The Hawai'i Tourism Authority board cannot hold an emergency meeting on embattled CEO Rex Johnson and won't be able to discuss the controversy until next Wednesday at the earliest.

Local community leaders said the delayed response reflects a lack of leadership for a board that is responsible for marketing the state's No. 1 industry.

"It makes you wonder if they are deliberately dysfunctional," said Faye Kennedy, president of the Hawaii Women's Political Caucus.

"So many people are losing confidence. If they are so moribund about holding a meeting — let alone taking action — for this very serious issue, then it sounds like the state of Hawai'i is in a lot of trouble," Kennedy said.

Johnson, the HTA's chief executive officer since 2002, is facing harsh criticism for exchanging racist and sexist jokes on his state computer.

One of the e-mailed jokes — obtained by The Advertiser through the state's open records law — referred to Sen. Barack Obama as a "coon" and Sen. Hillary Clinton as a "beaver."

The disclosure of the e-mails came after the HTA's board last month cut his annual pay by $40,000 to $200,000 and shortened his four-year contract to one-year after 23 adult-content e-mails were found on his state computer.

On Friday, Gov. Linda Lingle called for Johnson's ouster, saying the e-mails were "disgusting."

In a telephone interview yesterday, Johnson said he can continue to function as the HTA's CEO but wants to speak with its board about the matter. He said the e-mails that he forwarded to Mainland friends don't reflect his personal views and were a stupid mistake on his part.

He said he also issued an apology yesterday to Alphonso Braggs, the president of the Honolulu branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Braggs, who could not be reached for immediate comment yesterday, had called for Johnson's dismissal on Friday.

"I'm not a sexist, I'm not a racist, I just did a stupid thing," Johnson said.

"It certainly doesn't reflect how I look at life."

Kelvin Bloom, chairman of the HTA's board, yesterday said the board's request to hold an emergency meeting this week was rejected by the state attorney general's office because it did not meet strict legal requirements.

Under state law, the HTA board can only hold an emergency meeting in the event of unanticipated problems, such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks or the twin failures of Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines.

Bloom said the HTA can hold a regular board meeting but must provide six-day advance notice to the public to do so. The board has yet to post such a notice, meaning that a meeting could not occur until Sept. 24 at the earliest.

The HTA also faces the problem of getting a quorum for a board meeting next week, Bloom said.

Johnson and at least five members of the HTA's 12 voting board members will be in Japan to attend a meeting of the Japan Hawai'i Tourism Council next week. A sixth board member, Vice Chairwoman Sharon Weiner, is on vacation.

Attorney General Mark Bennett said he determined that the circumstances surrounding the Rex Johnson case did not meet that statutory criteria for an emergency meeting. He said the board runs the risk of having its actions declared invalid by a court "because of the inappropriateness of such a meeting."

State Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, chairwoman of the Senate Tourism Committee, said the issues regarding Johnson are twofold: Did he use his state computer inappropriately, and is he a racist.

Kim, D-14th (Moanalua, Kalihi Valley), said Johnson exercised "bad judgment" when he used his state computer to forward questionable e-mails and that he was appropriately punished by the HTA's board.

But Kim said the act of forwarding e-mails with racist and sexist content is not the same as uttering or writing racist or sexist statements himself.