2012-07-11 Board of Ethics minutes

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Council meeting, and that’s another thing that Fresh made possible. And that’s all I’m here for, to let you folks know the good part he did. I don’t know about anybody else. All I know is what concerns us. And I thank you very much. Mr. Dill called up Robert Petricci to testify on Petition 2012-01. MR. PETRICCI: Good morning. My name is Robert Petricci, and I’m here to talk about the Fresh Onishi and Donald Ikeda complaint. I’m a small business owner out in Puna, and I’ve come in to testify on several issues. And I rarely see Mr. Onishi there. And I have to take off work to come in, and that means I lose money. And at the same time I got to pay Mr. Onishi, and he’s missing 30% of his votes. I got a problem with that. I think that if I hired somebody in my business and he didn’t come to work 30% of the time, I got to fire him. And I don’t know what you guys’ rules are, but we pay him to come. I know he no like listen to me. You know, he’s funny, of the kind issues he no like come. But if he got other business and all that, then he should run his other business. He shouldn’t be taking our paycheck. Maybe what you guys got to do is put some kind of—you work 60%, 70% of the time, you get 60 or 70% of the pay. The other thing is, he gets--I think it’s $600 traveling money, but he don’t travel. We had one meeting in Pāhoa. He no come. And I never see him in Kona. He take the money for the gas and all that, but he don’t go. So I just hope you guys clean up the rules. I got a problem with that. I got to pay—I’m paying that, and he don’t listen to me. And he don’t vote on the issues. So maybe he should go back to his other business. Thank you. Mr. Dill called up Kerri Marks to testify on Petition 2012-01. MS. MARKS: I’m Kerri Marks. I’m here to testify on the Fresh Onishi and Donald Ikeda ethics complaint. I agree with everything Mr. Petricci just said. I’ve been coming to council meetings to testify for several many months in a row, and quite often Mr. Onishi and Mr. Ikeda are not here at all. They don’t show up. He’s right—we had a special council meeting in Pāhoa, and all seven of the other council members came, but Fresh and Donald did not. What they also do a lot of times is they stay away all day and they come in just in time to vote. I find that particularly irritating, that they go and work their other business or whatever it is, they got meetings. I think I overheard one of them say that we’re meeting with constituents. Why are you planning meetings with constituents on a day that council is on the agenda? I know when the council meetings are. They’re on my calendar. And so I clear my day. Just like Bob, I’m self-employed. I have to take a day off to come down here and hang out. This is their paid position. They should be here all day every day. At the end of the last council meeting I attended, I overheard Mr. Ikeda say what, we’re done? It’s not even seven o’clock yet. We were there the day before. So I mentioned from the front row, well, we were all here yesterday. And he just glared at me. I find it extremely offensive that he comes in at the last minute to vote on issues and bills that he heard no public testimony on. And that’s what I have to say about that. Mahalo. Mr. Dill called up Tina Floyd to testify on Petition 2012-01. MS. FLOYD: Good morning. My name is Tina Floyd, and I’m from Pāhoa. I’m here to also—I agree with both of the testifiers before me. We take time out of our busy lives to