2007-06-13 Board of Ethics Minutes Regular Session mc

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council not on the merits of the case but on the fact that it is not a proper request for an informal advisory opinion. If you have any questions? CHAIR: Any questions? DILL: No, Mr. Pranke, no. Thank you. SHARPLESS: (Inaudible.) CHAIR: Yes, we'll have questions for you, if we can, Mr. Ashida. ASHIDA: I would like to address those— CHAIR: - -Well, now, let me ask a couple of specific questions. Why didn't Mrs. Barbara Hale herself file a petition? ASHIDA: I don't know. She's represented by an attorney. It's certainly her right to do so. I would assume that Mr. Strauss, who's a very capable and knowledgeable attorney, would know that that would be an option. The reason that this route was pursued with the Board of Ethics was this, and it sort of ties into one of Mr. Pranke's very important —first of all, Del uses words, always the type that I don't understand, big words, those 37 -point words. But on the ethics, on the conflict issue, I'm glad you brought that up, because I think everybody should know that we nipped that in the bud. Early on, we recognized that there may perhaps be a conflict between our office's representation of this Board and the County, as well as the representation of Ms. Nae`ole. So early on, when this all surfaced, when this first surfaced publicly, we contacted Ms. Nae`ole, informed her that it was our opinion that she seek private counsel in this matter, that my office's representation in this matter would be limited to the County and the Board of Ethics, and thankfully, Ms. Nae`ole heeded that advice. She has been represented by Mr. Lee Loy, who is present, and Mr. Roehrig, who is also present. I have not had any personal contact with Ms. Nae`ole since concerning the merits of this case. I've not discussed it with her. So my office clearly is not in conflict with respect to Ms. Nae`ole. She has private counsel. That being said, once Ms. Nae`ole had private counsel and these allegations became public, I did discuss with Mr. Lee Loy the different options and possibilities. One was, she—Ms. Nae`ole herselfI can't speak for Ms. Hale because I haven't spoken to Ms. Hale —one option would be for Ms. Nae`ole to come before the Board, to petition the Board on her own accord or, in what we've done in this case, for the Board to do it. We selected the latter. I'll say to Ms. Nae`ole's credit, her attorney's credit, they have always from the onset said we want her name cleared. We want this matter brought before the Board. That being said, instead of waiting for her to petition, or waiting for Ms. Hale to petition, we had a mechanism within the law, and this is where I respectfully disagree with my friend Mr. Pranke. Section 286B applies. Any person or the Board itself may petition the Board for an informal advisory opinion. That's what we have done here. I am recommending to the Board that you on your own motion petition yourself —you know, petition rd