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5. NEW BUSINESS
<br />a. Petition No. 2009 -9: Petitioners allege that a County officer or employee
<br />violated Section 2- 83(a)(3) of the Code of Ethics (regarding fair treatment)
<br />by throwing a pen at the June 2, 2008, County Council meeting.
<br />CHAIR: Again, how we'll do this today is allow the petitioners to give their statements
<br />for about ten minutes or so, allow the respondents to provide a response, the Board will
<br />ask questions if necessary, and then if we have enough information we'll deliberate and
<br />decide on that. So, Ms. Folena.
<br />FOLENA: Mr. Chairman and members of the Board of Ethics, I have with me and I
<br />asked permission of Mrs. Schoen through Mary Crosson to deliver to you photographs
<br />that I took of the CD, CD number one, of the June 2nd, 2008, meeting, with captions.
<br />And I took these photographs with my digital camera, using my portable DVD player
<br />not CD, sorry DVDs at at my home, and I had them developed at Long's Drug Store.
<br />I also have with me my portable DVD player and the DVD that shows Mrs. Naeole 's, in
<br />my mind, in my opinion, violation of the Code of Ethics wherein Mrs. Naeole threw the
<br />pen across the Hilo County Council room. And I would like to quote from these
<br />photographs, which I will surrender to the Board of Ethics for your viewing and for
<br />filing. `I remember, you know back when, I don't know when, it was 2007 when I, I, I
<br />remember having a meeting about the civic center. I really got pissed and what I did, I
<br />was pissed off, I threw my pen like that, and I was upset and you, " etcetera. And at that
<br />point, Mrs. Naeole has the pen in her hand and throws the pen with enough force so that
<br />the pen actually hit the main entrance door of the room, bounced to the floor. It
<br />narrowly missed the reporters' seating area, where Mr. Jason Armstrong, sitting behind
<br />us here, was at that point monitoring the events of the meeting as a reporter for the
<br />Tribune - Herald. The pen was then retrieved by a male County employee. The employee,
<br />male employee, walked around the back of the seated representatives, gave the pen back
<br />to Mrs. Naeole. Mrs. Naeole said "oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I went threw my I'm sorry,
<br />I went throw my pen, but I was just trying to illustrate what I did the last time. " And so
<br />Mrs. Naeole at that point admits that she threw the pen the first time at a meeting in 2007
<br />when she first heard about the civic center. And to quote Mrs. Naeole, Mrs. Naeole said
<br />she was " p issed, " end quote, about the west side civic center being a proposed reality at
<br />that time. So Mrs. Naeole definitely conducted a willful action. This was not an
<br />automatic reaction like a shrug of shoulders or a nod of a head. It was to illustrate what
<br />she, quote, "did the last time. " And so in Mrs. Naeole 's mind it was okay to throw the
<br />pen the first time, because she illustrated it the second time. Although Mrs. Naeole
<br />apologized for throwing the pen, immediately after apologizing and I quote again, "oh,
<br />I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I went throw my pen, but I was just trying to illustrate what I did the
<br />last time. " So I think that's enough said to show you that this was a willful act. And
<br />throwing a pen across the room is something you'd expect in nursery school or maybe
<br />first or second grade, but after that time, the child's taught this is not acceptable
<br />behavior, and certainly not in the part on the part of a person in a leadership capacity
<br />sitting in a county representative's chair in the County Council of the County of Hawai `i.
<br />So I will now surrender these photographs to the secretary. I have something else to say
<br />about it. When you see the photographs, you're going to see a little, a little addition that
<br />Oj
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