2014-06-25 Board of Ethics Minutes

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Ms. Ranfranz: I understand, and this has boiled down to a he said, she said. I understand that. Mr. Henricks: No, my dilemma is that when I read both sides, I couldn’t understand how he could accuse you specifically of doing something when he didn’t know you. Ms. Ranfranz: Exactly. Mr. Henricks: I have no further questions, thank you. Mr. Balsis: Anymore questions? Go ahead. Mr. Adams: Ma’am, when you said this was the first time that you’d done this but the organization’s done it for 17 years, is this a once a year deal where they get together and do this or how often during the year do these meets happen where you had these ribbon activities. Ms. Ranfranz: When Kona Acquatics or the Dolphins, Kona Dolphins hosts a meet for all the swim teams on the island then, that’s when we as the host team are responsible for doing all the ribbons for the kids, whether it be Kona Acquatics or Kona Dolphins but that’s our pool that we practice at. Usually we host a meet once a year, once a season, there’s long course season and there’s short course season and both run for 6 months. So during the long course we’re there once and during the short course we’re there once. But the meet that he referred that I stole money from was the state championships where all of the whole state was there. Mr. Adams: That’s the December 2013 time period. Ms. Ranfranz: Yes, that was the state meet where everybody from all the other islands came to Kona Aquatics for the state meet. Mr. Adams: Thank you. Mr. Balsis: Any further questions? Mr. Hisashima: Can we have clarification from the Board? This is another case that I’ve sat in again, we talked about investigations, the Director of that Department should be the first person to do this. See if there’s a violation, if there’s a violation it becomes a grieveable item. That person can also check for the ethics. If he did violate the ethics, then he refers that violation to us. But to me, here we go again and this is the second time I’ve been pushing this, to me the Department Head is responsible first, finds the truth, talks to the complainants, see everybody’s side, makes a decision, renders a decision, let’s say, you’re guilty, now that’s a grieveable item with the employee. Now, he says there is a possible ethics violation, that comes to us for a formal or informal opinion. And that’s how I look at this. The Department Head is not doing anything on this. They’re all coming to us, the Ethics Board. To me, the Department Head should be number one on this because Mr. Lee is his employee. Coming from a manager’s standpoint, I want to know what my employees are doing to upset the community. Mr. Balsis: May I ask, have you gone to… 17