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PATTY TERUYA RESIGNS OVER ETHICS COMPLAINTS
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December 30, 2011: The ethics commission has confirmed complaints we filed regarding city employee Patty Teruya. Although she did not admit to any wrong doing, today she resigned her position with the city to avoid further investigation and prosecution. We will be discussing this, as well as politicians that benefited from her activites, on our next show, January 1, 2012.
We also discussed employee ethics on several of our other radio shows.
Link here to the news story on KHON, 12/30/11
Below is an email from the ethics commission, including a link to the Advisory Opinion.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: EC No. 10-163
From: "Wong, Laurie A S G" <lwong4@honolulu.gov>
Date: Fri, December 30, 2011 1:41 pm
To: "carroll@carrollcox.com" <carroll@carrollcox.com>
Cc: "Berney, Ryan" <rberney@honolulu.gov>
This
email is in response to your complaint submitted to the Ethics
Commission on June 2, 2010 alleging that Ms. Patty Teruya used her city
email for non-city purposes.
At its December 19, 2011 meeting, the Honolulu Ethics Commission
allowed Special Events Coordinator Patty Teruya to resign from her job
rather than face a contested case hearing on multiple counts of abuse of
her government position and city resources.
The
Commission deemed Ms. Teruya’s alleged violations so “numerous and
egregious” as to make her “unfit for continued employment with the city”
if proved. Earlier this year, based on an investigation by the
Commission’s staff, the Commission found probable cause that Ms. 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 within the span of four months
to support her campaign for 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 non-profit
organizations and vendors to make them submit letters of recommendation
to bolster and advance her city career; and
· Endorsed
her close friend for service contracts for at least eight
city-sponsored events to the exclusion of other contractors.
Attached
is Advisory Opinion No. 2011-8 for your information. This Advisory
Opinion is also posted on the Ethics Commission website at: http://www1.honolulu.gov/ethics/ecnos10399etseqadvisoryopinionno20118redactedfinal1.pdf
Sincerely,
Laurie A. Wong
Associate Legal Counsel
Honolulu Ethics Commission
715 S. King Street, Suite 211, Honolulu, HI 96813-3091
Office (808)768-7717 Fax (808) 768-1317
Email: lwong4@honolulu.gov
Website: www.honolulu.gov/ethics
Dear Mr. Cox,