Keeping Inventory of the State: The Right or Wrong Way to Dispose of Surplus Materials

A simple donation of concrete barriers to Oneula Beach Park in Ewa Beach has prompted questions about how our local government handles its property. A private individual received 156 barriers from the State Department of Transportation (DOT)–all for the cost of having to haul the barriers out of the storage facility himself. Through a request made by the chair of the Ewa Lion’s Club, he then placed 34 of them in the park and attempted to gift the barriers to the city while putting a $34,000 price tag on their worth. As the city continues to wrestle with issues of ownership and proper gifting protocol, The Independent ran its own investigation. When confronted with whether or not the barriers were disposed of properly, the State Procurement Office responded that the DOT was now working on filling out the paperwork to dispose of them properly–one and a half years after they were given away. The DOT and the Procurement Office both now claim that the state can use ‘barter’ to dispose of its surplus property. According to the DOT director, by having these barriers (apparently worth $155,000) hauled away by a private individual, the state saved thousands of dollars in disposal costs.