testimony and nine testified in support of allowing Johnson to keep his job.
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Rex Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the Hawaii Tourism Authority, sat stone-faced and silent yesterday throughout a public meeting to decide the fate of his $240,000-a-year job.
But the embattled executive, who has acknowledged sending pornographic e-mails on his state computer, was left in limbo, with the HTA board declining to make a decision on how to punish him.
After taking a half-hour of public testimony, the HTA board held an approximately seven-hour, closed-door meeting, then met briefly with Johnson.
Upon emerging from that meeting, Johnson told reporters, "I'm waiting like all the rest of you."
HTA Chairman Kelvin Bloom said the board "considered fully the employment agreement regarding Rex Johnson" and that members may or may not resume future deliberations.
The board hopes to make a decision regarding Johnson within days, said Bloom, who refused to be more specific.
Ten members of the HTA's 12-member board deliberated during yesterday's meeting. Only Stephen Yamashiro and John Toner, who sent in his support for Johnson via e-mail, were absent.
About 52 people submitted written testimony and nine people testified in support of Johnson, while three people submitted unfavorable testimony.
Members of Johnson's HTA staff testified in his favor and many of them waited with him throughout the long, drawn-out evening.
"As employees of HTA, we know, perhaps better than anyone else, the character of Rex, both as a leader in the visitor industry and as an employer, a boss, a mentor and a friend," said Muriel Anderson, the HTA's vice president of tourism product development. "We are proud to work for the HTA and we are proud to work for Rex Johnson."
Other support for Johnson was sent in by heavy hitters from the state's hospitality industry and from doctors, lawyers, family friends and lawmakers. The e-mails and letters came from throughout the islands as well as from far-flung destinations like Singapore and Costa Rica.
Most of the public testimony echoed the concerns of several state legislators who previously had said that Hawaii's economy would suffer if the HTA fired its top executive at a time when the state's lead industry is in a significant slump and facing further declines.
"Our tourism industry is extremely fragile at this moment, and in turn so is our local economy," said Rep. Ryan Yamane, chairman of the Tourism and Culture Committee. "This is the exact situation that requires a strong, dedicated public servant with a comprehensive knowledge of government and Hawaii's tourism industry, such that Mr. Johnson offers the Hawaii Tourism Authority and the state of Hawaii."
However, Keith Vieira, the senior vice president and director of operations for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc., challenged the notion that Johnson cannot be replaced.
"Please know that this view is not the majority of the industry but there is a reluctance to speak out due to the legislative support he has gotten," said Vieira, who is a past HTA board member.
The HTA board needs to make its decision based on what is right relative to the situation, not what is good for the industry, he said.
"The industry will survive fine; there is a good team on the ground and I believe that we can find the appropriate leadership needed," Vieira said, adding that his remarks were not meant to be taken as a personnel recommendation to the HTA.
Although he did not testify publicly in his defense, Johnson has acknowledged that he "made a real stupid misjudgment" and "sent some e-mails where I should not have sent them."
"It was dumb on my part and I would never do it again," Johnson has said. His actions were brought to the HTA's attention by a state auditor.
Gov. Linda Lingle, who appoints members of the HTA board, has criticized Johnson's action. "This is a place we tell people is great for families and to have our head of tourism authority distributing pornography over a government computer is a challenge," Lingle said in an interview with KITV.
