Laserfiche WebLink
private business or campaign purposes, and also Rule — Section 2- 83(3), which states that <br />you may not use your County position to secure or grant unwarranted privileges or <br />treatment for yourself or others. The Board today, if we can focus on those two items and <br />whether or not there is a violation here. Okay, Mr. Joseph, go ahead. <br />JOSEPH- Thank you, sir. Just to give you a chronological event of this, I was running <br />with four other people for the County Council seat held by incumbent Emily Naeole, and <br />in that race, former incumbent Gary Safarik was also running, and myself along with two <br />others. I believe on September 6`h all of us were invited to do a debate at the Pahoa <br />Community Center which lasted for two hours, from ten a. m. to noon, and during that <br />debate it was filmed by —I'm not sure who it was, but it was filmed and later put on the <br />website. And I think that's relevant, because I think Mr. Ashida wasn't at the debate, and <br />I think he got his information from watching the video. And he can clarify that later. But <br />on September 91h, Mr. Ashida submitted a letter to Hunter Bishop which was placed on <br />Hunter Bishop's website blog, and in it he criticized me for my statements that I made <br />during that debate. And I'm perfectly fine with that. I'm perfectly fine with his <br />criticisms. We've discussed these issues before, and when I served as chairman of the <br />Board of Ethics, I had difficulties with certain cases, believing that Corp Counsel may <br />have been in a conflict of interest. I am quite aware of the Hawai `i Rules of Professional <br />Conduct, which allows Corp Counsel to have many different defendants, including the <br />Board of Ethics while defending someone on the Council. In that Mr. Ashida decided to <br />criticize me ten days prior to the primary, that's perfectly within his right and scope as <br />head of Corp Counsel. And that he was diligently doing his duties, I totally agree with <br />that. He also criticized briefly Ms. Naeole as well, because Ms. Naeole agreed with me <br />by making one short statement, one short sentence. I'm truly not sure if she agreed with <br />me or not, but she's not a co plaintiff in this petition. I think where Mr. Ashida <br />overstepped his boundaries was that when he referred to Gary Safarik, . and when he <br />referred to Mr. Safarik, he singled out Mr. Safarik as being correct. He singled out Mr. <br />Safarik in a political race that the three of its were the three leading contenders. By <br />singling out Mr. Safarik, I believe he erred in judgment and stepped over the boundaries <br />of fair treatment. And he also signed with his letterhead —if you notice on the second <br />sheet, Corporation Counsel, County of Hawai `i. I don't believe 1 submitted —the <br />following day, Mr. Hunter Bishop posted on his website a statement saying,, "Was Ashida <br />Playing Politics? " And if you don't have a copy of that, may I- <br />NICHOLSON: We have. <br />CHAIR: We do, we do. We have copies. <br />JOSEPH: You have a copy of this? <br />CHAIR: Hm hmm. <br />JOSEPH: Now, if you go down to the last paragraph on the first page – <br />CHAIR: This is the first paragraph of— <br />JOSEPH.- The last paragraph on the first page- <br />