2007-03-09 Investigation Into Alleged Sunshine Law Violations

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ENTRY DATED FEBRUARY 27, 2007 FOUND ON HUNTERBISHOP.COM Here is the basic discussion on KHBC radio with the three councilpersons on air: First, Ms. Naeole called Wendell (Kahuewa sp?) from the Oceanic public station to tape the press conference held on Friday afternoon. It will be shown 10 times on ch.#53, starting Wed. 2/28, at 5pm, 3/1 at 11:30am, 3/2 at 10:30pm, etc. In order to get to the gist of the discussion, the frivilous attacks I will leave out, as the rhetoric is the same as usual. In essence, Higa stated he was taught to respect others in order to gain respect. Naeole was upset that Yagong kissed her at a funeral after not voting with her on bill 220 & 221. Mynah bird read the portion of the article where Yagong called Ikeda a child. Yoshimoto stated Yagong should not make those kind of comments. They all said Hoffman was "out of order", didn't "follow protocol" and did not "back us up" but, "trashed us after we left" (Riga). They discussed the roundabouts in Puna, Ms. Naeole complained about "sitting around for four hours doing nothing" in Kona waiting for the meeting. Higa stated he's in "their pocket" (Yoshimoto &Naeole) not the reverse. Callers complained about the council and one gentleman called in stating he personally spoke to several of the council persons, and found out that Higa had threatened Hoffman that if he didn't "go over to Higa's side" he would "have lots of trouble on this Council". He also stated he knows first hand from other council persons that Higa is trying to get back the Chair position, and those who think Higa is for the people "better think again", Higa should "change his stripes" as he is only out for himself. Higa stated he did meet with Hoffman, but denied threatening him. They all complained that the Mayor knew about the trash issue and the additional cost of$180K 90 days ago, and did not bring it up until the last minute. It's all the Mayor's fault, not theirs for leaving early.Higa stated he could not miss coaching the kids as he would have to call off the whole game and contact too many people to do so. Here are my personal concerns: 1) Sunshine Law Section 92-2 & 92-2.5 "Chance Meeting" may have been violated as they discussed current County business, 2) The State Board of Ethics and the County Board of Ethics oversee conduct and this kind of trashing, to me is unethical. Subsequently, I have called the OIP (#974-4000 ex.61400), and filed a complaint, and have called the County Board of Ethics to file a complaint. Billie Jean Leithead Todd (#961-8251 Corp. Council Ofc) is Chairman of the County of Hawaii Board of Ethics. I believe if enough of us call and/or write in, maybe there will be some action taken against any further public display of this kind of nonsense. Apologies for the long dissertation once again. Thank you for the opportunity to share this information.