Buying out Kealoha was the sensible thing to do
BRUCE ASATO / 2012
Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha
OK, enough already. Everybody back to their corners and breathe a bit while this thing plays out.
A bad habit has taken over the community in the age of social media. We believe everything is up for debate and that a debate is won by those who scream the loudest. Or tweet the meanest. Or write all in caps with lots of exclamation marks.
Even when there is no real argument to be won or action to be taken, there’s online rantings and all-caps and snarkfests. It’s become habit. It’s become sport.
So Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha successfully negotiated a partial buyout to leave his job, and armchair debaters are going extra rounds.
As chief, Kealoha was an executive with a contract, and, like many in that position, he could negotiate the terms of his departure. Kealoha’s buyout isn’t excessive or even all that favorable. He wasn’t planning to go, but he agreed to retire under pressure. He even agreed to give the money back if he is indicted in the next six years. He is not currently facing criminal charges. He has not been indicted. He’s retiring amid a mess but not amid formal charges.
The part about whether he should remain as police chief while he and his wife sort through the tangle of family and legal troubles they are facing — that part is fair game for public debate because a troubled chief can affect the entire department and a troubled police department can affect all of us.
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But Kealoha’s $250,000 settlement check on top of his retirement package is small potatoes compared with the beefy chunk of money the city would end up spending if the police commission had decided to stiff him and he had decided to fight through the legal system.
Compared with the long list of losers who blew through the University of Hawaii, quickly got bounced when they couldn’t cut it and left after a couple of years with a big, fat check, Kealoha put in 33 years of service on the police force.
Kealoha’s $250,000 payout is cabbage next to the $600,000 slab of kalua pig UH football coach Greg McMackin got in 2011 to go away. It’s less than the $312,000 UH athletic director Herman Frazier got in 2008 when he was booed out of office by Hawaii fans. Men’s basketball coach Gib Arnold negotiated $344,000 to have UH buy out the final year of his contract in 2014 (and then got more later.) Tom Apple, who was Manoa chancellor for, like, all of two minutes, got $100,000 and a teaching position to go away.
So it’s not unprecedented. It’s not a waste of money. Whether it’s undeserved in terms of conduct has yet to be determined. And it is a reasonable price to have the police department unshackled from Kealoha’s troubles and able to move forward away from whatever drama is playing out in the chief’s life.
42 responses to “Buying out Kealoha was the sensible thing to do”
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Settlement is an agreed upon action that avoids further expensive legal activity by involved parties.
Agreed.
It’s hypocritical of Cataluna to tell everyone else that they need to cool it with their opinions when she voices her opinion as though it’s news. (By the way, this column belongs in the op/ed section of the paper since it is purely opinion–not news.) The core issue of the Kealoha settlement lies in the process rather than the outcome: the chair of the commission should have worked more closely with the city council and the mayor since they must approve the funds.
Cataluna’s point about the Chief ability to negotiate, etc., is a good one, but I fully agree that it’s totally hypocritical to say everyone else needs to shut it. She even cites snarkiness as one of everyone else’s offenses, then read two of the last three paragraphs…what do you call THAT, Lee?
I’d call it “the pot calling the kettle black”, but that’s just me.
Look I said this from the beginning. You cannot put Damien guys in positions of power. See what went happen? No more Monarchs, like butterflies, they fly erratic.
So an elite high school is now responsible for what happened to an innocent man facing unproven allegations??
I agree. Kealoha has not been charged with any crime. In America we are innocent until proven guilty. If they want him to retire early they need to compensate him properly.
I agree! Don’t like the price, but that what it cost!
He was already being compensated with his retirement package. This so-called “severance pay” of 250K is the issue. Not like he was laid off because of budget cutbacks or anything.
If you ask to terminate an employee’s contract early you still have a legal obligation to pay out the remaining dollars owed on that contract. Retirement pay and benefits have nothing to do with paying off the contract. It’s a totally unrelated and irrelevant issue.
Well call me crazy but I don’t think a Police chief under federal investigation for corruption and abuse of power should be paid off to leave. One of his officers has already flipped on him and confirmed he and his wife are guilty. I see no reason to reward corruption,evidence tampering, false imprisonment, perjury and filing false Police reports.
In light of the allegations and investigation, if he refused to retire they should have put him on unpaid leave until indictment, then fire him for cause.
He and his wife are going to jail where they belong.
saywhatyouthink – In America you are innocent until proven guilty. We must assume him to be innocent unless and until charges are filed against him. If that happens and he is convicted then he will lose the buyout money. Don’t convict him based on news reports and gossip.
Comparing apple with peaches does not make the payout right! Each payout has to be determined on the merits of the issues involved. One size does not fits all? As each individual is not alike the issues of each incidence is dissimilar. Both he and his spouse are under investigation and the recent admission by a former sergeant on the force does not speak well for both of them. Sad as the incident indicate, someone did suffer unnecessarily from the antics perpetrated upon an innocent relative and he suffered immensely. He got incarcerated unjustly for something he did not do. I certainly would not want it to happen to anyone!
You’re quite right. Those other cases are very different in that they’re not related to any criminal offence but purely performance or admin issues. This is a case in which the chief might have done something very wrong and jeopardized the mission of the HPD. If proved true, he can be fired for cause. 33 years of service is no excuse.
If you read the article you should have seen that, if Kealoha is indicted he will return this money. Personally I agree with this decision. No matter how you feel about a person, sometimes the prudent thing to do is what has happened here. As indicated in this op-ed, the cost to taxpayers would likely have been significantly higher if the city tried to stiff Kealoha and he decided to fight back.
Catalina makes a good point. And I tend to agree. So I guess I’m not an armchair debater writing in all caps.
Bravo Lee Cataluna! Cogent and incisive as usual.
Agree
Totally agree with Lee. Kealoha gave 30+ years of service in HPD. That counts for something.
$600,000 to Coach Greg McMackin. And what did he do for us but run a losing football team.
No, not the sensible thing to do. The EASIEST, path of least resistance thing to do. Especially when the city is ALSO paying for his defense costs. Kind of makes no sense NOW to go up against him WHEN you have to also pay HIS attorneys to fight you.
He should donate the money to charity
You mean like the Krook Cadwell self promotion fund for squinty eyes?
Cataluna may have a point that this buyout was relative cheap to the ones that were made to corrupt administrators and coaches at UH, and the incompetent HART director that helped dig such a big hole. But, that still grates. It doesn’t feel right to be paying “awards” of taxpayer money for bad behavior. Does anybody feel good about this? Sucks, doesn’t it?
Yup.
Oh wait…
YUP!
Lee cites the laundry list of losers that have been paid off, and says of the buyout: “So it’s not unprecedented. It’s not a waste of money.” So because the powers that be have fallen into the habit of throwing money at incompetent people to make them go away, it’s ok? I’m not ok with it.
Kealoha did put in 33 years so the point is well taken. The real issue is the wife who is costing taxpayers much more and could be the very one who put the chief up to it in the first place.
Can we bounce Kaneshiro as well if Ms Kealoha is found to be guilty or suddenly resigns or retires?
Kaneshiro is harboring her because he needs the police on his side. The feds have to do the dirty work now.
Makes sense to me.
Cataluna says Kealoha must repay the $250,000 if he is indicted in the next 6 years, while other articles have said he must repay if he is convicted of a felony in the next 7 years. Which is it?
Will taxpayers remain liable for the legal bills of Mr. and Mrs. Kealoha in this issue going forward?
The sad events of our embattled HPD Chief and the highly controversial Police Commission settlement should not end with most of the public feeling regretful if not ashamed of our safeguard processes. It certainly appears that bad behavior was unjustly rewarded.
More importantly what can be learned from this? First, it was surprising that the HOD Chief positon was akin to a football coach as opposed to a City civil servant. This should be fixed…for the future, retirements or terminations of future Chiefs should be simpler to do and not less vulnerable to lawsuits. Secondly, it is clear that despite recent personnel changes on the Police Commission, there needs to be more improvements to make the Commission better accountable and their actions transparent to the public. We need the City Council to implement new legislation so the residents of Hawaii will not feel appalled and ashamed of process.
He should only get the $250.000 if he cooperates with the feds and names who his co-conspirators are.
We need to clean up the police department. There’s even rumors that it’s not organized crime that is selling the illegal fireworks but a group of police who have shanghaied (stolen?) the fireworks.
The agreement gives him incentive to lie. The commission should have checked with the feds before it negotiated this outrageous agreement.
Good one, the chief will be a paid informant working for the FBI. We use to do that in vice, pay people to inform on others. Knew a paid informant who was working for HPD Narcotics, ATF, DEA, and FBI. Guy would work for the Feds to get his wife out of jail because he could not handle his kids. Wife was street walker and he was a low level dealer. Whenever we popped his wife, he would run to the Feds. Wow, chief falls in this same category. Squeal on his wife. I guess when you strip everything away, they all the same.
Can we offer to buy out the ethically challenged and morally lapsed current mayor??
Ron Menor is correct. What are the details?
OK, enough already; who’s going to be the next Chief?
Disagree with Cataluna’s “OK enough already”…this HPD Chief scandal is a big deal. We will never learn and improve if we just shrug our shoulders, grin and bear it. The City Council needs to enact legislation to strengthen the transparency and public accountability of our Police Commission.
Lee Cataluna is usually so moralistic and inflexible in her opinions.
Why is she changing now?
Lee, regarding the long list of losers who blew through the University of Hawaii, you omitted the biggest and best, UH’s very own Sammy Amalu, Evan Dobelle!
So what’s so hard about settling to avoid going to court? As usual taking taking the easy way out. And if the chief is found guilty of a felony and doesn’t pay it back, just settle or do nothing to avoid going to court? Were there any stipulations in the contract for failure to pay it back? I doubt it. How much has Michael Kahapea paid back so far after all these years?
Fear not taxpayers, Kealoha, his wife and possibly Keith Kaneshiro will be going to federal prison soon. The truth has already been spilled by a retired officer who has no reason to lie. The Kealoha’s are going down, it’s but a matter of time.