Posted on: Friday, March 11, 2005

Council looks into Harris' spending

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

Council members yesterday questioned how the previous mayoral administration spent $28,000 of the money that had been set aside for Honolulu's July 2005 centennial celebration and Mayor Mufi Hannemann's inauguration.

Hannemann said that a review of Jeremy Harris' administration's books showed $50,000 remaining of the $75,000 allotted for the centennial celebration and that there had been $6,000 available rather than $9,000 the council had budgeted for the new mayor's inauguration.

Budget Committee members Ann Kobayashi, Nestor Garcia and Romy Cachola, and Councilwoman Barbara Marshall sat in yesterday's hearing of a committee reviewing the 2004-05 fiscal year budget.

The centennial and inaugural money came with provisos stating the money could not be spent without council approval, committee chairwoman Kobayashi said.

Benjamin Lee, the former city managing director, said to the best of his knowledge no money with provisos attached was expended and that the amounts in question are miniscule in a $1.3 billion budget.

"I'm not making light of it," Lee said by telephone from New Orleans, "but why are they nitpicking? (The Harris administration) did a great job."

Kobayashi, however, is concerned these may not be isolated cases.

"There was no accountability," Kobayashi said of Harris' spending. "They've spent the money and they're gone. We trusted and believed testimony presented to us. We'd ask questions and got responses, never answers. Is that excusable? No."

Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.