Lingle blasts senator for
Gov. Linda Lingle has criticized a Republican state senator for describing employees of the state economic development agency as "morons" and has asked him to apologize.
Sen. Sam Slom said he stood by his comments.
Lingle was referring to remarks made by Slom about a state Senate investigation of how the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism chose the company that was to receive the management contract for a new hydrogen energy investment fund.
Slom told the Associated Press in a story published May 7 that he didn’t think the hearings on the issue had uncovered any criminal wrongdoing, only bad decisions. Slom, R-Diamond Head-Hawaii Kai, is the only Republican on the Senate committee investigating the hydrogen fund contract.
Slom was quoted as saying: "Either there is a tremendous, wide-ranging conspiracy to allow the director to violate the law for whatever purpose, or you’ve got a bunch of high-profile and low-profile employees that really were moronic in their actions and their responsibilities. I believe they were morons."
Lingle responded the same day with a letter to Slom that was copied to all DBEDT employees as well as state Senate leaders paydayloans.com.
"I am extremely disappointed in your callous comments," Lingle wrote, saying Slom owed "every DBEDT employee a public apology."
Slom sent a letter to Lingle two days later saying he knew more about the issue than she did since he had attended nearly every hearing and that he didn’t have anything to apologize for.
"It was not my intent to criticize every DBED&T employee, or the department as a whole, but some employees do deserve criticism for their action, inaction or conflicting statements," Slom wrote.
"My wording may have been inappropriate to some, but it is the actions and their appropriateness of the procurement process that is the real issue here."
Copies of both letters are available at hawaiireporter.com.
Filed under: legal by Finance Boss