2007-07-11 Board of Ethics Minutes Regular Session

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Chair: Now, now having reviewed the tapes, do you feel we should go forward, or do you feel there was no violation based upon what you saw? Lum: Based upon what I saw, I detected no violation. There are certainly different personalities among the Council members. Bob Jacobson is no Angel Pilago in his soft- spokeness, but I detected no disrespect. It was an emotional issue. There was a lot of —a lot of emotion in that discussion on flooding. There was, I found it very interesting, there was a lot of listening, I thought, by all the Council members to all of the professionals, and there is just a lot of past history in that whole issue, but I detected no real disrespect. Chair: And the Chair would tend to agree with that. So could we entertain a motion that we would find no violation of Article 15, Section 2 -83? Motion and Vote: Ms. Lum moved to find that there was no violation of Article 15, Section 2 -83. Ms. Sharpless seconded the motion. There was no further discussion. All members voted aye. The motion carried. Chair: Mr. Corporation Counsel, could you write an informal statement recommending that we found no violation of the County Code and prepare it for Nancy Burns? Ashida: Yes. Self: Thank you. Chair: Thank you very much. b. Petition No. 2007 -04: Hearing and/or investigation into allegations of misconduct brought by Barbara Hale against Councilmember Emily K. Nae`ole, pursuant to Rule 5.2(a) of the Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Board of Ethics. Chair: In our scope of this inquiry, we shall be limited to the following two questions: One, did Councilmember Emily Nae`ole utilize her staff to do her personal work from her Council office, thereby violating the Code of Ethics? And two, did Councilmember Emily Nae`ole utilize her official position to solicit campaign donations from her office, thereby violating the Code of Ethics? We are going to conduct this hearing of the Board of the Ethics as an investigation, not as a trial. The burden of proof in this matter will be by the preponderance of evidence, and we will use that as our standard. As this is an investigation, only Board members will be asking questions of the witnesses, and I will be calling all the witnesses that are listed on both sides. And finally, we need three votes to carry a motion, and I'd like everyone to understand that. That being said, I would like to begin by offering counsel the opportunity to present a five - minute opening statement, and I would like to start with Ms. Hale's counsel, Mr. Strauss. 12