2007-09-12 Board of Ethics Minutes mc

Home

refrigerator for that Pahoa place, that it was just an idea. And that as of your last meeting, which was last month, the paperwork has still just been submitted, and it's working its way slowly through the system, and the total is a thousand dollars. And I think that the schools are doing a good job, and I think that they do deserve a refrigerator down in Pahoa, and I'm not trying to hurt the community in any way. But I think that it's important for people who are elected to these responsible positions —and Emily controls the budget. $300,000 of the taxpayers' money. Now if the Board, you know, thinks that she's not competent enough to be in a hearing, then maybe your responsibility would be to look at that issue rather than trying to pigeonhole and determine the honesty between who said what and who said what. And you know, from the audience point of view, my point of view, I felt like the whistleblower in this case really got short shrift. And the other thing I took offense at were the lawyers voicing their own ridicule at the procedure, including ridiculing things like Hunter Bishop's blog, which is, to me, undemocratic. I mean, you know, people who don't like the news close down newspapers and close off media and outlets of truth. We don't think of those people as democratic, and that was essentially the ridicule that came from the lawyers, that somehow this blog is, you know, unseemly because somebody had dared actually say something. And then later, when Ms. Hale explained how she had worked her way through the system of redress here, at the County offices, and literally nobody could help her. Because of the nature of her employment, she was on her own. And that's when she started foundering and when she went public. So those are the kinds of —that is in a nutshell what I came to talk about. I think it's just inappropriate for attorneys to be attorneys in the sense of representing our elected officials speak before you. I think that those elected officials should speak for themselves. And we as citizens and you as an ethics committee could understand how they are thinking and what they're using to make their judgments and determinations according to the statutes you're trying to impose. Lawyers are hired as hired guns to make sure that the right answer comes up for their clients —not the true answer, not necessarily even the truth. But that the right answer, which is paid for, comes up. And you know, that's one last lingering issue, is who's paying for all the lawyers. CHAIR: Okay. John -- ACHMAT: Thank you for your time. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to CHAIR: Okay. Thank you. ACHMAT: Did John? DILL: No. No, thank you. ACHMAT: Thanks. 7