VOLCANIC ASH
DeSoto is being foolish again
By David Shapiro
New City Council Chairman John DeSoto is off to a rollicking start in his effort to boost the visibility of his campaign for lieutenant governor.
First, he scrounged the votes to oust the scandal-ridden Jon Yoshimura as chairman by making a deal to restore full council power to the even more ethically challenged Rene Mansho.
Then he brought new incivility to council discourse by calling members Steve Holmes and Duke Bainum "crybabies" when they objected to Mansho's ascent. DeSoto excluded them from any significant role in the council's new order.
Now he's reopening old wounds in his ongoing role as apologist for the former trustees of Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate.
It stirs memories of the bad old days of 1998, when DeSoto's often crass leadership led colleagues to remove him from his first bumpy run as council chairman.
Mansho last year was stripped by fellow council members of most of her powers after paying fines of $80,000 for ethics and campaign spending violations involving misuse of city staff and political funds. A criminal investigation and an impeachment drive by constituents still bedevil her.
Nevertheless, DeSoto embraced Mansho as a key member of his new ruling coalition. She emerged from his reorganization as a member of seven of the eight council committees — including the influential Budget, Planning and Zoning panels.
Last year, colleagues barred Mansho from any further city-sponsored travel after she admitted taking reimbursements for previous trips from both the city and her campaign fund.
DeSoto reinstated her as the council's representative to the National Association of Counties and sent her off this week on a $3,200 taxpayer-funded trip to Washington, D.C.
DeSoto brushed off criticism of the Mansho resurrection, deriding critics for a "holier than thou" attitude.
So much for claims by DeSoto and his backers that the purpose of the reorganization was to clean up the council's tarnished image after Andy Mirikitani's conviction for corruption and Yoshimura's confessed lies about a traffic accident.
The new chairman's most bizarre move was to renew his defense of former Bishop Estate trustees who were removed from office in 1999 for misallocating trust assets and shirking their obligation to Hawaiian children.
DeSoto is one of the few prominent Hawaiians to consistently support the trustees. He was a paid consultant for a construction company that received lucrative nonbid contracts from Bishop Estate.
DeSoto, who wants to run for lieutenant governor as a Republican, claims many Hawaiians are thinking of voting for the GOP this year because they're angry that the Cayetano administration investigated the former trustees. He said the Bishop Estate was well-run, and trustees were targeted for being "too successful."
It makes you wonder if DeSoto has been sucking too many exhaust fumes from the motorcycles he races.
The state investigated Bishop Estate after it was demanded by the Hawaiian community — particularly the alumni, faculty and students of Kamehameha Schools. The trustees were removed under pressure from the state probate court and Internal Revenue Service.
The state Supreme Court's recent dismissal of criminal charges against two former trustees was based on legal technicalities and in no way vindicated the trustees.
DeSoto notwithstanding, there is widespread agreement in the community that honest and competent new leadership at Kamehameha Schools has re-energized the trust by redirecting resources to the education of Hawaiian children instead of dubious deals to line the pockets of trustees and their cronies.
If DeSoto persists on this path, look for his race for lieutenant governor to fizzle at the starting line.
David Shapiro can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net.
