2009-02-11 Board of Ethics Minutes

Home

counties supporting the bills, so it is hopeful they will be passed. The same bills were presented last year, but there was no testimony in favor of them. The intent of the proposed bills is to have the appeal process, which can be lengthy, not apply to ethics situations, because ethical violations need to be dealt with immediately. Ms. Gentry asked whether the Board could just decide not to issue fines, so that an appeals agency would not need to be established. Ms. Schoen explained that the Council wanted to give the fining authority to the Board, which is,why there is now such a Code provision. Ms. Nicholson pointed out that the Board had gone through a couple of years of effort to get the authority to issue fines and that even though they might not ever issue one, it would keep the door open to have a process in place. Ms. Gentry asked whether a BOE appeal would follow a contested case hearing scenario, which requires a hearings officer, and Ms. Schoen said yes. Ms. Gentry noted it could get expensive for the County if someone should appeal a fine. Ms. Schoen said it would need to be figured out what agency would handle the appeals and whether there were existing rules that could apply to BOE appeals. Ms. Gentry asked whether they could pass something directing a person to appeal directly to the Circuit Court if he /she disagreed with the Board's decision. Ms. Schoen said that is what she originally thought the process would be and that the issue resulted in a lot of emails back and forth between the Honolulu Ethics Committee attorney and her, as well as a few other parties. Ms. Gentry said she did not understand why an appeals board was needed. She could understand someone appealing an original decision, but not appealing a fine. Ms. Nicholson agreed that it seemed the Board's original decision was what the subject of an appeal should be. Ms. Schoen cited a couple of examples, saying that for zoning violations, a case has to go through a hearing process before a fine can be imposed. In addition, people can appeal fines and property tax valuations to the Tax Board of Review. Ms. Gentry said that in her experience with the County, people appeal the decision but not the fine. Ms. Schoen agreed it was confusing and pointed out that a person aggrieved by a finding of ethical violation could appeal directly to the Circuit Court, whereas a person aggrieved by a fine would have to appeal to the appropriate County agency. Ms. Nicholson suggested the Board be preemptive and find out what agency would handle the appeals so that part at least would be determined, and they could move faster from there. Ms. Schoen said she could start researching that. The Chair asked that the Board's testimony be worked on in the meantime, and that their unanswered questions should be included. Ongoing discussion on the Sunshine Law. There was nothing new on the Sunshine Law.