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Former deputy parks director Tufono fined $2,000 by Ethics Commission

Former city Deputy Parks Director Albert Tufono was slapped with a $2,000 fine by the Honolulu Ethics Commission for using his position to obtain preferential treatment from other parks employees, even after he was warned to stop doing so.

An Ethics Commission advisory opinion said that on at least 10 occasions over a one-year period in 2011-2012, Tufono sent emails to parks recreation directors seeking permits that assigned and scheduled gym and ball field reservations at city parks to teams and leagues that he coached, teams his sons played on and a hula halau in which his daughter was a student.

The commission said Tufono was successful in obtaining reservations for fields and gyms “in most cases.”

In one instance, the commission said, Tufono bypassed the parks department’s chain of command and asked a parks maintenance employee, a personal friend, to dump dirt for a baseball diamond that his son’s team was to play on.

The allegations against Tufono were investigated in response to complaints made against him, the commission said.

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