Gov. Josh Green and State Auditor Les Kondo are in a nasty fight over the auditor’s critical preliminary evaluation of the governor’s key homeless project, the Kauhale Initiative.

Green has called an auditor’s memo to lawmakers last month warning them of problems with the kauhale program’s financial reporting a “personal vendetta” against him. Kondo shot back, “Scrutiny is not aggression or disrespect. The audit was honest, objective, and fact-based.” 

Bad manners? No, good government. 

The fight is a good thing. It’s a model of good government at work — two conscientious public officials doing their jobs.

A Special Commentary Project

Civil Beat is focusing on transparency, accountability and ethics in government and other institutions. Help us by sending ideas and anecdotes to sunshine@civilbeat.org.

Read More

Here’s the conflict in a nutshell: the governor thinks the kauhale project — small houses for the homeless — which he started, is doing what it is supposed to do the way it’s supposed to be done.

Kondo’s memo says the problem is that the program is violating spending rules and skipping fiscal steps.

They are both right, at least according to their particular perspectives, and their perspectives are formed by the different roles they have.

Green and Kondo are working in the way the separation of powers and checks and balances are supposed to work.

They each represent institutions with different rules and responsibilities, coming at the same problem from different angles with different but mutually proper ways of doing their business.

There are two important values involved here, fiscal responsibility and dealing more effectively and humanely with the homeless. Good chance you are in favor of both.

The auditor’s job is to lean to the fiscal responsibility side, the governor’s leans more in the direction of getting his homeless policies moving as fast as possible.

The governor criticized Kondo’s lack of cooperation. “When my people said, ‘We would love your input so you can help us?’ (Kondo) instead said, ‘I’m not here to help you.’”

Green said of Kondo: “I think the auditor is here to help any executive branch do better.”

From Kondo’s perspective, an auditor’s proper job is to investigate, not act as a consultant for the executive branch. That keeps the necessary separation intact and protected.

Green’s approach with the kauhale is like a disaster response. Things have gotten out of hand. We need to act firm and fast, once and for all.

In fact, it is by rule supposed to be like a disaster response. The governor is acting under his emergency powers, which allow him to cut some corners, avoid some procedures and get rid of some roadblocks. 

Green is a creative guy, willing to take risks. That’s one of his strengths. He has one of the highest approval ratings of any governor in the country, partly because he is willing to take chances in order to get the job done.

The auditor’s job is to point out failures and make sure the risks are fiscally acceptable and legal, as in “hold on for a second.”

The auditor’s job is designed to clash with public officials. The auditor’s motto could be “I call ‘em as I see ‘em.” It could also be “I piss people off.”

Kondo is no slacker either. He’s a veteran of the auditor wars led by very powerful legislators. He came out looking a whole lot better and more decent than they did.

Both Kondo and Green are willing to stick their necks out. We have two public officials working to do their jobs and be accountable for their work. 

So they are angry at one another. Big deal. Their anger highlights the issue involved. They are, as your sixth grade teacher used to say, showing their work.

Now that the Legislature has Kondo’s preliminary assessment — the final report is expected to be finished in a few weeks — it has something concrete and real to look at and can begin its own watchdog role.

Whatever happens next, the result of this auditor’s report is not going to disappear into the bureaucratic ether.

To highlight how this is good government at work, consider another recent auditor’s report that shows bad government at work.

In 2021 the Legislature mandated the DOE to have 30% of the food in school lunches purchased from local farmers by 2030. 

It’s not happening, not even close. A recent auditor’s report basically stated that there is nothing good to report and no convincing reasons that things will improve.

DOE is far short of its goals and doesn’t even have a solid plan to achieve them. The auditor calls the DOE plan simply a profession of faith.

The auditor’s assessment of Green’s kauhale program worries that the governor is moving too carelessly and too fast. 

The March DOE report worries about sloth, inaction and paralysis — why nothing has been done and why that’s likely to continue. A nothing burger without the bun.

Watchdog? That auditor’s report reads more like a coroner’s report. 

Kondo may have written the kauhale report with a shot of anger. I imagine him writing the DOE report with a shot of scotch.

No passion on the part of DOE officials who could certainly argue that they are victims here because the Legislature has never given the resources DOE needs to make this work.

They roll over and play dead, suggesting oh so carefully that they will do better even if the Legislature does not give them the resources they need.

Well before the audit, legislators already knew that this local food program was off to a terrible start and was not being implemented. Legislators knew that the DOE did not have enough resources or expertise to make the policy work. They took no realistic action to fix it.

“This is so damning,”  Hawaiʻi Rep. Amy Perruso said about this slow-moving train wreck.

“Frankly,” she said, “it’s an indictment not only of the DOE and maybe the Department of Ag, but the Legislature. We’ve also dropped the ball.”

Though auditor’s reports aren’t binding, they bring things out into the open. That might mean friction as well as some over-the-top language. 

Vendetta? What is this? The Sopranos?

This passion is a good thing, especially in Hawaiʻi where deference and politeness often conceal plodding ineptitude with no meaningful change on the horizon at all.

Something good is likely to happen with the kauhale project.

Don’t expect your kids’ school lunches to change any time soon or maybe even any time ever.