2005-12-14 Board of Ethics Minutes regular nonverbatim

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Mr. Kawahara moved to accept and file Ms. Schuster's financial disclosure; Mr. Joseph seconded the motion; and the three members present voted aye on the motion. Mr. Joseph moved to defer acceptance of Mr. Pleau's financial disclosure until clarification could be obtained; Mr. Kawahara seconded the motion; and the three members present voted aye on the motion. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Petition No. 2005 -05: Review draft of Informal Advisory Opinion on Mr. Frankel's petition regarding Mr. Arakaki's receipt of gifts to his legal defense fund. Ms. Leithead -Todd pointed out that since Mr. Williams was recused as the chair on this case, and Mr. Inouye was not able to be present at today's meeting, there was no quorum to hear this issue. It was questioned as to whether Ann Lum, who is expected to be appointed to the Board soon, could vote on this issue later. Ms. Leithead -Todd said that as long as Ms. Lum is given opportunity to read the minutes and review the documents, she can vote on the issue. Mr. Kawahara, who had previously submitted his resignation, said that he will make it official to extend his term indefinitely, until such time that he is not able to carry out his duties due to other commitments. He requested that the Board's staff write a letter for him to Mayor Kim regarding this, as he had received a letter from the Mayor asking him about this. b. Petition No. 2005 -06: Review draft of Declaratory Ruling on Mr. Frankel's petition seeking a decision regarding interpretation of the law as it relates to financial disclosure forms. Ms. Leithead -Todd pointed out that Mr. Frankel's petition had also stated that the financial disclosure form is not clear on providing information on mutual funds, and that the Board had inadvertently neglected to address this part of the petition. People who have payroll deduction into a deferred compensation program may have the money invested in mutual funds. Ms. Leithead -Todd said that Mr. Frankel is assuming that people are in the retirement system. She said most people aren't even aware of where their funds are being held or invested, as this is done through the Employees' Retirement System. She said didn't know if the Board wanted to add anything to the draft opinion on this, or just adopt the opinion as is and leave the issue up to the discretion of the employees, whether they have to list mutual funds. She said Mr. Frankel was generally saying that people in the ERS have mutual funds and should disclose that, but most people don't know where their money is. The Chair said the draft of the Informal Advisory Opinion didn't answer the question about spousal finances and that he wants a paragraph in there about the Board pursuing an amendment to the Ethics Code so that its requirements are the same as the State's requirements. This should be put on the January agenda. Ms. Leithead -Todd read aloud her suggested sentence to include in the opinion: "The Board discussed the differences between the State Code and County Code and 3