Sugar travel
By Dave Reardon
Regarding today’s story about the state ethics commission and UH’s Sugar Bowl travel: I called Carl Clapp yesterday to see if he could recall if travel for children was discussed at the meeting in Dec. before the trip with the commission. Understandably, Clapp wanted to check his notes before responding (he had left the office for the day and that’s where they were). After looking at the notes this morning, Clapp said he did not have record of a policy being set for children on the trip regarding if UH would pay for them or not.
Dan Mollway, head of the ethics commission said he left the meeting with the understanding that only a few children would make the trip, and that UH was not paying for their travel.
Mollway told me yesterday that while young children should be with their parents during the holidays, the ethics commission would not condone or endorse the state paying for them to travel to an event at which they served no state function.
June 5th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Dave,
It always boils down to “he said, she said.” “Ohhhh I thought you meant…”
At this point, make the list public. I don’t know if you can “force” someone to repay if they were told it was free based on what I said above.
What would be “fair” is to make the amount received in error, taxable income. The person may not have been worthy of such a bump, but it will be a one time thing and it will at least be taxable.
Listen good from now on, learn from prior mistakes, and lets move on already.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:37 am
I hope when the dust settles, people higher up in the hierarchy, the Board of Regents, indulge themselves at looking for replacements. Starting with the Chair of the Board of Regents, Bank of Hawai‘i’s Allan R. Landon, CEO, you have been on the job since 2005 and, bluntly, would you run your own company the same way the UH does? As an overseer you’re elected to represent the best interest of the UH. And direct them in the right direction, similar to what you do at your other workplace. To the public looking at this picture of incompetence at the UH not only starting with the Sugar Bowl scandal;it’s the overall retardation and ignorance that I see going on at UH. If one of your big bosses from your own company said, “Gees, I didn’t know the facilities were that bad”. Or,”I didn’t know the legislature set aside monies for improvements”.Or,”I didn’t know the travel policies to the bowl game”. What would you think of that person? Keep in mind, though, the full wrath and admonition of all the ills at the UH reflects on people at the top.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:53 am
I’m with you Warrior Dave. E’nuf already!
June 7th, 2008 at 12:29 am
What is the UH trying to hide, and why are they making it so hard to obtain public information on how the Sugar Bowl proceeds were used? If this is a transpart and honest effort, then what does obfuscation lool like. If the Head of the UH regents could not get the information and would not release it to the public, then this public university’s attitude needs work.
More questions relating to UH spending for the event need to be answered – UH regular budget and not just Sugar Bowl proceeds. How much money did the UH spend on the many parties and events? What other amounts were spent on non-football activities? Usually, travel perdiem is meant to cover meals and hotel while an employee travels on state business. Were employees paid
extra per diem if the hotels and parties were part of compensation.
The work of the media and Ethics Commission is just the initial effort towards understanding how the UHAD achieved the $4 million operating deficit and how they plan to repay the loan. Also, I wonder what UH program loaned the money to the UHAD, and what the terms and conditions are?
June 7th, 2008 at 7:51 am
“Mollway told me yesterday that while young children should be with their parents during the holidays, the ethics commission would not condone or endorse the state paying for them to travel to an event at which they served no state function.”
Understood. What “State function” does a girl/boy friend serve? Uhm, maybe we don’t want to go there…