Musings: Big Rewards

Going out into the pre-dawn darkness and looking up, my reward was a celestial pyramid, with Venus and Jupiter comprising the base and a gleaming sliver of moon the point. It's the 20^th anniversary of Iniki, the storm that changed my life by rewarding me with insight: material possessions are essentially meaningless, and significant joy can be found in simplicity.

A review of public records shows that Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho has given significant pay raises to deputy prosecutors who are supporting her re-election campaign.

The most substantial increase went to Charley Foster, who received a 45 percent pay hike within six weeks of starting work for the Office of Prosecuting Attorney. Foster, whose pay rose from $70,000 on Aug. 1 to the maximum allowable of $101,066 by Sept. 1, has devoted considerable space in his Planet Kauai blog to campaign-related issues and topics that reflect favorably upon his boss.

Lance Kobashigawa, an attorney who has been licensed to practice for about a year, gave $300 to Iseri-Carvalho's campaign and has a Shay bumper sticker on his car. Iseri-Carvalho increased his annual salary from $80,000 on Aug. 1 to $95,000 on Sept. 1, taking him to a higher pay rate than a deputy who has more experience and a heavier case load, but who has not engaged in any campaigning. 

Jared Auna, who has been licensed about two years and attended Shay's July fundraiser, was given a raise that took him from $85,000 to the maximum of $101,066 — the same pay earned by a prosecutor with two decades of experience.

Foster denied rumored reports that he'd gotten a hefty pay raise. On Sept. 3, Foster left a comment on his blog, in which he stated:

I do not make $100,000 a year and I have not received any raise, much less "a $30,000 raise." Nor have I received any information that I am to get such a raise. I can only hope the rumor mill is better informed than I am. If so, great!

However, county personnel records show that on Sept. 1, Foster was making $101,066.

Foster's blogging had dwindled to just one post in May 2012 and none in June and July. But in August, shortly after he began working for the OPA, he stepped up the pace and published 19 posts, 11 of them addressing campaign issues involving Iseri-Carvalho and the OPA.

His August posts included Solette Perry's endorsement of Iseri-Carvalho, criticisms of the County Attorney in regard to the POHAKU investigation, clarifications about the special counsel hired to represent OPA in the POHAKU controversy, reprint of an article referencing the POHAKU investigation as a “political vendetta,” criticisms of me for exposing misinformation perpetuated by Iseri-Carvalho, and a flawed legal defense of Special Counsel Gary Slovin's opinion about POHAKU procurements.

Foster also posted coverage on the Council debate over OPA's victim-witness grant application, photos of the “public safety” meetings staged by Iseri-Carvalho and Councilman Mel Rapozo and the prosecutor's debate, a reprint of an article criticizing the County Attorney's treatment of Iseri-Carvalho and a disparaging reference to the credibility of my later confirmed report that four EEOC claims against the OPA had been settled.

By September, Foster was making references to County Council members who are “inherently hostile” to his boss, He also vigorously argued Iseri-Carvalho's position on the EEOC complaint involving Erin Wilson, to the point of presenting false information and making snarky comments about Wilson's credibility. For example, he claimed in his post headline that the “EEOC found no reasonable cause to believe that discrimination occurred” in the Wilson case. In fact, the EEOC had referred the case to mediation before issuing any findings at all.

On Sept. 8, he published a post that offered the prosecutor's take on the county's $120,000 settlement of a racial harassment claim brought against Iseri-Carvalho by former deputy prosecutor Shannon Weigel.

The post included outright fawning, emphasis added:

Shay also denies ever suggesting anyone should “assimilate into the culture,” insisting first of all that the word is entirely foreign to her vocabulary (Shay expresses herself in a thick, earthy pidgin creole sprinkled when necessary with legal terms of art, which, in the interest of full disclosure, I confess I find very cool), and denies second that she harbors any opinion that anyone should assimilate in any case.

The post also misrepresented an email from a judge as raising concerns about a conflict of interest with Weigel and her then-boyfriend, an attorney seeking court assignments. In actuality, the judge was supportive of Weigel.

And in defense of Iseri-Carvalho's position that the EEOC settlements were part of an election year conspiracy against her, perpetrated by the County Attorney's office, Foster wrote:

Clause IV of the conciliation agreement, titled “Disclosure,” states:

“consent is hereby given and it is agreed that disclosure to the public of the terms and the agreement is explicitly permitted.”

This is the opposite of the venerable and usual non-disclosure clause in which parties agree to forego smack talk after the agreement is inked. Here, the county attorney “explicitly permitted” and, one assumes, intentionally invited the complainant to talk stink in the press about the OPA. The clause also gives the county attorney cover to do the stink talking he’s been indulging in the last few days at the OPA’s detriment in the press lately (see, e.g., the Civil Beat article linked above). 

In fact, it was Weigel who insisted upon the disclosure cause because she was adamant that the public and other county employees learn about the harassment she had experienced at the OPA.

Though the county Salary Commission sets the pay range for deputy prosecutors, the Prosecutor enjoys wide latitude in setting salaries for individual deputies.