2000-04-01 Charter Commission Minutes

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minutes 04-01-00Page 13 of 22 PRANKE: Yes, I put in there a specific thing that lying should be a violation of the Code of Ethics. Previously I put something to you. It was kind of off the cuff and I said deliberate lying. Lying is deliberate. The definition of lying is to deliberately deceive someone, and the way I put this in here. And I’m sorry for the folks that are here that I don’t have more copies of this, but I’m sure you can get it off the web, or I don’t know. You can get it from her, the things I put in. That should be a violation of the Code of Ethics. Now, you can’t just charge somebody with lying and then they’re guilty. You’ve still got to go before the Board of Ethics and prove that it was a lie. Somebody could tell you something that’s not true, and it’s not a lie if they didn’t know that. But recently one member of the County Council has been caught twice on video tape just not being truthful, and it seems to be deceptively not truthful, so that, kind of, prompted this a little bit. HERKES: Amazing, huh? PRANKE: But to the other Council members, not just to the public. That’s what bothers me especially. HERKES: Can I speak to just that one point? PRANKE: Yes ma’am. HERKES: I don’t buy in to the whole wording of yours, but I immediately went to the Maui County Charter which uses the wording ‘declaration of policy’ under Code of Ethics. ‘Elected and appointed officers and employees shall demonstrate by their example the highest standards of ethical conduct to the end that the public may justifiably have trust and confidence in the integrity of government.’ I thought that was an especially good statement, and we have very few of those kinds of statements in our Charter. We don’t have anything in our Charter now so, Mr. Chairman, I would like to suggest that we look at inserting that. RAY: Well, get it to us in writing. HERKES: Okay, I will. PRANKE: If you look back at some of the previous Charter Commissions, and some of the testimony they give, one of the things that I remember, and I don’t remember exactly which one they were talking about setting up this Board of Ethics after the State Ethics Commission was set up, and somebody in there said well, so this would really be just a Commission without any teeth, and that’s what it was designed as originally. I’m not saying that we have to make it onerous for people to serve. Most people that are serving in the County government are doing a really good job, but we need to be able to weed out the situations in a non-political way where politics enters into something, and causes people to be mistreated or maltreated, I guess. And the Cost-of-Government Commission I like, and that seems to be a little open. You haven’t really tied that down so much. I would put that under the Legislative Auditors Office and I would have the Comptroller and the Legislative Auditor be ex-officio members of that Commission, just the way you have the Water Department and the Planning Department being ex-officio. I think it’s the Water Department and Planning Department. I talked about that the last time. You brought me around to your point of view. HERKES: The Water Boards and the Planning Board? PRANKE: Yes, the Director of Water and the Director of Planning. Under number 6, I hope that there’s some understanding. I haven’t followed this too much, but I’m, kind of, wondering what the standing of private subdivisions would be under that change. HERKES: It isn’t a change. It’s just an insertion of what they do. RAY: No, no. He’s talking about - PRANKE: On number 6. RAY: Right. file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 04-01-00.htm7/1/2011