HONOLULU -- Under fire for mismanagement, George N. Crabbe, the manager of the Lihue Airport, has turned in his keys, airport ID and official cell phone, according to state transportation department employees.

It's unclear whether he has resigned or has been fired.

Crabbe has been the Kauai airport district manager for five years during which he's been criticized for a number of problems at Lihue Airport.

Employees in Crabbe's office told KITV 4 News he's been terminated, and is on leave until Aug. 2, when his employment with the state will end.

A state transportation department spokesman told KITV 4 News it's an "internal personnel matter" on which the DOT cannot comment because Crabbe's still an employee.

A month ago, a fired business services supervisor at Lihue Airport was charged by the Attorney General's office with three counts of 2nd degree theft. State transportation officials said Maycia-Rae Matsuyoshi, 36, of Kapaa, admitted to stealing about $13,000 in state airport funds over several months.

An investigation found Matsuyoshi was also allowed to use a state credit card, spending $3,000 on questionable expenses like travel for herself, her fiance and his son. All the while, no one at Kauai airport noticed while she made hundreds of transactions without required paperwork, investigators said.

She was a former co-worker of Crabbe before being hired four years ago, sources said. A background check when she was hired found no criminal convictions, according to a state transportation official.

But KITV 4 News found four small claims judgments against Matsuyoshi for $1,010 since 1998, all of them before she was hired by the DOT.

And there have been other problems at the airport under Crabbe's watch.

Lihue paid $75,000 to the Transportation Security Administration for 15 security lapses between March of 2009 and March of 2010. It was the only Hawaii airport to face security fines during that period.

In another incident, Crabbe lost track of two people he was escorting behind security checkpoints on September 11, 2009. That resulted in the Lihue Airport terminal being evacuated and shut down so passengers could be re-screened.

Crabbe wrote a report about the incident to his superiors, in which he said, "I take sole responsibility for the events that led to this disruption and I cannot fully express the mortification and regret my momentary lapse of attention caused."

In late 2008, an airport operations controller frustrated with management at Lihue walked off the job and no one notified personnel officials to stop his paycheck for weeks, so he was overpaid about $5,000.

Crabbe's salary range as Kauai Airport Manager was $72,760 to $102,120 a year, a state transportation department spokesman said. He oversaw a staff of about 95 state transportation employees in Lihue, a DOT staffer said.

An email sent to Crabbe at his state computer Thursday bounced back as an invalid address.

Crabbe planned to attend a hearing about his case with Department of Transportation Director Glenn Okimoto Friday, said his father, George Crabbe II, with whom he is staying on Oahu. A message left for Crabbe at his father’s home Thursday was not returned.

At a hearing of the State Senate ways and means committee on Aug. 31, 2010, former State Transportation Director Brennon Morioka admitted there had been management problems at Lihue Airport for more than two years.

“We do know there can be improvements to the way that we manage the airport in both the facility itself and the employees,” said Morioka a year ago. “We are sending people over to go and meet and discuss and coach some of the leadership over there.”

“It seems to me they could do a reality show at Kauai Airport,” said State Sen. Sam Slom (R-Hawaii Kai, Diamond Head, Kahala) at the hearing in Aug. 2010.

“You can’t really guard against incompetence,” said State Sen. Donna Mercado Kim (D-Moanalua, Aiea, Kalihi Valley), who then chaired the ways and means committee. Kim noted with frustration last August that no managers had been disciplined at Lihue, in spite of numerous problems.

A state airports employee said despite numerous controversies, Crabbe was “protected” by former Deputy Transportation Director for Airports Brian Sekiguchi, who himself resigned suddenly in early August of 2010, under fire for ethics and questionable airport deals.