By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
A housing official has criticized the Navy for the funding of
this single-family prototype officer's home and
split-level air conditioning, below.

Work on
admiral’s home
challenged

Navy and a Pearl Harbor official disagree
on the use of funds slated for sailors' housing

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

A Pearl Harbor housing official maintains the Navy has illegally renovated two homes for senior officers and spent more than $92,000 without proper authorization to refurnish a lanai and rebuild a leaky fishpond for the Navy's top man in the Pacific.

Frank H. Hasegawa, Pearl Harbor housing manager, said he is upset because "the Navy is doing all these things for admirals and captains and very little for the enlisted guy."

But the Navy says that's not true.

Lt. Cmdr Rod Gibbons, Navy spokesman, said that of the 344 Navy quarters renovated or near completion since 1995, 93 percent, or 318, were for enlisted sailors. Only $4 million of the $61 million allocated was spent on upgrading homes for officers. An additional 166 homes for the enlisted will be upgraded this year, Gibbons said. The Navy also said that all of the new and replacement housing planned for Hawaii is for enlisted sailors.

As for plugging the admiral's fishpond, Hasegawa said originally $120,000 was set aside to renovate the kitchen and the bathroom in the Makalapa home of Adm. Archie Clemins, Pacific Fleet commander.

But when the Navy learned that the job would cost $350,000, the decision was made to use the money to fix the fishpond and to retile the 1,430-square-foot lanai at Clemins' home. Hasegawa maintains, however, that the Navy failed to seek congressional authorization for either project -- which he said is needed whenever $25,000 is spent on renovating an admiral's quarters.

Cmdr. Kevin Wensing, Clemins' spokesman, said Hasegawa is wrong "and the Navy can redirect the money in any fiscal year as long as a report is made at the end of the year saying how the money was spent."

By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Split-level air conditioning.

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Wensing said the 30-year-old, nearly 7-foot-long fishpond was cracked and leaking so badly that it had to be fixed. The job cost $36,000 -- equivalent to the annual base pay of some enlisted sailors.

The lanai had to be renovated since it wasn't usable for entertaining, which Clemins does as part of his job as Pacific Fleet boss, Wensing said. The lanai job, which included adding lighting and ceiling fans, came to $56,000.

It was Clemins who shortly after taking command in November 1997 spent $30,000 for a marble-tiled bathroom and changing room in his Makalapa office. The bathroom modification was part of a $528,000 office remodeling job which included a $12,000 carpet, $3,000 etched glass shower, $54,000 for a new kitchen and $29,000 to upholster and to buy new furniture.

Hasegawa maintains that the Navy illegally used design funds to renovate two senior officer homes at Makalapa with "amenities that include vertical and miniblinds, expensive Casablanca ceiling fans in all rooms, split air-conditioning systems and special kitchen appliances."

"The final cost of more than $517,000 was more than double the proposed project amount of $240,000," Hasegawa said in a July 23 letter to U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie. A similar letter was sent to Sen. Daniel Inouye in May, following earlier complaints Hasegawa lodged with Navy officials, including Adm. Jay Johnson, chief of naval operations, and the Department of Defense inspector general.

But the Navy maintains that the renovations were done legally and consistent with current practices, which call for similar amenities regardless of rank.

"There was nothing illegal about the decision (to use design funds) to build a prototype," said Navy spokesman Gibbons.

But Hasegawa disagrees, referring to a communication he received from a mainland Navy lawyer which says the use of design funds to revitalize prototype units is "inappropriate."

Hasegawa, a 1958 Annapolis graduate and a local housing official for the past 15 years, said: "This procedure was never used in Hawaii before, and I know from my experience in the military that it isn't correct."

Hasegawa added that Navy officials initially proposed renovating 32 senior officer quarters at Makalapa at a cost of $120,000 per unit. The $3.8 million request was inserted into the 1999 defense budget, still pending before Congress.

Then without waiting for the budget bill to be approved, Hasegawa said, the Navy went ahead and "revitalized" two of the homes, completing the project in May at a cost of $545,310.

In his complaints, Hasegawa maintained that the Navy Public Works Center "comingled military construction design and family housing maintenance funds to finance the project."

Gibbons said the job completed May 31 by PER Inc. is considered a "prototype," which he described as "an innovative way to determine the cost to revitalize the remaining units." There was no comingling of any type of funds, Gibbons added.

Gibbons said one single-family, two-bedroom home and half of a duplex were used as prototypes. He said: "The advantage to building a prototype house is lower costs for a long-term construction project, improved construction process and better quality home." Based on the cost of the prototypes, Gibbons said, the Navy decided to scale back the renovation project to 24 units.

"You can use design funds to draft construction drawings," Gibbons said. "When the question was asked whether design funds could be used to build prototypes, we were told by our legal people that it could be done."

Gibbons acknowledged that this was the first time such an approach was used in Hawaii, although it has been tried in other Navy locations such as San Diego.

"We knew there was a finite amount of money Congress will give to revitalize these homes. This was all done above board and in the open and was consistent with procedures," Gibbons said.

Using this approach gives the Navy the "flexibility," he said, "to make on-the-spot changes."

He said the renovations were first proposed and submitted five years ago. "In 1997 someone came up with a different idea of looking at this," Gibbons added, "and asked if design funds could be used. It sounded like a great idea . . . everything was done openly with approvals and checking all guidelines and procedures."

"Nothing was found to prohibit us from doing it. If there was, we wouldn't have done it."

The Navy said the intent of the renovations was to extend for 25 years the life of these buildings, which were built in 1941 and 1950.

Because all of the homes at Makalapa are considered historical, Gibbons said the Navy was required to follow certain procedures and was limited in what renovations could be done.

Gibbons said the miniblinds, air conditioning and ceiling fans are included in any Navy renovation project and are not just limited to officers' quarters.

Makalapa homes are for use strictly by officers only Star-Bulletin One hundred eight single-family and duplex units make up the Makalapa housing complex, reserved just for officers. The homes were built in 1941 and 1950. The housing complex is nestled behind the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet commander, a four-star admiral who commands 250,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel and civilians.