State scrutinizing Kona airport repair jobs

By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer

It was supposed to be a quick, simple job: repair a leaky roof at the Ellison Onizuka Space Museum at Kona International Airport.

According to state records, Kona Airport chief engineer David Hein wrote repeated memos that Big Island airports manager Eugene Narimatsu had gone out of his way to steer the roof repair job to a friend, contractor James Ishii.

"Your personal relationship with the contractor may be directly related to the problems we've had, and in my opinion could present a serious conflict of interest you should be very concerned about," Hein told Narimatsu in one memo. (See memo.)

The attorney general's office, investigating a multimillion-dollar bid-rigging and kickback scandal at Honolulu International Airport, has expanded that probe to include Big Island contracts awarded to Ishii during Narimatsu's tenure there.

At least three construction and repair contracts — each less than $25,000 — and a fourth, larger job have been awarded to James Ishii General Contractor in recent years, according to state records. State officials won't release records of some of the jobs because of the pending investigation, but their total value is believed to be less than $100,000.

Ishii said he received no special treatment from Narimatsu, and that the two "are not really that close."

Narimatsu, who resigned his state post suddenly on Dec. 23, could not be reached despite repeated attempts.

Hilo Airport security official George "Manu" Crabbe told The Advertiser that Narimatsu and Ishii are close friends "who went drinking together at least three nights a week."

Ishii responded to the comment by acknowledging occasional after-hours socializing with Narimatsu "when we were working on a project in Hilo."

According to state files, state efforts to repair the Onizuka museum began in January 2001. Ishii first offered to do the job for $24,200. Another company, Fordable Construction LLC, bid $19,627 and was slated to receive the contract. After the bid submission deadline passed March 16, Narimatsu produced a bid from Ishii priced at $18,720, according to Hein.

Hein wrote a memo April 2, 2001, about "potential bidding irregularities" in the roof contract. (See memo.)

"I am concerned that special consideration may be given to Ishii that is not being afforded other contractors," Hein wrote. "To date, Ishii has provided ambiguous information, has not responded within the time periods requested, has not provided any quotations on the forms required by the state. To offer him extra time now is unfair to other bidding contractors."

Hein declined to discuss the roofing contract with The Advertiser.

Keahole Airport manager George Ackerman referred questions about Ishii's work to Donald Wong, chief investigator in the state attorney general's office, who is overseeing the investigation of small construction and repair contracts at Honolulu International Airport. Wong declined to comment.

On April 11, Narimatsu decided to throw out all the bids and restart the contract award procedure from scratch, specifying that all bids be sent to him directly.

"This seems very irregular to me, as (Narimatsu) is not familiar with the project details or work description," Hein wrote in a memo the same day. (See memo.) "In the case of projects since Eugene Narimatsu has been administrator, Ishii consistently has bypassed the District Engineer by going directly to the administrator and in doing so has confused the lines of communication."

Hein predicted in another memo that "Ishii is the preferred contractor and is going to be awarded the project regardless of how the new quotations come in." (See memo.)

He was right. Although Fordable Construction submitted the apparent low bid by the Apr. 27 deadline, Ishii won the job with a bid of $14,000 that came in after the deadline.

Hein wrote May 2 that Ishii's bid had been submitted under unusual circumstances.

"The (Ishii) price appears to have been hand-delivered to the administrator, because it does not contain a Department of Transportation fax machine receipt date or time stamp on it. The other quotations were received on or before the deadline time," Hein wrote. "There is a strong impression here that Ishii had advance knowledge of the other prices submitted ... this activity is too suspicious to be coincidence." (See memo.)

Ishii denied receiving inside information on the contract bids. In fact, he said, he tried to "wait until the last minute to submit bids so that no one would have the chance to find out our prices."

Ishii said he hand-delivered his $14,000 bid, on the proper state form, to the Hilo airport office before the submission deadline, giving it to "one of the secretaries there." He said he did not retain a copy of the bid but that the original should be in state files.

After repeated delays in starting the work, complicated by the Sept. 11 attacks, a two-man crew using state equipment and assisted by airport personnel worked on the museum roof for two days in December 2001.

Weeks after the job was finished, museum personnel reported that the roof leaked worse than before.

Ishii said the problem was related to "wall cracks" that were not part of his repair job. The state blames Ishii. (See memo.)

"I'm waiting for the state to decide what it wants to do," Ishii said. "They said they were going to issue specifications for a (new) contract to take care of the problem, but that hasn't happened yet."

State files show similar procurement discrepancies in another contract awarded at Hilo Airport in May 2001 to Ishii's company.

The work involved clearing a section of airport property to provide a clear line of sight from the tower to the end of one taxiway.

According to the files, two companies submitted standard bids on state-approved forms, but Ishii sent a price quote via security official Crabbe.

"Eugene Narimatsu told me to get a quote from Ishii," Crabbe told The Advertiser. "I had only been working there a couple of days, and had never been involved in anything like that before."

Hilo Airport office manager Tammy Weseman wrote a memo to the file regarding "inconsistencies" in the way the contract had been awarded, saying Crabbe had delivered Ishii's quote but it didn't have the proper form attached. She said she created a form for the quote herself but did not know if he had been given the same contract specifications as other bidders.

Ishii offered to do the work for $24,500. The other bids were $27,974 and $29,581. Ishii was awarded the contract.

Crabbe said airport assistant manager Larry Balbarino was unhappy with the work Ishii performed, saying the area cleared was not leveled, as it should have been.

Payment for the job was withheld for months, but finally approved in November 2001.

Balbarino now works for the federal Transportation Security Administration at Hilo Airport. He could not be reached for comment.

Ishii told The Advertiser the job specifications did not include filling in the area where rubbish was removed. Ishii said he offered to level the site at no extra charge. Another contractor working on a runway project is supposed to provide material for leveling the taxiway site, but that has not happened yet, Ishii said.

Crabbe and Acting Hilo Airport administrator Jim Davis told The Advertiser that airports chief auditor Ross Higashi had analyzed the contract documents recently and ordered that some be locked away, pending possible action by the state.

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2447.