2005-10-12 Board of Ethics Minutes Regular mc

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I would suggest that the difference in State and County language is something that you would want to take a look at in rendering a decision on whether you had to disclose that or not. And again the State law may impact some County people as people running for office, because the language in the State law seems to carve out an exemption for State electives and I'm not sure if State electives includes County Council members. I'd have to take a look at that a little bit more. So I don't think it's quite as simple as Mr. Frankel puts it out. I think you really need to do an analysis of what the intent of the County Code is. FRANKEL: May I respond a little bit? Bobby Jean, I'll refresh your memory a little bit. In 2002, you authorized a bill that became Ordinance 02 -109, and the purpose section is, the purpose of this section is to amend the County Code of Ethics to follow the language contained in the State Code of Ethics. CHAIR: I remember that. FRANKEL: And it specifically changes the sections relative to disclosure. Now, Bobby Jean is correct in identifying that there's one section different between— CHAIR: - -State and County. FRANKEL: State and County, and I, you know, mentioned that in my letter. There are two plausible explanations. One is, the Council made a conscious decision. But this is not when Keola Childs was on the Council, so I do not believe, and I've asked to look at the legislative history, and there is none. I believe, based on my experience at the Legislative Auditor's office that more likely the Legislative Auditor's office made an error as it was—is prone to do, and did not copy the thing. But even that aside, if you look at how the Code is constructed, first of all, it's supposed to be liberally construed to promote high standards of ethical conduct in County government, that's Step 1. Step 2, a financial interest is defined as interest held by individual, the individual's spouse, or dependent children. So we already have in the definition of financial interest spouse's information. Furthermore, the disclosure of financial interest shall state the financial interest of the person disclosing, quote, whether held in the person's name or by any other person for the person's disclosing use and benefit. CHAIR: Where's this cite in the law? FRANKEL: This is Hawaii County Code 2- 91.1(c), which is part of the Code of Ethics. So myI hope I don't get in trouble here, but you know, the money my wife has in her account is for my use and benefit, just like the money I have in my account is for her use and benefit. AndI mean that's, legally, we can joke about it, but when you submit your disclosure form, granted the County Code is not clear as the State law, the provisions that are in there liberally construed have got to mean that I've got to include information about my spouse. So, you know, if my spouse has business that comes before the County, if it's a public disclosure form, people should know about it. If it's not a public one, you guys should be able to look at it and make some judgments. 22