A Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting building plans examiner on Wednesday confessed in federal court to accepting bribes to accelerate building projects for a local architect and was then fired from her job with the city.

Kanani Padeken was one of five current and former DPP employees charged last week with soliciting bribes from builders to perform city services. She, along with William Wong, the only architect also federally charged in the pay-to-play scheme, pleaded guilty to honest services wire fraud, according to The Associated Press.

The guilty pleas confirmed years of accusations of corruption against the department.

In an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Mayor Rick Blangiardi vowed to reform DPP and said that Padeken was fired after her guilty plea.

“There is absolutely no place for this behavior in City operations and we condemn the action of the employee as it degrades the public’s trust,” Blangiardi said in an email. “Consequently, we are immediately firing her upon learning of her guilty plea to ensure she will no longer be receiving any compensation from the City.

“The Department of Planning and Permitting and its operating practices needs a complete overhaul,” Blan­giardi wrote. “The type of culture that allowed criminal behavior is completely unacceptable and we owe it to the public to ensure it will not happen again.”

On Monday, Blangiardi said he was working with the city’s Corporation Counsel Designate, Dana Viola, to implement self-monitoring to root out illegal activity within government.

Colin Moore, director of the University of Hawaii Public Policy Center, said he now expects Blangiardi to come up with “at least some plan” on how to reform DPP.

“And then that might take a while to implement, or to figure out, what the best way is,” Moore said. “But, I mean, Mayor Blangiardi already ran in part on fixing the DPP, making it more efficient.

“If he wants to really shake things up at the DPP, a scandal often provides an opportunity for major institutional change.”

Political analyst Neal Milner was not surprised by the guilty plea, but emphasized the need for Blan­giardi and new DPP Director Dean Uchida to understand the conditions that created the opportunities and temptations to accept bribes.

“(It) is not only looking for more bad apples, but taking a look at how DPP runs and the extent to which, under those circumstances, makes it conducive for bribery,” Milner said. “I mean a system … in which there’s a lot of delay, in which time is money, and in which people then use their influence.”

The bureaucratic nature and the lengthy process make actions like bribery more likely, Milner said.

“That’s why it gets tempting to bribe,” he said. “And if it’s tempting to bribe, people take them.”

Moore agreed that reform will require changing the culture at DPP.

“It is about trying to fix the culture of a place that would allow this to go on for so long,” he said.

“And an expectation among the architect and building community that this is appropriate behavior,” he said. “If you want your project to move forward at DPP, you should be ready to bribe people … in organizations that exhibit corruption like this, it’s rarely just a few bad actors … you have to reform the culture of the institution.”

According to the federal charges, Padeken took at least $28,000 in bribes from Wong between 2017 and 2020.

The Associated Press reported that Wong allegedly deposited checks into Padeken’s account at a credit union and then sent her text messages on her personal cellphone after making the deposits.

He paid the bribes on an almost monthly basis, Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Nolan said during Wednesday’s hearing.

Wong said he also paid about $89,000 in bribes to Wayne Inouye, a now-retired building plans examiner. Ino­uye previously pleaded not guilty.

“I accepted the money from Mr. Wong as part of an agreement to expedite the review of his projects ahead of others,” Padeken said.

Wong said he regrets “paying a bribe to have my projects move along.”

Padaken and Wong face maximum sentences of 20 years in prison when they are scheduled to be sentenced in August.

Both Moore and Milner advised Blangiardi to show the public he is examining the issue closely and then take concrete action.