2012-12-12 Board of Ethics minutes

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session. Actually, I want to commend this Board for the way that you have formatted the executive session. When I look here at this chart of the 1 through 10 ending with Charmaine Shigemura, members of the boards where you’re investigating—you’re looking into the review of the confidential financial disclosure form. This is appropriate. You have met, in my opinion, the minimum threshold of what every executive session should have under the rules, under Chapter 92. And basically, if I were interested in any of these people’s disclosure forms, I have the knowledge that you will be reviewing those. So to me, I’ve been battling this at County Council forever, saying you need to do a little bit more than just the generic statement in the higher paragraph that says you’ll be reviewing with the board’s attorney on questions and issues pertaining to the board’s powers, duties, privileges, immunities, and liabilities. That covers every possible item that you could ever have on any one of your agendas, so it’s far too broad to be used as just a blanket overall listing of what you actually will be reviewing. Here you have properly reviewed the items under b, and with that chart that you put in there, the people, I would hope that all other boards and commissions would take that very simple step. It takes a little bit more paper ______. It properly informs the public what will be discussed in that session, and that’s the way to do it. So my hat’s off to you all for whoever instituted that. Thank you. Mr. Balsis called up “Sativa,” who had signed up to testify on agenda item 4a (Petition No. 2012-07). SATIVA: Aloha, good morning. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. I’ll be discussing this. The reason I came is I think it’s important to make a statement about politicians who are caught lying. It’s important. It’s kind of a dead issue with Fred, but it’s for future politicians who want to lie while they’re in office, and certainly want to lie from the seat of the Council. So just to alert you of what happened, the newspaper reported that Kahakai Elementary School was opening two hours late for the elections for people to vote, and Mr. Blas got confused with Keonepoko, because it’s on Kahakai Boulevard. And so he came into the Council that day. Usually he doesn’t speak, but on this agenda he pushed his button first. He was raring to go. And he basically tried to explain to the county clerk—I’m hoping you all saw the video—that the reason people couldn’t vote at Keonepoko, because it was opened late, and he was standing right there and they came up to him and said Fred, we can’t vote, we’ve got to go to work. And then when it came out afterwards that the paper had reported Kahakai Elementary School, which is in Kona, not Keonepoko, which is in Puna and which is in Fred’s neighborhood. So he was really trying to let everybody know, I won the primary but only by a hundred votes, because my people couldn’t vote. That’s what he was really trying to say. And in order to prove that, he made up this little lie that he was standing out in front and people were telling him they couldn’t vote. And then even after the newspaper reporter, Nancy Cook-Lauer, went up to him and said Fred, were you in Kona? Because that was the school that was opened late. Fred said oh no, that report is in error. So even a lie to cover up another lie was then told. And it’s so important, I think, because this is an ethics decision. This is a question of lying to the people to make a point. And so I’m really hoping that this Board will find that Fred did lie and it was unethical, because it’ll send a message out to every other politician, okay, you’re going to lie, but don’t do it