BY JIM DOOLEY – The driver of a massive city sewage tanker truck was using and selling crystal methamphetamine while on
the public payroll and even stayed on the job for seven months after he was charged with federal drug trafficking offenses last year, according to court records and interviews.
City officials said they didn’t know that driver Patrick L.K. Vega Jr. was arrested in a federal drug trafficking case in September 2011 and indicted less than a month later.
“We were not aware that he was indicted,” said Tim Houghton, executive assistant in the city Department of Environmental Services.
But one of Vega’s fellow workers, driver Kenneth Mersbugh, said he and others repeatedly complained to managers about Vega’s drug activities before and after he was arrested.
Vega’s job was hauling 7,000-gallon loads of sewage on the narrow, heavily-travelled roads of Windward Oahu: two round trips daily between Kailua and Kahuku and one round trip between Kailua and Waimanalo.
Mersburgh said Vega’s drug use and legal problems were widely known at the Kailua Waste Water Treatment Plant, their base of operations.
Vega even showed co-workers the GPS monitoring device federal officials required him to wear strapped around his ankle after he made bail.
“He was kind of proud of it,” said Mersburgh.
Mersburgh said he complained to supervisors, to the office of Environmental Services Department Director Timothy Steinberger and even to the Mayor’s office about Vega staying on the city payroll but nothing was done.
“They never did anything before he was arrested and then they let him come back to work after he was arrested,” Mersburgh asserted.
Houghton said he could not comment on Mersburgh’s statements because they “involve on-going personnel matters.”
Houghton said Vega was “subject to random drug/alcohol testing as a Heavy Truck Driver II during his employment” but did not reveal if Vega was ever actually drug-tested.
Vega kept driving for the city after he posted bail in the federal drug case in October 2011 and after he admitted new use of crystal meth to federal authorities in the following month, records show.
His bail was revoked in May after he again violated the terms of his court-supervised release and he has been locked up in the Federal Detention Center since then.
“We are not aware of Mr. Vega’s federal supervision status or any admissions he may have made during such status,” Houghton
said.
Vega pleaded guilty in January and is now scheduled for sentencing in December.
Vega resigned from his city job July 5, 2012, according to Houghton.
Hawaii Reporter learned that another employee at the Kailua plant, Paul Boisjolie, was on state court probation for a drug-related theft offense from 2004-2011 and repeatedly violated the terms of his probation by committing new crimes and testing positive for illegal drug use.
The city took no action against Boisjolie until last year when he was terminated for “abuse of sick leave,” said Houghton.
“We were not aware of Mr. Boisjolie’s probation status nor the alleged repeated positive tests for use of illegal drugs that may have occurred during any such probation period,” Houghton said.
In a new criminal case brought two months ago, Boisjolie was charged with promotion of crystal methamphetamine and morphine and is now awaiting trial for those alleged offenses.
Mersburgh, 60, a 26-year city worker with a history of blowing the whistle on illegal and improper activities at the Kailua plant, said he Boisjolie’s drug use was well-known bosses and rank and file workers at Kailua.
In fact, Mersburgh said, his bosses used “false allegations” from Boisjolie as the basis for placing Mersburgh on leave-with-pay for one year.
Mersburgh returned to work after Boisjolie recanted his allegations, according to Mersburgh.
Now, Mersburgh alleges, he is being threatened with demotion or termination in part because city officials say he couldn’t get along with Vega.
“How could I get along with him? He was high on drugs on the job. His behavior was bizarre and erratic,” Mersburgh said.
According to federal court records, Vega sold a Drug Enforcement Administration confidential source 107 grams (nearly four ounces) of crystal methamphetamine in August of last year.
Police and federal agents then found more than a half-pound of the drug in a search of his car September 28, according to the DEA.
An indictment returned October 13, 2011 accused Vega of conspiring with two other men, Patrick Kanohokula and Russell Chee, to possess and distribute crystal methamphetamine.
Kanohokula, who’s also known as Kojack, allegedly hid more than half a pound of meth in a child’s car seat, where it was recovered by DEA agents, according to court records.
think maybe those city supervisors need to be replaced not the responsible employee for bringing it to light
JIM DOOLEY maybe he should look into why kenny who lost his CDL because of a DUI did not report it to his supervisors and on his first day back to work got hurt doing his pre-check of his truck and went out on workmans comp. for almost 8 month before ONE of those so call bad superviosr brought it to managements attendention. This is were it gets fuzzy? He was fired or let go. Then he was allowed: WHILE NOT A CITY EMPLOYEE to USE THE CITY TRUCK TO TRAIN TO GET HIS CDL BACK. AGAIN HE WAS NOT ON THE CITY PAYROLL USING A CITY TRUCK TO TRAIN? He is the last person to be whistle blowing on anyone. Maybe he should blow the whistle on himself first. GET IT RIGHT…..
Just goes to show how corrupt the city and its officials are!
The City and it's management, including the Mayor are held responsible to the public for this activity to continue and claim ignorance! That's what they get paid to do, Manage people! The complete Management team in Kailua should be FIRED! Or explain in written detail to the public why not. How did he explain his time away from work when he was arrested? How STUPID is this Management team? Who put this team together? They should be terminated! NO ONE SHOULD PAY CITY TAXES UNTIL THIS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IS COMPLETLY REPLACED!
This happened on Kirk's watch and he wants my vote? HAHAHAHAHA!
My father said never trust a rat
kenny & phil are cry baby.they should do there job and not care what everybody else is doing.They have there head up each other ass
City Employee .
It takes a man to stand up to management,not like some people who just turn the other way and say nothing.If it's right it's right if it's wrong it's wrong.Admit your faults,fix it and move on. That goes for Management,they never admit when there wrong. There's a Law for Whisleblowers but sometimes Management still gets away with it. In Kenny's case they won the case,He never got promoted,Silva got fired,Norman got promoted and George got forced retirement because he was on worker compensation they never excepted him back to work. But wait the Supervisors all got PROMOTED.
So one stud maybe you should get your head out of your ass and stop being one of those that turn the other way or maybe your a SUPERVISOR.
City employee are you really a city employee? Anyone that has been there for at least for the last 15 years knows the truth. It sad that you site only half truths, because there is so much that you can beginning to capture in this foreum. You make them out to seem to like outstanding citizen, which is far from the truth. And as far as winning in court they expected a big pay off and got almost nothing at all. In fact I think the court only found judgement in favor of three of four and be the time they paid their attn. they were crying. And Kenny was the one that got nothing. GET IT RIGHT…
Again false accusations from ken mersburgh. They won the case because it was all lies and not true. City employee you should list the real reasons those guys not there anymore why. Sad how a person can just make all kind false accusations put it in a news paper and everbody believes him. All one sided!
If you have some information you want to share, you can contact the author of this report, Jim Dooley. JIm@hawaiirepoter.com – everything he wrote is documented from court records, so it is not a matter of just one person's word against another
Thank you, Mr. Dooley! Your article was much appreciated! Looking forward to seeing more from you.
You are correct. Their are hardworking employee having to work in that enviroment the last 15 years and should speak-up and let the truth be known. GET IT RIGHT…
Mersburgh was just keeping everyone safe, not only himself at the workplace but the public at large. He does not deserve such egregious treatment from his superiors. What is wrong with them?
Nohea, you must be related to him to speak so kindly of him. It is obvious you never work him the last twenty years….sorry, but he does things for himself first. GET IT RIGHT…..
This is to Sick of the Lies,Editors do not print what is not true because they could be sued for deformation.Like Mr Dooley said every thing is from court papers.The reason why Silva is know longer their is because they said of work place violence.Yet in court one of the SUPERVISORS ADMITTED to picking up an employee by the shirt and had him against the wall,the lawyer asked "IS THIS THE WAY YOU TREAT THE EMPLOYEES' WHEN THEY DON'T LISTEN".
Answer YES!! Now if this ain't work place violence what is? Was this Supervisor fired,HELL NO, He was PROMOTED.As for George he was forced to retire because the City wouldn't take him back when he was on Industrial, they said they couldn't find a position for him because of his light duty.Also he wasn't a whisleblower,he was a shopsteward for the union. The lawyer wanted him in on the case because he had the meeting set up with Management and the Employees to discuss the problems at the Treatment Plant and that is when everybody started talking not just the four guys but the rest of the people in the plant.So Mr. Sick of the Lies If you don't want to hear the truth maybe you should ask the SUPERVISORS and MANAGEMENT.
The Attorney General & law enforcement officials should look into the illegal methods that some of these managers are using to operate the Kailua Treatment plant. There is work place violence tactics that have been employed, but nothing comes of it. It just gets swept under the carpet. According to the article, Tim Houghton claimed that he didn't have avy knowledge of the drug use that was conducted at Kailua Treatment plant. How did that go on for a number of years? Now that the positive drug tests have been exposed, the Federal government needs to open up an investigation as to why a drug user was allowed to continue to work at the Kailua Treatment plant for a number of years? Is it because of the Federal funding to the City Dept. of Environmental Services? We, the tax payers demand to know who are responsible for these irresponsible actions.
The supervisor that you claimed pick-up an employee by the shirt at the time of incident was not a supervisor when that occured. And the reason he pick-up the employee by the shirt and told him to get his act to gether was because that employee was high on drugs and was worried about his own safety. SO GET IT RIGHT……As for Mr. Sylva; history and time has shown who he really is….recently arrested for a shooting in Kailua.(not the first time check his back ground) GET IT RIGHT… George never did his work and always injuried and used his UPW Stewardship as a protective cloak. Also check his back ground, he was not an angel. GET IT RIGHT….
The supervisor that you claimed pick-up an employee by the shirt at the time of incident was not a supervisor when that occured. And the reason he pick-up the employee by the shirt and told him to get his act to gether was because that employee was high on drugs and was worried about his own safety. SO GET IT RIGHT……As for Mr. Sylva; history and time has shown who he really is….recently arrested for a shooting in Kailua.(not the first time check his back ground) GET IT RIGHT… George never did his work and always injuried and used his UPW Stewardship as a protective cloak. Also check his back ground, he was not an angel. GET IT RIGHT….
to city employee, you got your facts wrong….Are you one of those who were never working there at the time and just giving the same old talking points…..lies are lies, no matter how long after the fact. because that supervisor was an UPW worker at the time of incident. And was promoted later because he was a good worker. GET IT RIGHT…
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