2012-11-19 Board of Ethics minutes

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a. Petition No. 2012-03: Further informal hearing of petition alleging violations of Section 2-83 of the Ethics Code when County employees are allowed to attend union meetings, on County time, in which political campaigning takes place. MR. DILL: This is the third continuation, I believe, on this matter. Counsel, you had provided us with the collective bargaining agreements. It was made clear in SHOPO and I believe the Fire Fighter’s Union, in the nature of that— MS. SCHOEN: I provided the Board with collective bargaining agreements of UPW, also Fire Fighter’s Association, and police officer’s (SHOPO) bargaining units. I also provided the Board with two opinions from the State Ethics Commission as well as a Hawai‘i Supreme Court case entitled HGEA v. Casupang. I also provided the Board with a letter from our HR director, basically submitting all the CBAs. MR. DILL: Good. Board members, any comments? I’d like to point out for the record that this Board has no jurisdiction over the unions or union activities. That being said, County employees who are subject to the County Code of Ethics and are union employees and union members must abide by County Charter to the County Code of Ethics. In this case, we’re looking at Article 15, Section 2-83, fair treatment, specifically item 2- 83(b)(3), using County equipment or other facilities for private business or campaign purposes. Comments? MR. BALSIS: I have a comment. I agree that this Board has no jurisdiction over the union, and in all the evidence and all the documents that were given to us, there was no pre-notice to any of the employees or those that were going to be in attendance that these were going to be meetings political in nature rather than informational in nature. And so it’s hard to—I don’t think we can say that employees violated the Code of Ethics. To say whether or not this was right or wrong with regards to the Code of Ethics, it’s a very difficult area to make a judgment on. That’s all for right now. MR. HISASHIMA: Clarification please, attorney. Section 8, Education and Information Meetings from UPW. Apparently the meeting that was held, was it a union function or the County’s function? MS. SCHOEN: My understanding is it’s a union informational and educational meeting. MR. HISASHIMA: Okay. Can you clarify for me—I have a scale which indicates paid, non-paid, work, straight time, overtime. “Paid – not worked.” Can you clarify what “not worked” means? MS. SCHOEN: Glen, where are you looking at? UPW Unit 01? MR. HISASHIMA: No, I think this is the County’s one, because it has certain areas where it says like “paid,” “premium,” “overtime,” “straight time.” And there’s a place that’s called “paid – not worked.” So I need to know what does “not worked” mean. 6