2006-12-13 Board of Ethics Minutes Regular Session

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Board of Ethics Minutes - Regular Session December 13, 2006 KS: Right. The other thing is that whenever in doubt it is advisable to seek an opinion from the Hawaii County Board of Ethics, true. Would you also want to put in the source documents? Because every office has the county code. I mean we don't want people saying.... AL: Like this guide is designed to give you a quick overview of the county ethics code provisions and you've been handed the ethic code with.... KS: Oh yeah, right, this is the disclaimer. AL: You've been handed the code, and this is the explanation to go with your code that has just been handed to you. BLT: You see we have a lot of employees who think that "this isn't a problem" so they go and do something, then somebody challenges them afterwards. If you'd asked and gotten an opinion that said it was okay, then that would have been your answer. If you haven't done that then you are in the uncomfortable position of being open to question on whether it is permissible or not. It may be permissible, but you may go through a very uncomfortable period where people will accuse you of violating the code. I have always told people "Hey if you are going to get outside employment, then go get an opinion." Then you've checked it out and you certainly don't want to do something after the fact because the penalties are harsh on post - employment. You are just supposed to cough up the money and the county has the right to go seek that money from you. That's the area where most people can potentially get into trouble, outside employment and campaign activities. The biggest concern in that area has been elected officials and their staff. The employment issues have been the regular employees that work at water supply, work as engineers, or work as construction on the side because they are a county carpenter and they work construction on the weekends. If a building inspector is building a house and getting paid for that, is it a conflict? If you are a real property tax appraiser, can you do appraisals of properties? Is it a conflict when your appraisal of property could end up being the basis for someone's challenge of what the county is appraising the property for real property tax purposes. There are too many different types of situations to lay them all out, which is why we consistently tell employees that they should get an opinion to make sure that they are covered. Some of them don't want to do that, and some don't follow through. I think they are leaving themselves open. KS: Would it be possible, in the introduction, to say or have a statement like you have been given a copy of the Hawaii County Code of Ethics and you are responsible for carrying it out and there is some signature document. You know like this check list on new employees, like I had to sign various things when I was employed with the State. Then they know that there is an official document for which they are responsible and this guide is an interpretive document, a supplement and not be considered the 11th commandment, sort of thing. From my own personal experience, I see a union person trying to defend this with "Well, they never got the code" or "this is all I got," you know. Something like that. Then with the changes in type. AL: I think that is a matter of document setup to clarify what is the example. 10