HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Hawaii Tourism Authority executive Isaac Choy is fighting back after being put on unpaid leave for hostile workplace complaints.
He filed a whistleblower lawsuit saying he was pushed out because he found many examples of improper spending at the agency.
“I kept telling these people, I said, ’You know, you guys are running this agency like a mom-and-pop shop. A lot of oral contracts. A lot of side deals,” Choy said. “It seems like they’re they’re just deflecting from the actions that they were doing at HTA.”
The whistleblower lawsuit includes the first public listing of all his complaints.
The first complaint was made two years ago against then HTA board chair and former Honolulu mayor Mufi Hannemann for free use of the convention center for his organizations.
The list also includes delayed payments, one that Choy said could cost $790,000 in interest.
“We are using state tax dollars, and for me, that’s very, very important,” Choy said during an interview Friday with Hawaii News Now.
Shortly after those alleged violations became public in March, Hannemann stepped down as board chair.
A month later out came accusations Choy had used insulting racist and sexist comments about Native Hawaiians and women, which caused outrage and calls for his termination from state Sen. Kurt Favella.
Interim CEO Caroline Anderson listed a number of instances of improper remarks in a letter handed to Choy the day he was escorted out of the HTA offices.
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