2007-11-14 Board of Ethics Minutes Regular Session

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times the Board had found someone in violation of the Code, and Mr. Ashida said he has not been with the Board for long but could find out. He would guess about a half dozen. The Chair said there were only two in the nearly four years that he has served. Mr. Dill asked how many separate hearings or petitions were filed, and Mr. Ashida said significantly more, but either no violation was found or there was no jurisdiction. Ms. Malanka asked how the fines would be set and where the monies would go, and both Mr. Ashida and the Chair said monies would go to the General Fund. Mr. Ashida said the Council would set the fines and delineate the appeal process. Ms. Lum said that a fine could be imposed only after a formal opinion was issued and that the Board has not yet had to do a formal opinion. Mr. Ashida said that if the Board receives the ability to impose fines, it would be a disincentive for wayward people. It could motivate officers and employees to cooperate with investigations instead of blowing them off, and the Chair agreed it would give them some leverage. The Chair thanked Mr. Hookano. The Chair explained that both agenda items 6b and 6c were initially submitted by him in September 2006 and that he was grateful to see progress now, 14 months later. Regarding campaign mail -outs, he saw them as an unfair advantage for incumbents. He asked the Board to look at Section 2 -83(b) of the Ethics Code, which covers advantages, and specifically at 2- 83(b)(3), where it says "No officer or employee shall use or attempt to use the officer's or employee's official position to secure or grant unwarranted privileges, exemptions, advantages . . He said the Code already covers advantages in the language, and it is a matter for the Board to properly interpret the language. He said he would like an opinion from Mr. Ashida based on this, to see whether they could do an informal investigation and come up with a ruling. Mr. Ashida said he understood that the request was to determine whether elected incumbents in the County, which are limited to Council members, the Prosecuting Attorney, and the Mayor, are able to utilize County funds for mail -outs and whether doing so would constitute an advantage as defined by Section 2 -83 of the Code. He asked whether there was a time limit on the mail -outs, and the Chair said he had asked for within six months of an election, because it is clear that is when the advantage happens for incumbents. He said he understood what Ms. Ford said, that if they cannot do mail -outs within those six months they should not be able to do so period, but he did not necessarily agree. The Chair said that if it was interpreted from the language that campaign mail -outs would constitute an advantage, he hoped the Board would issue an informal advisory opinion to make incumbents aware that the Board would consider it a violation of the Ethics Code if County funds were used for these mail -outs during an election year. He asked for a motion to put the matter of the Board coming up with an informal advisory opinion on the December agenda under New Business.