A city employee and community leader resigned from her municipal job this month after being accused of misusing city property to promote a campaign for public office and conducting hours of personal business on city time.
Patty Teruya resigned on Dec. 19 to avoid a contested case hearing on the 2,677 alleged ethics violations and will face no further disciplinary action, said Chuck Totto, executive director and legal counsel for the Honolulu Ethics Commission.
Totto said the case is an example of why city laws regarding ethics violations should be strengthened.
Teruya was the city’s special events coordinator since 2006, arranging and supervising city activities such as Honolulu City Lights and Flavors of Honolulu. Her salary was $57,024 a year, the city said.
Her lawyer, Don Pacarro, said in a brief statement that Teruya understands the allegations made against her and that she denies any wrongdoing. The statement said Teruya resigned "in an effort to move on with her life. The case was settled without the determination of any of the alleged facts."
Teruya has been an outspoken community leader for years and still serves as chairwoman of the Nanakuli-Maili Neighborhood Board. She previously served as chairwoman of the Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board and was a candidate in last year’s special election to fill the City Council seat vacated by Todd Apo.
Henry Makanani, who serves on the Nanakuli-Maili board with Teruya, said she has been a mentor and is active in the community, volunteering with groups such as the Nanakuli Hawaiian Homestead Community Association and the Nanaikapono Hawaiian Civic Club.
"She has always presented herself in a professional manner," Makanani said. "I hope this doesn’t overshadow her community involvement."
Totto said Teruya’s violations were some of the worst he has seen in his 12 years with the commission. He said they were akin to violations by former City Councilwoman Rene Mansho, who had her staff work on her election campaign on city time, and former City Councilman Rod Tam, who used city funds to buy meals for his family and friends.
Totto said Teruya "blatantly" misused city property even after being warned about it twice. In July 2010 her department head and two other city agencies told her not to use her city email for non-city-related reasons. A month later the Ethics Commission received complaints about Teruya using her city email to encourage people to show up for her neighborhood board meetings. The commission warned Teruya again, and she promised to stop those activities, Totto said.
The commission continued receiving complaints, however, and began gathering information for a formal eight-month investigation that ended this month, Totto said. As part of the investigation, the commission collected about 500 pages of emails and documents from her work computer from a two-month period after she was warned in 2010.
Based on its investigation, the commission found probable cause that Teruya:
» Misused her city computer privileges by accessing 2,135 non-work-related websites over a two-month period.
» Sent and received 174 non-work-related emails in a span of four months to support her campaign for City Council, as well as the campaigns of city and state politicians; to conduct job searches for her boyfriend; to sell her boat; and for personal shopping.
» Exploited her authority as special events coordinator over nonprofit organizations and vendors to make them submit letters of recommendation to bolster and advance her city career.
» Endorsed a close friend for service contracts for at least eight city-sponsored events to the exclusion of other contractors.
Totto said the most egregious violations were when Teruya used her position of public trust to her benefit.
When working with nonprofits and vendors, Teruya would request letters of commendation to counter complaints against her to the Ethics Commission, and would suggest her friends to nonprofits for jobs, the commission report said.
Totto added that the time Teruya’s computer was opened to the non-work-related websites during the two-month period added up to 18 workdays, nearly half of the total workdays in the period.
Totto said no further disciplinary action will be taken against Teruya because she was a civil service employee, not an elected or appointed city official.
If the commission had the authority to fine civil servants such as Teruya, it could have ordered her to pay a month’s worth of wages for the time spent on non-work-related issues and increased the fine to send a warning to other city employees.
"This is unfortunately an example of where the law needs to be toughened up so that the Ethics Commission can impose civil fines on civil service employees who egregiously violate the civil service law," Totto said.
