2009-12-09 Board of Ethics Minutes

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pursuant to Section 2 -86 of the Hawaii County Code, wherein Petitioner alleged "willful violations of Hawai`i's Sunshine Law." Motion and vote: Ms. Gentry moved to accept and file the communication, Ms. Lum seconded the motion, and all members voted aye. 5. NEW BUSINESS There was no new business. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Further discussion on Mayor Kenoi's proposed amendments to the Ethics Code, and consideration of any other proposed amendments to the Ethics Code. The Board members spent some moments reviewing the public testimony that had been received, which was all in the form of emails. The Chair said to bear in mind that the Mayor is asking for the Board's input on the proposals, so they would essentially be drafting a response to the Mayor stating the Board's opinion. Ms. Nicholson said they had actually decided to draft two communications —one to the Mayor regarding his proposed changes, and the other to the Council with the Board's own proposed changes to the Ethics Code. Ms. Schoen pointed out that the Board does have the power to propose changes to the Code. The Board discussed whether they should include the public testimony emails in the response to the Mayor, and they decided to make that decision down the road. Ms. Nicholson said she was confused about the Mayor's proposals in Sections 2 -83 and 2 -85, as they seemed somewhat redundant. His Proposal 1 seemed to insert contracting language into Fair Treatment rather than into Contracts. She asked if there was an intersection between the two. Ms. Schoen said she was guessing, but the idea seemed that any type of contract for goods or services with an officer or employee would have the appearance of unfair treatment, so the proposed language was inserted into the Fair Treatment section because it deals with officers' and employees' discharge of duties in dealing with the public and others. The Board could recommend where that language should go, but there are indeed intersections.