Kaua‘i Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. today said Police Chief Darryl Perry will remain on paid leave, even after Perry said he was told by the Kaua‘i County Police Commission he could return to work today.
Perry, in fact, confirmed in an interview with The Garden Island Tuesday night he would be back on the job today, and that it felt “good” to be back at work.
The mayor also continued to state that the police chief had been placed on leave Feb. 1, even though Perry told The Garden Island he was placed on suspension due to “insubordination and dereliction of duty” from Feb. 1 until Feb. 7, and then was placed on paid leave beginning Feb. 8. The mayor’s comments came in a three-page statement issued by his office in which the mayor defended the decision to place Perry “on leave.”
The mayor did confirm Perry’s comments during an interview with the newspaper that the Police Commission’s decision was to return Perry to work today. “On Sunday, Feb. 19, I was informed by Police Commission Chair Ernie Kanekoa that the commission wanted the chief to return to the job as soon as possible,” the mayor’s statement said. The mayor said Perry wanted to be placed on leave, and that he planned to meet with Perry Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, yesterday afternoon Ernie advised us that the chief, on advice of his attorney, would not meet with us,” the mayor’s statement said.
“Unfortunately for all concerned, the chief refused to meet and chose instead to communicate through the media,” the mayor’s statement said.
The statement did confirm for the first time that the two assistant police chiefs placed on leave a day before Perry was suspended are on paid leave.
The mayor, who has communicated only through statements released by his office, continued to state that he would not reveal the nature of the employee complaint that led to the suspension of the chief and placing the assistant chiefs on leave. The mayor did give one news conference, but only read from a statement, refusing to answer questions.
In the interview with The Garden Island Tuesday night, Perry said he believes the mayor did not have the authority to suspend him, and he said the police commission “unanimously” agreed with him.
“One of the main reasons I took this job is to get the department on track again and to create trust in the community for the Kaua‘i Police Department,” Perry said by telephone in the interview published in today’s editions of The Garden Island.
“In my opinion, we’ve done a great job, and this whole situation has set us back. We’ll be working on correcting the damage that was done,” he said.
The office of Kaua‘i County Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. on Feb. 1 announced that Perry had been placed on leave, one day after the county announced that two assistant police chiefs had been placed on leave.
“I was suspended for seven days first, for insubordination and dereliction of duty,” the police chief said.
Perry said he was suspended from Feb. 1 until Feb. 7, and then placed on paid leave beginning Feb. 8.
Perry and the mayor said Assistant Chiefs Roy Asher and Assistant Chief Ale Quibilan remain on leave.
Perry, a former Honolulu police officer who attained the rank of major in the criminal investigation division, has been Kaua‘i’s police chief since August 2007.
