Mark Patterson, administrator of the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility in Kailua, and institutional facility superintendent Darrell Bueno were fined last week by the Hawaii State Ethics Commission.

Patterson was fined $1,500 for violating the state ethics code, while Bueno was fined $4,000 for doing the same — specifically, the Fair Treatment law.

Patterson misused state resources and time to benefit a private religious group by allowing it to store trailers with equipment on HYCF property from 2018 to 2020. The trailers have since been removed.

Patterson also authorized around 2019 a subordinate employee to use an HYCF tractor to mow or clear a private pasture in preparation for a fundraising rodeo event for a private nonprofit with ties to HYCF.

Bueno “repeatedly” used state resources for his personal use in 2020 and to benefit his private business, dB Cattle. He also directed another subordinate to repair a piece of state equipment so that Bueno could take it for his personal use.

The HYCF is a “last resort” facility for troubled youth “after all community-based services have been exhausted.”

Patterson chairs the Hawaii Correctional Systems Oversight Commission.