Honolulu Finally Fires Electrical Inspector Who Approved His Own Jobs

A Honolulu electrical inspector caught approving his own company’s work was terminated more than a year after Civil Beat exposed the conflict of interest.

Arthur Suverkropp was officially let go as of April 29, according to his former employer, the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting. He had been on administrative leave since January of last year when Civil Beat reported he was the designated electrical inspector on jobs done by his own company, K&A Electric.

“We definitely don’t want that happening in the department, so we will continue to make sure, based on our policies, that people aren’t approving their own work,” DPP Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna said.

The city determined that Suverkropp inspected and submitted reports for at least 11 properties where he or his company had done electrical work, according to a copy of his termination letter provided by DPP. The inspections were corroborated by Suverkropp’s mileage reimbursement records, the letter states.

A city employee since 2012, Suverkropp’s continued employment would result in the city “losing credibility and confidence with the public,” Takeuchi Apuna wrote in the letter.

Suverkropp did not respond to messages left by phone and email on Monday.

For Suverkropp to approve his own company’s work raises troubling questions about whether the jobs complied with code, according to Camron Hurt, executive director of the government accountability group Common Cause Hawaii. City officials should look at putting in more safeguards to prevent these situations from happening in the first place, he said.

“It’s great that it was rectified,” he said. “But we need to give our ethics more teeth. Right now it’s more a suggestion than a policy, and that’s got to change.”

After Suverkropp’s case came to light, DPP leadership reiterated to employees that they must report outside employment to their supervisors and consult the Honolulu Ethics Commission with any concerns about potential conflicts of interest, Takeuchi Apuna said.

DPP also directed its supervisors to compile lists of staff members with outside business interests and cross-checked those entities with its permitting records. No further improprieties were found.

“It’s unfortunate that that happened, but we took care of it through the investigation, and then we also looked at some other potential issues, and everything seemed to be fine,” she said.

During the course of the city’s investigation into the matter, Suverkropp continued to receive a city paycheck, according to DPP. With a salary in the range of $54,108 to $80,124 as of 2022, according to Civil Beat’s public employee salary database, Suverkropp’s time off cost taxpayers somewhere between $72,000 and $106,000.

Under the city’s collective bargaining agreement, the city can put workers accused of wrongdoing on unpaid leave for only 30 days. At that point, if the city hasn’t completed its investigation, it has to pay the worker until the city makes a disciplinary decision, according to Hilo-based labor attorney Ted Hong.

The idea is to preserve workers’ due process rights and encourage municipalities to get investigations done quickly, Hong said. But when they don’t, it can waste money and erode the morale of other employees, he said. Employees on paid leave can earn extra income on top of their government pay while still accumulating sick leave, vacation days and seniority for their retirement.

“These kinds of things drive me crazy,” Hong said.

Takeuchi Apuna said the investigation dragged on because of DPP’s limited resources.

The department had only two people, an administrative services officer and DPP’s deputy director, available to investigate at the time, she said. The administrative officer was juggling multiple other investigations and responsibilities and had to take a leave of absence, according to Takeuchi Apuna.

The director said she understands why people would be upset. The time it took was “simply too long,” she said.

Going forward, DPP will have more help, Takeuchi Apuna said. The department recently hired a new employee to help with legal matters, including employee investigations.

Suverkropp is not the only Honolulu electrical inspector to have run an electrical company on the side. Inspectors Clyde Kishi, Louis Slovak and Henry Tom also have electrical companies in their names, and they have disclosed their side jobs to DPP.

Kishi is the responsible managing employee of CNC Electric LLC, Slovak is the sole owner of LJS Electrical Services and Tom is the sole owner of KNK Electric, according to state business and licensing records.

At times, those employees’ names have been listed on their own company’s permits as inspectors, city records show. But DPP told Civil Beat last year there is no evidence they ever actually inspected their own work.

Takeuchi Apuna said their computer system randomly assigns inspectors to certain jobs, and that may be reflected on permit records, but other inspectors were documented to have actually done the inspections in those cases.

“They would tell the supervisor, and then the supervisor would reassign it to a different inspector,” she said. “Employees may have outside employment as long as it is disclosed and does not conflict with their duties.”