2014-07-16 Board of Ethics Minutes

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5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Petition No. 2014-03: Informal hearing of petition by Duane Kanuha, Planning Director, requesting an informal opinion from the Board as to whether legal representation of a person before the Planning Commission by a former County employee, in a proceeding before the Windward Planning Commission, would violate Section 2-91.2 of the Hawai‘i County Code. Mr. Balsis: At this time I’m going to call Duane Kanuha and Jamae Kawauchi. Mr. Kanuha you had asked for an informal hearing because Ms. Kawauchi was representing someone coming before the Planning Commission. You have anything further you’d like to say besides that? Mr. Kanuha: Good morning Members of the Board. My name is Duane Kanuha, Planning Director. The letter was pretty explanatory. I was acting pursuant to a request from the Planning Commission to seek this determination and that was basically it. Mr. Balsis: Okay. Ms. Kawauchi do you have any…first of all I’d like to mention you presented us a copy of a March 6 letter, I just wanted to inform you that for some reason we never received it. We had asked counsel and counsel actually did an IT search I believe. Ms. Schoen: Yes Mr. Chair. When we did receive the correspondence from the Planning Director dated March 10 asserting that there was some sort of petition or correspondence from Ms. Kawauchi, I did a search on my computer as well as my secretary and also asked our IT department to do a search on the server for any type of Petition or letter, and none was found. Mr. Balsis: Okay. So I do want to thank you for submitting the letter today and I just wanted to point out that we did really try to look for it. Ms. Kawauchi: Thank you. I do appreciate that. Mr. Balsis: In review of the letter which has been circulated, I’m going to ask for a moment because it’s so lightly printed I’m having difficulty reading it, if you could tell us what it’s about. Ms. Kawauchi: Thank you. Good morning Chairman Balsis and members of the Ethics Commission. My name is Jamae Kawauchi. I’m an attorney in Hilo. The appearance that I made on her behalf was in January of this year. At that time it was raised that the County Planning Director had an issue with my representation of my client and then I guess took further action and so we’re here before you th today. My March 6 letter was submitted by request of the Planning Commission and it’s a request for informal opinion. The letter, I’m sorry, is very lightly printed. But it says that Mr. Brilhante who is the Deputy Corporation Counsel who represents the Planning Commission alleged that because I was employed by the County of Hawai‘i as a County Clerk from 2010 to 2012 and also as a Deputy 3