HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - After a jury awarded former Hawaii Tourism Authority executive Isaac Choy $500,000 for retaliation after he revealed financial irregularities, he says he hopes the verdict encourages whistleblowers to come forward.

Choy, a former state lawmaker, was fired as vice president of finance for the Hawaii Tourism Authority after an uproar over allegations he used the term “dumb Hawaiians” and made other sexist remarks. A jury ruled Tuesday that Choy was not fired because of those remarks, but in retaliation for revealing contracting irregularities.

“This is not a victory for me. I’m just trying to help the state be more efficient,” Choy said.

Choy said he hopes the verdict will encourage more state workers to come forward when they see problems of corruption or incompetence. He also said Gov. Josh Green should take the blame for his firing, which the jury found to be illegal.

Attorney calls case a ‘wake up call’

Choy’s attorney, Bruce Voss, said the case should prompt changes across state government.

“And this case should be a wake up call to everyone in state government that instead of retaliating against people like Mr. Choy, they need to do much more to encourage whistleblowers to report actual or suspected violations of law,” Voss said.

“There’s a lot of projects around Hawaii, you know, and you’ve heard them, you know, that’s not going very well. And I know, I know the state employees, they know what’s going on. We just gotta give them an avenue or...

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