2015-07-08 Regular Session Minutes

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secretary four copies. This is Ordinance 0857 Bill 209 draft 4, it's been languishing since for what eight years, seven years, and eight years. Seven years, it was signed by Mayor Kim on May 8, 2008. It is an Ordinance however it takes effect when this Board of Ethics, County of Hawai`i adopts this Ordinance into your Rules of Practice and Procedure. There will be a necessary amendment to the County Code through the Council legislature, because you will have to.. this County will have to form a Board of Appeals. This Ordinance gives you, this Board the right, you don't have to, but you may find every officer found in violation of the County Code of Ethics up to one-thousand dollars of each violation. That's only officers, that's not lower employees. You don't have to find them, but it gives you right to fine them and I do also suggest that there be a legislation which would create and this could be controversial, but you would be able to create a fine for on petitioners. Whether they be private sector or whether they be County employees or officers that bring absolutely frivolous petitions before this Board with absolutely no substantive content and/or evidence. It doesn't mean that if you rule against the petitioner, you could fine them. It doesn't mean that. There are two attorneys I'm looking at right here and you two people can figure out the legalese to clean up and make my statement more pertinent. Confidentiality that's one point one two of your Rules of Practice and Procedure due to the fact that this is a clumsy thing that the contents and the hard copy of the petitions are kept from our view until after we testify, because you haven't reviewed it yet. This is cumbersome and this creates a barrier to testifiers such as myself to be able to testify in a very clean and clarifying way. We can't see the petition yet. We're testifying about these petitions. All we can testify about are what is printed in the agenda and I feel that the matter, the amount of information in the agenda does not match the requirements of the Sunshine Law. Because it doesn't give us enough information. So it's something you could look into. The only exemption to that would be if the petitioner agrees and request a closed hearing, I'm referring to open hearings. That's it. Ms. Kahakalau: Thank you very much. 5) Gregory T. Smith (Hilo) signed up to testify on agenda items 4b, 4d, and 6d. Mr. Smith: Good morning. Aloha Council. Ms. Kahakalau: Could you please. Mr. Smith: My name is Gregory T. Smith, resident of Puna. Talking about the discussion or the petition about the good doctor here. Totally, 6