The Hawaii County DPW asphalt tack coat scandal has reared its ugly head again. HMP Inc has filed a lawsuit in regards to this on Friday. It seems the county really dropped the ball on this one. I can’t fathom in any scenario that county is not liable. Especially since the the county employee who made this contract breaching purchase has been disciplined.
On top of that, the Hawaii County DPW made false claims that HMP’s product was defective to probably cover up the latter county employee’s negligence and to save money on the Saddle Road paving project. HMP was not contractually obligated to apply the tack coat.However Grace Pacific offered to apply the tack coat for free.
Hopefully the truth will be revealed about this debacle when the court case proceeds.
I blogged yesterday about the high costs to do a county UIPA request. It appears once again that WHT’s biased reporting got me hook, line,and sinker.
Lincoln Ashida’s explanation here about the fees made sense. Shawn James Leavey ’s UIPA request was very unusual due the sheer size of information requested.On top of that, there was need to protect interests of the county and the public.Thus I begrudgingly agree with the corporation counsel’s explanation of the fees charged to to Mr. Leavey.
Lastly,it really perplexes me why Hokulia’s CEO John DeFries stated this regarding acquiring the land from the Smiths/Whitakers for the Hokulia bypass.
“An agreement has been worked out, but won’t be executed until a final order in the Coupe land case is issued and until “the bank approves a funding request,” DeFries said.”
Then fast forward to June and lo and behold the Smiths Whitakers want to back out of this agreement.
Thus it seems to me that John DeFries was not completely up front with the true status of this agreement with the Smiths/Whitakers.
