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Hawaii Emergency Management Agency is still trying to correct the record about what really plunged the isles into 38 minutes of needless panic and fear. Read more

Nearly a month after a Hawaii Emergency Management Agency employee sent out an alert that a ballistic missile was headed to Hawaii, the agency is still trying to correct the record about what really plunged the isles into 38 minutes of needless panic and fear.

The state fired the warning officer that triggered the event on Jan. 26, the same day that HI-EMA Administrator Vern Miyagi and Executive Officer Toby Clairmont resigned. Preliminary results of two probes, a state and a federal, were released Jan. 30. Despite these major accountability steps, the story has legs, largely because most attempts at discovery only have left the public with more unanswered questions.

The state, HI-EMA, the so-called button pusher and the Federal Communications Commission have released conflicting information. Getting to the truth has been made harder because the state and HI-EMA, both major sources for investigators, have even contradicted themselves, raising confidence-eroding concerns about lack of transparency and misdirection.

Lingering holes in the story have invited the threat of a lawsuit from Honolulu attorney Michael Green, who is representing the “button pusher.”

The absence of satisfactory explanations also prompted Hawaii’s congressional delegation to propose HI-EMA-inspired emergency preparedness legislation earlier this week. U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, supported by U.S. Reps. Colleen Hanabusa and Tulsi Gabbard, introduced legislation Tuesday to ban HI-EMA and all other state and local agencies from sending out ballistic missile alerts, a responsibility that they say should rest with the federal government.

“They clearly damaged their credibility,” Schatz said. “The best way to rebuild the trust here is to put this in the hands of the Department of Defense.”

Gabbard introduced a civil defense accountability bill Tuesday requiring the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Defense and Federal Communications Commission to provide the public with incident and recommendation reports about the Jan. 13 false alert. Lawmakers say requiring more transparency will help separate the truth from all the conflicting reports of the Jan. 13 incident.

Dissimilarities

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has identified at least a dozen instances of discrepancies in explanations that have been released by parties involved in issuing and retracting the false ballistic missile alert:

​>> Miyagi and Gov. David Ige said the so-called button pusher made a pull-down menu mistake, but actually the now-fired warning officer says he thought there was a real emergency and did it intentionally.

>> Ige said part of his delay in getting the false alert corrected was that he couldn’t get calls through on his cellphone; however, actually, he knew via a phone call within minutes that it was a false alarm. The FCC later revealed that most of Ige’s delay was because he had forgotten his Twitter password.

>> HI-EMA initially blamed the delayed cellphone cancellation alert on the need to get federal authorization. However, Miyagi admitted days later that this was a mistake on his part, and authorization was not needed. HI-EMA then said the real issue was that it did not have corrective procedures in place.

>> HI-EMA initially said the now-fired warning officer was nonunion and a model employee. Later, ​retired Brig. Gen. Bruce Oliveira, who headed the state investigation, described him as the exact opposite: mistrusted and considered undependable by his co-workers. They said he had been counseled for confusing drills and reality at least twice before. The warning officer, who was an exempt union employee, says he does not recall any disciplinary incidents and that he served as a department supervisor at least once a week.

>> Ige and Clairmont expressed outrage that employees were getting death threats after the alert, but they weren’t outraged enough to call police until four days after.

​>> Clairmont said his resignation was due to a planned retirement, but in reality he resigned after Jan. 13 in lieu of being disciplined.​

>> HI-EMA has said drill scripts can vary, but the FCC and the button pusher said that “This is not a drill” was an atypical statement.

>> The warning officer who sent the false alert claims that an employee picked up the warning phone and did not immediately put it on speakerphone, causing him not to hear, “Exercise, Exercise, Exercise.” HI-EMA said none of the other five employees at the warning point office picked up the phone and that all heard, “Exercise, Exercise, Exercise.”

>> HI-EMA said the employee had been temporarily assigned and was working at another agency job that didn’t deal with warnings. In reality, he called in sick from Jan. 16 to 26, the day he was terminated, and never started the new job.

>> HI-EMA officials told the public that they were going to get to the bottom of the incident quickly. In reality, they didn’t attempt to interview the button pusher until Jan. 16 — three days after they had already attempted to tell the public what happened.

>> The button pusher said supervisors were not present in the room when he double-clicked the screen and sent the alert. The agency still can’t say definitely who was in the room when the chaos ensued.

>> HI-EMA has been off even on the smallest departmental details. The agency initially said it had 10 warning officers. Then it changed its count to 14, one position short of its 15-count goal.

Diligence needed

Gabbard said Hawaii residents need timely answers to what went wrong and why so that gaps that exist at home and across the country are identified and resolved.

“The false missile alert corroded the trust and confidence of Hawaii’s people, which has only further been damaged by the layers of conflicting information that have been released since,” Gabbard said.

Hanabusa, who supported the transparency bill, said it is needed after all of “the confusing, often conflicting accounts from state officials about what went wrong and who is responsible.”

“The public deserves a transparent, accurate accounting, like the one recently completed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), so we can make corrections and move forward,” she said.

HI-EMA’s new interim administrator, Brig. Gen. Moses Kaoiwi, pins the release of some conflicting information on the agency’s desire to be as transparent as possible. Kaoiwi said HI-EMA provided information while it was still “trying to make sense of what had happened,” and has corrected information as it has been vetted.

Kaoiwi, who worked as a Big Island police officer before his career in the National Guard, said discrepancies are part of any breaking news situation.

“From a police investigative standpoint, when you get on the scene, what you see and are soaking up in initial reports may be different from what your investigation shows,” he said.

At the time when the statements were made, “that’s what was given to Gen. Miyagi, and everyone was trying to make sense of what happened,” Kaoiwi said. “When you get into details and ask specific questions, you find out a lot more.”

Ige said during a Jan. 30 press conference that he wasn’t aware that the “button pusher” believed the threat was real until Oliveira briefed him on it Jan. 29.

HI-EMA will release additional information as it becomes available, Kaoiwi said.

“As far as being transparent, there is no intent on the part of the agency to keep people away from what is legally able to be released,” he said.

Kaoiwi said a main part of his role at HI-EMA will be restoring public confidence in an agency that he thinks is up to the task.

“I’m here to do the best that I can to make sure continuity of operations occur. I’m not here to overhaul the agency. At this point I’m an interim guy,” he said. “I want to make sure operations work effectively and efficiently. I believe we can do that.”

The Jan. 13 incident caused concerns, but Kaoiwi said HI-EMA staff are “hard workers” and have performed well in past emergencies, from flooding to earthquakes to tsunamis.

“Internally, each person in emergency management is much more aware that we can’t make any more mistakes and that we need to be much more diligent,” he said.

Kaoiwi said he’s working to fill the top two spots at HI-EMA and then will look to fill the two vacant warning officer positions. He said he and others at HI-EMA are conducting community outreach and working with stakeholders, including the military and the counties, to ensure “we can get the support we need to help the people.”

Critics have complained that the false alert and continued uncertainty about what really happened might have cast enough doubt on the system that people wouldn’t take a real threat seriously. But Kaoiwi said he thinks people will react appropriately based on their responses on Jan. 13 and what they’ve told him during recent outreach efforts.

“The public seems to have been concerned about possible effects and events,” he said. “They aren’t taking it, in my opinion, like they aren’t ready. They seem to be taking it seriously.”

TOP 5 FLIP-FLOPPING ACCOUNTS

>> Gov. David Ige said that he couldn’t get calls through on his cellphone; actually, he knew via a phone call within minutes that it was a false alarm. In reality, he had forgotten his Twitter password.

>> HI-EMA and Gov. David Ige said the so-called button pusher made a pull-down menu mistake, but actually, he thought there was a real emergency and did it intentionally.

>> HI-EMA said initially that its delayed cellphone cancellation alert was due to needed federal authorization. Vern Miyagi, HI-EMA administrator, admitted days later that this was a mistake on his part and that authorization was not needed. In reality, the agency did not have a correction procedure or script in place.

>> HI-EMA initially said the “button pusher” was nonunion and a model employee. Retired Brig. Gen. Bruce Oliveira later described him as the exact opposite: mistrusted and considered undependable by his co-workers. The man, who was terminated following Oliveira’s investigation, was an exempt member of HGEA bargaining unit 3.

>> HI-EMA has said drill scripts can vary, but the Federal Communications Communication and the “button pusher” said that “This is not a drill” was an atypical statement.

Say what?

How the alert got sent out:

“It was a procedure that occurs at the change of shift where they go through to make sure that the system, that it’s working. And an employee pushed the wrong button.”

— Gov. David Ige, during a Jan. 13 press conference

“This guy feels bad, right. He’s not doing this on purpose. It was a mistake on his part, and he feels terrible about it.”

— Former HI-EMA Administrator Vern Miyagi, who resigned Jan. 26, during a Jan. 13 press conference

“The message I heard was, ‘This is not a drill. ’ I did what I was trained to do. At the time with the information that I had, I was 100 percent sure it was the right decision. My boss requested a written statement three days after. No one asked for my version of the story up to that point.”

— The so-called button pusher, during a Feb. 2 interview at the downtown office of his attorney Michael Green. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser knows the man’s identity but agreed to protect it because he has received death threats.

What type of guy hit the button:

“This was a very well-trained and seasoned employee. He’s not someone we hired off the street. This was someone we could depend on. There had to be more to it.”

— Toby Clairmont, former HI-EMA executive officer, who resigned Jan. 26, on Jan. 13

“Employee 1 has been a source of concern for State Warning Point staff for over 10 years. His poor performance has been counseled and documented. He does not take initiative and has to be directed before he takes action. He is unable to comprehend the situation at hand and has confused real life events and drills on at least two separate occasions.”

— Brig. Gen. Bruce Oliveira, who conducted the state’s internal investigation into the incident, on Jan. 30

For the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s full coverage of Hawaii’s missile alert scare, go to 808ne.ws/Hawaiimissilescare.