2012-07-11 Board of Ethics minutes

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come down here and to engage with what is supposed to be a democratic process. We elected these folks to sit in these chairs and to listen to us so that they can vote as representatives of us. And it’s somewhat patronizing to be here all day and to be listening intently and to be listening to the council members that are here, and then to have someone who’s not been here listening all day to slide in at the last minute to vote. Also, to leave early, to be up and down, to have these meetings have other things planned. We elect these folks, but we pay them. And that’s not true in all municipal governments. Many elected bodies actually serve as volunteers. We’re paying our folks, and we really expect them, for those four days of the month that they are supposed to be here, to be here. So what I’m here to ask all of you to do is to consider making some rules that have some teeth. We need to have some sort of loop to where, like Bob said, if you’re gone a certain percentage of the time, you get docked in some way, whether it’s pay or whatever it is. Maybe the council themselves could weigh in and come up with those rules. So I would like you all to please consider that. This is a problem. It’s chronic. We all would not be here today if it weren’t a big issue. So we’ll be back. Thank you. Mr. Dill called up Ronald Fujiyoshi, who had signed up to testify on agenda item 5b. MR. FUJIYOSHI: If I can, I want to testify on a also. MR. DILL: Okay, go ahead. MR. FUJIYOSHI: Good morning. I don’t know if we call you commissioners, but board members of the ethics commission. My name is Ronald Fujiyoshi. I am a lay pastor in the United Church of Christ. I served as a missionary in Asia for 20 years and came back in ’88. I have been attending quite a number of council meetings and testifying on a number of issues, especially more recently. And my experience in other organizations, like within my church, even though people have been at odds before they came into a meeting of a process of talking it out—it’s been sometimes very miraculous, how people change their mind after discussing with each other and hearing different sides to the issues. And so I feel the participation in the process is very key, and the more eye-to-eye and directly you’re engaging, the more possibility you can really understand the views of everybody in the room and come to a fair and better understanding. So it’s not just the voting that’s important, but hearing the testimony and seeing the body language and looking people in the eye. I think it’s very important. And so—especially in the case of Councilmember Onishi, that even after the article came out in the newspaper, in the next council meeting he wasn’t even present for most of the discussion. Now my understanding is that there may not be clear guidelines in terms of ethics dealing with council members. It has to do up to now mainly with people who are employees of the county. And so I ask that the Board of Ethics draft ethics that pertain to council members so that they can better serve their people, and this be something that goes to the council and then they can refine it. Thank you very much. Mr. Dill called up Terri Napeahi, who had signed up to testify on Petition 2012-01.