Office of U.S. Trustee vs. Harmon - Witness Barry Fukunaga

David C. Farmer, Successor-Trustee vs. Harmon

(Formerly Woo vs. Harmon & Nicholson vs. Harmon)

CV05-00030 DAE KSC

U.S. District Court For the District of Hawaii

Judges: David A. Ezra; Kevin S. Chang

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DEFENDANT’S WITNESS

BARRY FUKUNAGA

Former Hawaii Director of Transportation; replacing Bob Awana as Governor Linda Lingle’s Chief of Staff.

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NEW DISCOVERY (12/03/07):

December 3, 2007

Lingle Discusses Departure
Of Awana, Blackmail Case

Governor Says Former Chief Of Staff
Appropriate During State Trips

HONOLULU -- Gov. Linda Lingle on Monday spoke for the first time at length about her former chief of staff and the extortion case, which threatened to expose an alleged extramarital affair he was involved in.

"I believe that he always conducted himself appropriately when he was on an official state trip," Lingle said.

Lingle said she and Bob Awana, her friend and closest adviser, decided together he would resign as chief of staff.

"Bob resigned because the media attention and the sensationalization of him being a victim of blackmail," Lingle said. "The issues surrounding Bob were because of something he did personally."

In October, the man who tried to blackmail Awana, Rajdatta Patkar, was sentenced to a year in federal prison.

Patkar allegedly stole e-mails from Awana to a Filipino mistress, asking that she find other women who wanted to meet married American men prominent enough to travel with Lingle.

"Did you investigate whether it was on state trips?" one reporter asked Lingle during a news conference.

"Yes I did, and I found no information that would lead me to believe that it was ever done on state trips," Lingle said.

Patkar's attorney, Pamela Byrne, has said he has agreed to return to testify in another federal case that involves an investigation in Hawaii involving young Filipino women, and what Byrne called "men behaving badly."

"I know of no investigation of the government. None of my directors or myself have ever been contacted about an investigation," Lingle said.

When a reporter asked if it was appropriate to carry on a so-called liaison with another person during a state trip, Lingle had this response:

"Well, Dave, you are asking a difficult question. You're asking a moral question first of all," Lingle said.

A federal judge has not decided yet whether to unseal e-mails and other evidence in the Patkar extortion case.

Lingle on Monday announced Department of Transportation Director Barry Fukunaga will take over as her chief of staff.

http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/news/14764791/detail.html

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February 10, 2007

Lingle sidelined transportation director
but kept him on the payroll

By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer

HONOLULU – Gov. Linda Lingle’s chief of staff, Bob Awana, confirmed Friday that Rod Haraga, when he was state transportation director, was frozen out of operational decisions.

Awana portrayed the situation as normal, for a department director to be shut out of normal responsibilities more than two years into the four years he was Lingle’s transportation director. Haraga was not reappointed in December after Lingle had won re-election.

The freeze on the transportation director did not continue now that Haraga has been replaced, according to Barry Fukunaga, the new director, who is awaiting confirmation by the state Senate. He said this week that he gets reports from his deputies.

In an e-mail response to questions, Awana wrote, “During his tenure (Haraga) oversaw the department’s administrative functions, which included approving and signing contracts. The deputies oversaw the daily line-functions of their divisions.”

In sworn testimony offered in a deposition taken as part of a lawsuit by Pacific Wings against the Department of Transportation, Haraga said, “Well, what happened, I could not get enough information from Brian (Sekiguchi, the deputy director for airports). So consequently, I had a discussion with (Lingle and Awana) and had thought that perhaps I could threaten (Sekiguchi) by resignation.

“And I was told by the chief of staff and the governor that was not my call, that the deputies do not report to me, that they report directly to the governor.

“I’m not aware that other departments have similar requirements,” he added.

It was not made public at the time that Haraga was not functioning as the director, responsible for all functions of the department, and he continued to collect a salary of $102,000 a year and even got a raise in July.

In public meetings on Maui, Haraga spoke about DOT policies, although his deposition indicated he did not know what airport policies were and was not taking part in deciding them. The deposition did not reveal what, if anything, he knew about harbor and highways policies during the past 18 months.

For example, on Aug. 12, 2005, he spoke about the Lahaina bypass in West Maui; and on Oct. 20, 2005, and Feb. 4, 2006, he spoke about the Superferry and Kahului Harbor on Maui.

Haraga, who has taken a job as staff engineer in the Design and Construction branch of the Honolulu city government, has not returned calls from The Maui News.

From August 2005 to December 2006, DOT policy direction was coming directly from the governor’s office.

“As appointees, all directors/deputies from the various departments report to the governor’s office, and as chief of staff, I meet on a regular basis with the directors and deputy directors,” Awana wrote.

“We also meet monthly with all deputies as a group. For departments requiring more support, I meet with directors and deputies more frequently.”

Greg Kahlstorf, president of Pacific Wings, whose lawsuit uncovered the odd situation in the Transportation Department, wants the Legislature to hold off on confirming Fukunaga until what he calls the illegal direction of the department is exposed.

Kahlstorf also contends that all decisions coming out of DOT for the past year and a half may be invalid. He bases this on state law, which says the department “shall be headed by a single executive.”

When asked who the single executive was after August 2005, Russell Pang, the chief of media relations in the governor’s office, said, “Rod Haraga remained director with all statutory authority and oversight of the administrative duties of the department, including planning, budgeting and administration. The deputies were responsible for line operations and for making day-to-day decisions within their divisions.”

Kahlstorf isn’t buying it.

“Imagine how incredulous (2nd Circuit) Judge (Joel) August will be when he learns all the decisions and rationale he has been given by the administration for its actions related to the Superferry were invalid, because the governor and her chief of staff circumvented the DOT director, law and Constitution to advance their own agenda,” he said.

Pacific Wings wants to join the lawsuit by the county, Maui Tomorrow and the Kahului Harbor Coalition that is challenging the Harbors Division’s environmental assessment for the expansion of Kahului Harbor.

Pacific Wings is an airline with no dealings at the harbor, but Kahlstorf sees a link between his lawsuit contesting the Airports Division’s decision to put go! Airlines in the Honolulu International Airport commuter terminal and the other lawsuit about the harbor.

The link is that evidence uncovered in research for his lawsuit shows that Haraga was cut out of operational decisions throughout his department.

On Wednesday, Kahlstorf also asked state Rep. Mina Morita of Kauai to look into the operations of the Transportation Department and the confirmation of Fukunaga.

He addressed Morita because, as chairwoman of the Energy and Environmental Protection Committee, she is pushing for a law to require DOT to do a full EIS for the Superferry.

“You may not need a bill to pass through Joe Souki’s hands to force an EIS,” Kahlstorf wrote Morita. Souki is chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

Kahlstorf suggested to Morita that “the Democratic majority . . should demand immediate hearings into the apparently illegal activities . . and delay confirmation of any DOT director Lingle nominates until it is addressed. We will certainly be at any confirmation hearings with the facts in hand.”

Morita said Thursday that if Kahlstorf provides more background to support his charges, “I’ll consider it.”

She did not make any commitment to introduce a resolution on Fukunaga’s nomination, but she said she had already been aware that state employees have been “cut out of the loop because they disagreed on policy matters.”

She said that this has happened in several departments, but at Transportation in particular she had heard complaints about preferential treatment at the airport in Kauai.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has not yet scheduled hearings on Fukunaga’s confirmation.

During the last two years, the Transportation Department has had its usual share of controversies and sensitive issues. On Maui, these included the Superferry EIS, unhappiness about the time it has taken to build a Lahaina bypass and extensive changes at Kahului Airport.

But there was nothing unusually contentious going on – at least in public – in the months before Lingle told Haraga in August 2005 that his deputies would no longer report to him.

“Awana and Lingle sidelined the DOT director so they could run things themselves,” Kahlstorf contends.

“This could invalidate decisions made by Hawaii DOT during the time the department was being illegally run,” Kahlstorf told Morita, including the decision that an EIS was not required for Hawaii Superferry.

Although it was not publicly known that Lingle had removed Haraga from operational decisions in 2005, House Transportation Committee Chairman Souki knew.

He said Wednesday that “of course” it bothered him, but he did not see what the Legislature could do about it.

“I was aware last year that (Haraga’s) responsibilities were taken away from him. I didn’t know why.”

Souki said he knew that “the power was going to (Haraga’s) respective deputies, he was left only with public relations.”

“She’s the executive branch and we are the legislative branch and never the twain shall meet,” he said. “I’m not privy to any of what happened. I can’t make any comment.”

The lawsuit in which Pacific Wings wants to intervene is not directly connected to any Superferry EIS. Instead, it is about an environmental assessment the Harbors Division did in order to expand Kahului Harbor by purchasing the Old Kahului Store and Kahului Railroad Building.

The airline would have to apply to August for permission to be added as an intervening party to the harbor lawsuit.

http://www.mauinews.com/story.aspx?id=27599

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Barry Fukunaga is expected to testify regarding his business, professional, personal and political relationships with Larry Mehau, Hawaiian Protective Association, Ltd., Akal Security, Norman Mineta, James Nicholson, Ben Cayetano, John Waihee, George Ariyoshi, Dan Inouye, Daniel Akaka, The Carlyle Group, United Defense Industries, Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate, Robert Herkes, Yukio Takemoto, Matsuo Takabuki, Henry Peters, Richard Wong, Nathan Aipa, KAI Hawaii, Belt Collins Hawaii, Earl Anzai, Lyn Anzai, Joshua Gotbaum, Hawaiian Airlines, Aloha Airlines, Guido Giacometti, Guy Lam, Colbert Matsumoto, Faye Kurren, Tesoro Hawaii, Chevron-Texaco, John Garibaldi, Hawaii Superferry, Maui Planning Commission, Linda Lingle, J.P. Schmidt, Paul Alston, Judith Neustadter Fuqua, Mary Lou Woo, David Farmer, Kazu Hayashida, Rod Haraga, and other entities to be determined upon discovery.