2008-04-09 Board of Ethics Minutes Regular Session

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Ms. Schoen said that to make the record clear, the request to continue the hearing on the petition came from Liz Hultman - Salfen, who sent an email to the Board's secretary requesting that Petition No. 2008 -5 be continued because Mr. Jacobson was scheduled to attend a County Council meeting, and that email was subsequently forwarded to the Board members. She suggested that the Board schedule the petition to be heard at their next Board meeting. Motion amended: Ms. Nicholson amended her motion to continue the petition, at Mr. Jacobson's request, to their next meeting. Ms. Lum seconded the motion. Discussion: Ms. Lum stated she would be unavailable from May 14 through 18, 2008. The Chair said that because their regular June meeting date fell on a holiday (June 11), they had agreed to hold their June meeting on Tuesday, June 10, 2008. The Board was unable set a firm date for the next meeting due to conflicting schedules, and the secretary was assigned to work out a date between Mr. Jacobson and the Board members. Vote: All members present voted aye on the motion to schedule Mr. Jacobson's petition for whenever their next meeting is. b. Review and possible pursuit of an amendment to Section 2 -85(b) of the Hawai `i County Code (the Ethics Code) regarding the prohibition of contracting with former employees and retirees. Ms. Schoen explained that an attorney in her office was doing research on contracts and noticed a discrepancy between Section 2 -85(b) and Section 2- 91.2(c) of the Ethics Code. Section 2 -85(b) basically protects the County by prohibiting it from entering into a contract with a business or person who has been assisted by another person who was formerly employed by the County. However, it did not make sense when compared to Section 2- 91.2(c) of the Code, which deals with the rehiring of former County officers and employees. Section 2- 91.2(c) says that the County is not prohibited from contracting with a former officer or employee to act on matters on behalf of the County. It turns out that our Code, which is patterned after the State's Code, is missing the word "is" in Section 2- 85(b). It should say that a County agency "shall not enter into a contract with any person or business which is represented or assisted personally in the matter by a person who has been an employee of the agency ..." Ms. Schoen said she wanted to bring this to the Board's attention and propose amending Section 2 -85 so that it would make sense. Section 2 -85(b) is aimed at protecting the interests of the County, whereas Section 2- 91.2(c) is aimed at permitting the County, in appropriate situations, to contract with a former employee because of that employee's special expertise. The Chair asked Ms. Schoen what the Board was to do, other than become aware of it. Ms. Schoen said she just wanted to make them aware so that they could voice their opinion as to whether or not they wanted the language rectified. Ms. Lum said that whoever works on revising Section 2 -85(b) should look at the sentence structure and clean it up. She asked who would go about making the change, and Ms. Schoen said the Board could initiate it.