HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0789.003 1998-2000
STATEMENT OF KEIKO BONK
CONFLICT OF INTEREST BILL 264 & 265
HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL, July 25, 2000
Aloha Councilmembers. I apologize for not being able to appear before you in
person to testify on these very important pieces of legislation. I would like to once again
go on record asking you to pass the conflict of interest legislation introduced by Ms.
Jacobson. Bill 264 and 265 provide the Council with an opportunity to disprove the
widely accepted perception that you primarily serve the interests of campaign donors. It
distresses me that we should even have to discuss this issue.
It doesn't matter if you think that a campaign contribution will not effect your
judgment. Perhaps you are self-aware enough to make an impartial decision about
someone's economic fate when that someone has donated to the very campaign that put
you in that position. But do you honestly think that every person who will ever hold your
office will be that wise and self-aware. After all, you are not being asked to pass
legislation that applies only to you, you are being asked to pass legislation that applies to
everyone who will ever hold your office. It is clear to anyone who has even the most
superficial knowledge of the history of Hawaii County government that a great many of
the decisions made by the Council have been at the very least biased in favor of campaign
contributors, if not out right criminal in intent.
At this time we have a Mayor who has partial ownership in a corporation that
receives the lion's share of county construction contracts. This would be illegal under bill
265. We have massive substandard subdivisions created by some of the very people why
profited from the re-zonings that created them. This would have been illegal under bill
264. I suspect that if you were personally responsible for the financial and social
outcomes of all the decisions you make as a body, you would be demanding that all your
fellow councilmembers were required to meet much stricter standards than those in of bill
264 and 265.
These bills do nothing more than codify the most basic elements of fair play and
honesty. To pretend otherwise is nothing less than unadulterated hypocrisy. Is it any
wonder that the majority of the community views politicians as crooks, when they get up
in public and make convoluted arguments for why what would clearly be a conflict of f~ G 3
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Ref. Date JUL 2 5 2000
interest in any other walk of life, is not a conflict of interest for politicians? Is it any
wonder that half of those who are eligible to vote never even register, and only half of
those who register bother to vote? We have compromised our democracy so completely
that only the most idealistic still believe it can work.
Some of you have suggested passing a watered down version of Ms. Jacobson's
legislation that would in effect legally legitimate all but the most egregiouss conflicts of
interest. I urge you to reject such a move and simply do the right thing, vote yes on bills
264 and 265, thereby going down in history as a group of courageous politicians who did
what they could to stop the decay of our democracy. Don't do what most of our political
leaders have done when faced with this choice. Don't play word games. Just stand up for
fair play and honesty and vote yes on bills 264 and 265.
Mahalo for your time,
Keiko Bonk