2009-09-23 Board of Ethics Minutes

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impartial manner I think the key word here is impartial. The impartiality demanded of every County Council member in the direction of religion means that no council member can use his or her religion as a bludgeon, politically speaking, as apolitical tool, or as a political lever in order to influence the legislative, secular vote of the County Council and also cannot be used as this religious thing cannot be used by a council member in order to intimidate or try to affect the thoughts and the testimonies of the public, which in turn affect the vote of the Council. When Mrs. that's in the 16 June 2009 meeting. I'm going to refer to the fourteenth violation of Petition 2009 -6, and that occurred on the S August 2009 County Council meeting. This is held in Hilo. At that meeting, I was giving my public testimony in very definite opposition to Mrs. Naeole being vice chair, and I will sit here and say to all of you that to this day I feel that Mrs. Naeole isn't qualified to be the vice chair of the County Council. And I feel by her aforementioned violations that she's continuing to prove my point, but that's a matter for the Council. Now during my very definite testimony in opposition to Mrs. Naeole being the vice chair, a position that Mrs. Naeole wants very dearly, Mrs. Naeole extended her let's see, I think it washer I don't know which hand it was at this point. I think it might have been her left hand, or right hand, don't know. And she started, barely audibly I could hear some words coming from her praying over my I'm using a gesture, but this isn't teleconferenced nor is it recorded visually, but she extended her hand in my direction. I'm sitting at the table. She's sitting about where Diane Gentry is sitting in angle to me. And it was disruptive to my thought process, and I was infuriated that that occurrence was being conducted during this secular meeting. I mean, the meeting is not a church meeting. It's a secular meeting. The doctrine of church and state in our country has been upheld 100% of the time by the Supreme Court, and so as such I think that doctrine is carried over I'm very sure it's carried over into the Code of Ethics. All persons shall be treated in a courteous, fair, and impartial impartial, underline, bold print, impartial, manner. Please, ifMrs. Naeole wants to pray during the County Council meetings, that's her right, as long as she does it silently. She can read her Bible during County Council meetings. But we strongly oppose Mrs. Naeole using God told her that it was okay and she should step up and be the County vice chair. Frankly, I don't believe that. But Mrs. Naeole believes that, and it's her right to believe it, and it's my right not to believe it. You can't bring your own personal religious belief in as reasons why you're sitting in that chair as a representative, and as reasons why you think you should be elevated. Neither can you bring in your ethnicity as a reason. Now I have a dual feeling about Mrs. Naeole using ethnicity, skin color, Hawaiians have to come up because Hawaiians have been put down. I will be the first to admit Hawaiians have been suppressed, and Hawaiians do need to step up. I'm very supportive of this, but you can't you meaning Mrs. Naeole or any council member can't use any one ethnic group or ethnic reason as a an opinion or as being qualified to hold any office in our United States government or our state government, i.e., our County government. We're prohibited bylaw from using racial bias, racial reasons, religious reasons, for hiring and voting, electing anybody in our government. I think I've covered it. Thankyou. And there's also 2009 -7, so I didn't cover that one yet, sorry, sir. CHAIR: FOLENA: I'm only speaking on 6 16