2006-08-09 Board of Ethics Minutes regular

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is advisory only, disclosures would not be required. She was unsure of what the duties are for the Kona Steering Committee. Ms. Leithead -Todd said the Kona Steering Committee's job is to come up with a recommended community development plan. This plan is to be forwarded to the Planning Commission for public hearing and comment, and then forwarded to the Council for adoption under the umbrella of the General Plan. The Chair said the Committee appeared to be advisory. Ms. Lum said the information she has is clear on where boards come from. They are from the County Code, the Charter, or the Hawaii Revised Statutes. Mr. Joseph asked what the difference was between the Cost of Government Commission, the Police Commission, and the Salary Commission, which are advisory. Ms. Leithead -Todd said the Salary Commission has the power to adopt and change salaries. Under the Charter, they also set the salaries for council members, the mayor, and department heads. They do not make recommendations. They adopt. They have the legal authority to impact the County budget. Mr. Joseph stated, then, that any board which can only make recommendations does not need to have disclosures filed. Ms. Leithead -Todd said the Police Commission has investigatory power and so is different. Also, it is specifically established by both the Charter and the Hawaii Revised Statutes. Ms. Lum said the next issue they studied was what financial information should be included in financial disclosures, which was prompted by David Frankel's petition in 2005 regarding including spouse and dependent children information. She and Ms. Sharpless looked at state and county disclosure forms. They also noted Lincoln Ashida's concern at increasing the stringency of the forms because there is already difficulty in finding people to sit on boards and commissions. She said that the State Constitution does not specify who has to do financial disclosures. The Hawaii Revised Statutes defines financial interest to include spouse and dependent children. The State Ethics Commission requires all members of State boards and commissions which are not advisory to file disclosures. The Hawaii County Code describes financial interest in Chapter 2 -82(a) (7) as interest held by an individual, spouse, or dependent children. If you look at the definition of officer, however, it would include those who are on advisory boards. Another confusing section is 2- 91.1(c), where it states that the disclosure of financial interest shall state the interests of the person disclosing, whether held in the person's name or by any other person for the person disclosing's use and benefit and it includes numerous other assets. As far as the Code goes, it seems to be saying that any person, not specifically a spouse or dependent child, but even a brother -in -law or uncle, etc., who holds something that benefits a person disclosing, has to disclose it. She does not know if she is interpreting this correctly. Also, in the Frankel petition, the Board ruled that the disclosure of spousal and dependent children income was not required. Ms. Leithead -Todd said that Mr. Frankel's petition wanted the spouse and dependent children financial information disclosed regardless of whether the person disclosing had access to or use of the money. The way the Code reads, the money needs to be held for the benefit of the person disclosing, or be accessible by that person. So if a person receives money from a 7