Do sex and tourism mix?
August 5th, 2008 by David ShapiroIt’ll be fascinating to see how the drama plays out over the discovery that Rex Johnson, president of the Hawai’i Tourism Authority, used his state computer to email pornography to friends.
After a board meeting last week, two board members urged Johnson to resign from the $240,000 position. But in advance of another board meeting tomorrow, some heavy political muscle is lining up behind Johnson, including House Speaker Calvin Say and Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and Vice President Donna Mercado Kim.
When those three get together on anything, my first instinct is to cover the groin.
Johnson has apologized, but isn’t exactly contrite. His political backers say now would be a bad time to change leadership at the tourism agency given the slumping visitor market.
I don’t have strong feelings about what the proper punishment is for such indiscretions. The board of the tourism authority is in the best position to decide how much Johnson’s unbecoming behavior has damaged the agency’s credibility and whether the authority can effectively move forward without him.
I only hope members make the decision based on their own best judgment and don’t give in to the heavy-handed political interference.
Tags: Legislature, tourism
August 5th, 2008 at 8:24 am
I agree that the board members should use their best judgement, but don’t just single out the legislative folks for influence. I’ll bet it’s safe to say the lady on the fifth floor and her tourism liaison may have had a hand in making it such a big deal in the first place.
August 5th, 2008 at 8:38 am
unless the “porn” was of an illegal nature, I think we should drop it from the discussion and ask whether Johnson improperly misused public property for personal purposes. And, if he did, how egregious was that misuse.
I know talking about “porn” is much more “sexy,” but it tends to distort the discussion and make us all a bit sleazier in the process.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Don’t put your naughty stuff on your state computer, dummy!
August 5th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Kolea,
I think the porn question is relevant to the issue of egregiousness.
Using a state computer to distribute porn to golfing buddies is different from forwarding info about tee times in terms of how it reflects on the credibility of the office.
Dave
August 5th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
We should know how long as he been doing stupid thing. He should resign, this is an ultra embarrassing situation - the head of an agency engaging in this kind of indiscretion on government time and equipment. He should be working, why is he surfing the web and then sending indecent pictures to his buddies? Check his home computer, there might be lots of juicy stufff on there. He must be a porn addict.
No one is irreplaceable. Quite possibly his successor might do better, since he did nothing but screw around at work. Say, hanabusa and mkim support him? Wow, they must like porn too. Check their office computers too. Maybe they got emails from him too. Such executives are held to a higher standard of conduct and he screwed up (literally).
MKim is two-faced. When she was interrogating DEBEDT employees, she ridiculed them for making contradictory statements and that they should be forthright in their responses. Now, her friend, a porn addict using government time and equipment to further his satisfaction, she defends him by dismissing what he did was minor. Crap!!
August 5th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I thought it was pretty clear–at least it is at UH. You are told, given messages, etc. that you cannot use state property for any personal use or personal gain. Period. So, yes, even emailing info on tee times is considered inappropriate use of State property. Penalty? Loss of privileges, but not necessarily loss of job.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Rex has done a good job, and with the tourist industry in a state of panic, this is not a good time to train a replacement. I wonder how many other city and state employees have used their computers for personal stuff? Maybe everyone isn’t surfing for porn, but I’ll bet even the church lady has kept up with her volunteer work on public time. Leave Rex alone. He’s got a lot of work to do, and right about now he’s one motivated soldier.
August 6th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Yes, my understanding is he received emails and forwarded them. Not exactly the same as surfing the web - which would be an issue regardless of if he is looking for porn or for fuzzy ear mitts. I think he should be repriminded, but seem rather extreme to fire him unless the material was itself of an illegall nature.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Well, if they’d release the emails in question that would help the public determine if the “appropriate punishment” decision is made. I mean are we talking relatively tame Maxim-like content, or the more hard core porn?
Does Hawaii want a misogynist running the HTA? Not me, but I would like to see the actual emails before I cast a stone to fire him.
August 6th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Egregiousness, an issue? No, too amorphous. David, will you stop writing words I have to look up? As to the original question, ‘Do sex and tourism mix?’ Are you freakin’ kidding me?
August 9th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Any Joe or Jane Schmuck would be fired immediately for unprofessional conduct, sexual harrassment, using company computer for personal use and just plain stupidity. But when it comes to appointed or elected windbags all of a sudden none of this applies. The only reason we Americans aren’t tweaked by this or even care is that we have plenty of food on the table. A hungry man is an angry man and no one here hungry.