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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 5:01 p.m., Friday, September 26, 2008

HTA postpones board meeting on Rex Johnson until Thursday

Advertiser Staff

The Hawai'i Tourism Authority will postpone a meeting scheduled Monday to decide the employment future of president and CEO Rex Johnson in the wake of a controversy over e-mail he sent from his state laptop computer.

Board chairman Kelvin Bloom said the meeting was postponed until 11:30 a.m. Thursday because not enough voting board members were available on Monday and the meeting lacked the needed quorum for decision-making.

The 16-member board had scheduled a meeting for 9:30 a.m. Monday to decide what to do with Johnson in the wake of the discovery that he had forwarded X-rated, racist and sexist jokes to friends on his state computer.

The discovery of the latest e-mails came after the HTA's board last month cut Johnson's annual pay by $40,000 and reduced the length of his contract from four years to one year after Johnson apologized for "bad judgment" in forwarding adult-oriented e-mails to friends that were discovered in an unrelated audit.

A group from the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has announced plans to march through Waikiki at midday tomorrow to call for Johnson's removal.