ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ

City Council member Tom Berg says he is “saddened” and “concerned” about reports that his chief of staff, Eric Ryan, hacked Hawaii Rep. Kymberly Pine’s website and government email account.

“The whole staff is saddened about this,” Berg told Civil Beat Tuesday. “We don’t want anything to interfere with our workload. These kind of distractions are very much frowned upon and discouraged. We all want people to handle their affairs in a professional manner.”

After Civil Beat reported Pine’s email and website had been hacked, Ryan sent an email explaining that he tampered with Pine’s accounts because she owed him money.

Technically, the action against Pine appears to have involved swapping the header image that normally appears on her website and in the body of her emails with an image that said “Kym Pine is a CROOK.”

Berg says the incident is a reminder that people should “take heed” about who they put in control of the servers connected to their websites, but he also says he doesn’t know or want to know exactly what happened.

“I don’t want to know,” Berg said. “I don’t want to be involved. It bothers me, it rubs me the wrong way. If there is a bill owed or monies owed for work, that’s not of party to our City Council. That’s external, and so whatever’s going on between parties regarding a dispute on a billing statement is not of fodder for me or the office. We want to keep that, whatever it is, separate.”

Ryan’s job as Berg’s chief of staff is not in jeopardy as a result of the stunt, Berg said.

“The fact is, he just happens to be an employee with another job,” Berg said. “That could be (as) a sewer worker. He could be a bus driver. He could be a garbage driver. You can’t say to somebody, ‘I have to let you go for your outside, after-work activity to collect a debt.’ One has to be very careful (about) somebody’s private privilege to collect an amount due. It’s a constitutional right. He has a constitutional right to get reimbursed.”

Asked what constitutional right protects someone’s ability to collect a debt, Berg seemed to be referencing the First Amendment right to free speech. He said someone can take out a newspaper ad in order to demand the debt, for example.

The council member acknowledged Ryan has a reputation for professional fallings out, but said he does not know whether Ryan played a role in the hack against Kim.

“I haven’t confirmed to any degree that it is Eric Ryan,” Berg said. “To my understanding it’s transpired with others with him.”

Asked whether he feels comfortable with Ryan managing his web presence, Berg says he took steps last week to protect himself and the “pristine, intact, not tampered with” information that reaches his constituents.

“Should I be concerned? Well, before this even came to be with Pine and whatever, I had last week asked all staff to sign a statement as a requisite for employment that upon termination they’re unable to manipulate or interfere with any data or domain names,” Berg said. “The timing is interesting. I don’t know if he’s turned in that paperwork yet. I haven’t discussed with the secretary who has and who hasn’t. That will be one of the things that I achieve today.”

While Berg defended Ryan’s right to seek the money that he believes is owed to him, the council member also said he would have gone about it in a different way.

“You go to small claims court and you take action that way,” Berg said. “I don’t think this is a story, or should be a story. I think both parties need to get their act together and move things along.”