Maui Police Chief John Pelletier stood beside his lawyer in downtown Honolulu on Friday. He said the mayor of his county is under criminal investigation.
Mayor Richard Bissen says he knows of no active investigation.
Days earlier, the Maui Police Commission had voted 6-0 to put Pelletier on paid leave. It is reviewing how Pelletier oversaw the department’s criminal intelligence unit. That unit’s top officer was arrested in August and faces a federal charge that he took bribes.
“I think somebody’s trying to influence the mayor’s race on Maui,” Bissen told Hawaii News Now. He faces Council Member Yuki Lei Sugimura on Nov. 3. Ballots reach mailboxes this week.
Pelletier said the claims involve “corruption, fraud and retaliation.” He would not name the agency leading the case. He also would not describe a second inquiry he says his own department has opened.
Council Chair Alice Lee says the lead agency in the first case is the state attorney general. That office would not say whether any case exists. “We’re talking about criminal allegations of embezzlement,” Lee told Civil Beat, speaking of a former administration employee.
Maui will vote without knowing whether the chief’s claim is true. That makes it one more thing to weigh, beside a record voters already have.
In April, Bissen’s former chief of staff, Leo Caires, filed a whistleblower suit. I wrote about it at the time. Caires alleges he found a suspect invoice in the Office of Economic Development and traced it to one of the mayor’s aides. He says he was fired when he kept digging.
Earlier, Luana Mahi ran that office. On her watch, nonprofits tied to her family and a former business associate received more than $1.2 million in county money. She was placed on paid leave and later fired.
The mayor’s office has not always been forthcoming, either. Bissen was mayor when Lahaina burned. At 3:32 p.m. that day he texted his emergency management chief: “I’m coming back up after my Dr. appt.” The text surfaced eight months later in the attorney general’s fire report.
The county then said Bissen’s secretary had canceled the appointment. It said the Mayor spent the rest of the day in the county building. A few weeks later, in a press release about a bid request, the county changed its account. “After further checking,” it said, Bissen had seen his cardiologist in Wailuku at 3:20 p.m.
Bissen may be right that someone is trying to influence the election. But what he calls influence is information. Voters have a right to know what their leaders have done in office.
If Pelletier has real cause to suspect the mayor, speaking before the vote is rational. A chief who has just been put on leave also has his own reasons to talk. Voters can weigh Pelletier’s credibility too.
The claim is unproven, and it should not settle anyone’s vote. Voters can answer influence with calm attention to the facts about each candidate. Then they choose who will best represent them. That’s how democracy works.
Author Sterling Higa can be reached at hello@sterlinghiga.com.
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