At the start of his administration, and through the months of campaigning leading up to it, Mayor Rick Blangiardi has placed the improvement of services at the Department of Planning and Permitting among his key goals.
It appears that the impetus to improve at least the oversight of its permitting process has just become more urgent, in the wake of federal bribery indictments unsealed on Tuesday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii filed charges against five current and former DPP staffers, as well as against Honolulu architect William Wong, all accused of being involved in bribery. Three — Jocelyn Godoy, Jason Dadez and Kanani Padeken — are currently employed but were placed on paid leave, city officials said. Wayne Inouye and Jennie Javonillo, former building plans examiners, are retired.
The case points to connections alleged between the defendants and a pay-to-play scheme in which thousands of dollars in payments were solicited to advance building projects.
Some of these alleged actions may date back more than a decade. If this practice is as entrenched as alleged in the charging documents, that is extremely disturbing. This agency has influence over so much of the economic activity on Oahu, not the least of which is addressing the county’s severe housing shortage within the boundaries of its zoning laws.
The community and building industry must be able to trust that DPP’s operations are fair and transparent, a confidence shaken by perceptions that some are brokering a separate deal. The fallout could be severe; many still remember how a corruption scandal led the city to shutter its housing department in 1998. And DPP’s reputation likely will be a factor as it begins hearings next week on proposed rules for vacation rentals.
The initial reaction from the Blangiardi administration to the indictments was a written statement from the mayor’s spokesman, Tim Sakahara: “The department is disappointed by the events and we certainly do not condone the activities alleged in the indictments,” he said in the emailed statement.
He declined further comment on the charges themselves due to the ongoing investigation, but did add that the allegations “should not reflect on the more than 200 dedicated DPP employees.”
Perhaps they shouldn’t. But to bolster public faith in the agency, already the target of complaints from the construction industry, there needs to be a concerted effort to improve operations, independently of the current scandal. Blangiardi promised to do so on his campaign website.
“Every day a permit is stuck in the bureaucracy is a day’s work lost for a construction worker, a day a company has to postpone opening or expanding their business and hiring new people, a day wasted in renovating or building new housing,” he said.
And in his State of the City address, the mayor outlined plans to computerize the building permitting process and enhance its “transparency for users, so people can check their permit status online” and “contractors can get to work faster.”
Blangiardi appointed Dean Uchida to head DPP, with the intent that his long list of credentials in the development industry would help orient him toward achieving these goals. And, Uchida told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, work on the new system is well underway.
That’s all well and good. But it’s important to remember that the transparency part — the ability to track the applications and to know the rules are being applied fairly and legally — is every bit as important as efficiency. Uchida needs to include both improvements into the new system he’s introducing.
Hawaii’s economy is in dire need of well-thought-out rebuilding. That requires a DPP that operates openly, honestly and yes, efficiently.
