HONOLULU — Rep. John Mizuno on Monday refuted claims from one of Gov. Linda Lingle’s top aides that he may have violated the law by not reporting allegations of elder abuse to authorities.

Mizuno said he was “perplexed” by the charges of Lingle policy adviser Linda Smith, who made the claim late last week in a video posted on the governor’s Web site.
In the video, Smith said the Democrat who represents the Kalihi area also should have informed Department of Human Services officials before airing the allegations at last Thursday’s hearing of the House Committee on Human Services, which Mizuno chairs.
It was “inappropriate, legally incorrect and not serving the best interest of the public” for Mizuno to fail to report abuse allegations when he learned of them, Smith asserted in the video, which was titled “Legislators without Aloha.”
But on Monday, Mizuno said he did not intend to air allegations of elder abuse at the hearing. Rather, he wanted to discuss concerns expressed to him by a Hawaii resident about the practices of a case-management agency regulated by the state.
“They thought it was a witch hunt, and I just wanted to make the program better,” Mizuno said in an interview. “What Linda Smith said is not true.”
The resident, Beth Slavens, had e-mailed the legislator about what she considered to be inappropriate practices by a case-management agency.
“I strongly believe that case-management agencies need to be monitored and closely regulated,” Slavens wrote. “There are far too many crooked people in this industry preying on the weak.”
Her e-mail contained no specific allegations of mistreatment.
Slavens’ concerns were one of several topics that Mizuno’s committee was to discuss on Thursday.
But when Department of Human Services officials saw the notice for the hearing last week, they tried to contact Mizuno to determine the nature of the allegations and to caution him that the allegations should be reported to authorities, Smith said in an interview Friday.
On Monday, Mizuno said that the day before the hearing, he forwarded an e-mail from Slavens to Susan Yamamoto, a lobbyist for the Department of Human Services. He and Yamamoto also spoke later the same day by phone, Mizuno added.
“We did talk on Wednesday, the day before the briefing,” and Yamamoto indicated the department was unsure if it would send representatives to the hearing, Mizuno said.