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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-02-11 Board of Ethics Minutes REG pcHAWAII COUNTY BOARD OF ETHICS MINUTES - REGULAR SESSION February 11, 2004 - 10:23 a.m. County Building, Elections Conference Room 25 Aupuni Street, Room 1058, Hilo, Hawaii Present: Leroy Victorine, Chairman Sharon Cislo, Vice Chairman Reeve Williams Bobby Jean Leithead -Todd, Deputy Corporation Counsel Paulette Cainglit, Secretary Absent: Kerry Inouye Joel Gimpel CHAIR: The meeting is called to order at 10:23 a.m. Any members of the public for statements? Seeing none, we shall pass on through that. We have the minutes from the meeting of January 14th circulated. SC: I make a motion to approve and file the minutes of the January 14, 2004 regular session. RW: I second. CHAIR: It's moved and seconded to approve and file the January 14 minutes. All in favor. SC: Aye. KI: Aye. CHAIR: Any oppose? CHAIR: The Chair votes aye. Passed. SC: I make a motion to... BLT: There are no... PC: There are no executive minutes. Sorry about that. We didn't have Executive Session at our last meeting. Sorry, my boo -boo. I CHAIR: Okay, for the record, there was not an Executive Session held on January 14, 2004, thus there are no minutes for the executive end. Communications, 2004 -4. SC: I make a motion to file communication 2004 -4. RW: I second. CHAIR: All in favor. SC: Aye. RW: Aye. CHAIR: Aye. Passed. 2004 -5. SC: I have a question on number 5. CHAIR: We need a motion first. SC: I make a motion to file Communication 2004 -5. CHAIR: Let's take all... from 5 to 7, they're all inter - related. SC: Oh, they're all inter - related. Okay, so we now file them as a group? CHAIR: Yes. SC: Okay, I'll make that motion to file Communications number 2004 -5, - -6 and -7. RW: I second that. CHAIR: Okay, any discussion? First of all, let me point out the dates of these communications. 2004 -5 is dated January 14; 6 is January 16th and the 7 is January 26, they are all from Thomas Russi and Christine Paul. SC: Okay, my question is, on Communications number 2004 -5, and it talks about the audio duplications and the copy of the executive session minutes. Is this Informal Advisory Opinion, does that relate to the communications? The Petition of 2003 -9 be the Informal Advisory Opinion from, I guess from you Bobby. BLT: No, no. SC: So that doesn't apply to... Pa BLT: This does not apply, `cause they are not related to each other. SC: Oh, I'm sorry, that's not the ..., I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I see that, what meant was... the communication that was sent to Mr. Russi and Ms. Paul... BLT: Ah huh. SC: That relates to communications 2004 -5. Is that correct? BLT: Hang on. SC: `Cause that's been taken care of. CHAIR: Well, that's the reason why I want to lump the three of them together, because 2004 -7 indicates that they would like to withdraw and close the above - referenced. SC: So they're referencing this letter then? This communication from... CHAIR: No. That's not the that's February 4. BLT: Yeah. SC: While we're on this do we have any requests then, from Mr. Russi and Ms. Paul, for discussion? CHAIR: The first letter Communication No. 2004 -5, is a copy of a communication to the OIP, Office of Information Practices. It's just a copy to let us know. The second one is a letter to Chairman James Arakaki of the Hawaii County Council and actually it is different because that one refers to Mr. Hatada's situation. SC: Okay, right. CHAIR: 2004 -7 relates directly back to 5, and they want to withdraw. SC: So, by this then, it has been dealt with. CHAIR: Yeah. SC: Six has not. BLT: Six is not really... it's not yours. It's just a copy of something that was sent to someone else. It's not requesting any action. 3 SC: Okay. So then we can file these. CHAIR: We can accept and file. SC: Okay. RW: Motion's on the floor to accept and file. CHAIR: Okay, all in favor of accepting and filing these three communications 2004 -5, 6 and 7. RW: Aye. SC: Aye. CHAIR: The Chair votes Aye. Any opposed? The communications are filed. Next item on the agenda is the Informal Advisory Opinion regarding Petition 2003 -9 /Andrew Levin, which was voted upon last meeting in January. RW: What was the vote on it. CHAIR: We voted that there was no violation. And basically, and if you are not familiar with the situation, Bob... Andy asked whether or if it would be a violation for him to circulate the flyer, informational flyer, I believe from Verizon, which offers government employees a particular package on a cell phone. RW: Which CHAIR: and we felt that the information on that flyer was available and could be circulated by pressure otherwise, Verizon didn't offer anything except, supposedly I think, you know, I think we also found that there were offers Verizon had that would be better than nature, that we would... RW: The offer for that, than any vendor that they want to... CHAIR: All he asked Andy to do was to pass their flyer on. RW: Yeah. CHAIR: That was nothing more than that. RW: I was wondering if we have other vendors and they want to offer deals to come and sell packaged deals, does that become a open book? 4 BLT: I think that, `cause I've been following up with Mr. Levin on this, was that, I don't think there's a problem with they want to post this on the community bulletin board, I think there would be a problem if he wanted to use County machinery to reproduce the copies of it, because that would be using government property for a non - government purpose. And so I don't have a problem if he disseminates it through some mechanism, `cause we... I think within the County building you have people who put up posters for concerts that are for profit making purposes, so if you'd want to disseminate these information... RW: That way. BLT: That way. That's not a problem. But there is a problem if he uses County equipment to reproduce them. RW: Well, moreover I wouldn't want a... BLT: That's like giving free advertising. RW: Yeah. I would not want to give the distributor another one... more things to do on time, to say on your . Yeah, I think public bulletin boards is perfect, but not more than that. CHAIR: We need a motion to accept the Informal Advisory Opinion. RW: I would like to make such a motion with the addition of a letter that Bobby could draft for us to state that that's our position, that we want to make sure that it's appropriate and not disseminated or reproduced which takes up sufficient time. CHAIR: Do you have a copy of the petition? RW: Not with me. CHAIR: Let me read you the Findings of Fact. The Findings of Fact. "When Mr. Levin, who is employed in the Office of the Mayor, signed up for a cell phone under the County's contract with AT &T, the salesperson informed him that there was a plan exclusively available to Hawaii State, County and government employees. The salesperson asked Mr. Levin to share this information with others that might be interested. Mr. Levin has no financial interest in AT &T, nor would he benefit in any way, if any government employee were to sign up for the plan. Mr. Levin is requesting an opinion to determine if it is permissible to share this information with other employees. To the extent that these findings of fact constitute conclusions of law, the Board so concludes." RW: Did we get a copy of the sales, the actual sales page or trans. BLT: Yes. It was attached to... RW: It was attached. Was it multiple pages, such that it wouldn't lend itself to be posted. BLT: I don't think it would be a problem if you wanted to insert in there, "provided that there is no use of County equipment to... or cost of County... no reproduction of the flyer at County's expense." RW: I would, to assume the County employee used this time... CHAIR: I think that it would be the right thing for that, rather than a separate letter. BLT: Yeah. Put it inhere. CHAIR: And it would be ... we should... in the Decision, we should have a second paragraph... that any such distribution of information not utilize government equipment or supplies... RW: Or time. So... and I withdraw my recommendation. CHAIR: Can we have this re- drafted? BLT: Yes. I can re -draft it to put something in there "that providing that County equipment... not be used to reproduce and providing that it is not something that takes a substantial amount of time." `Cause I think, if you want to post it, the amount of time that it would be to post this or something like that is not a problem. CHAIR: No. BLT: But the amount of time to reproduce it and that kind of a thing. CHAIR: Sure. On that note, I think perhaps given the County's pouching system from the various agencies, County agencies should not be used for that either. BLT: Uh huh. Okay. CHAIR: Okay. Then I think we should, we need to hold this on abeyance until we get the new order in. ra RW: Yeah. I motion to defer it for next meeting. SC: Second. CHAIR: It's been moved and seconded to defer until the March meeting, the Informal Advisory Opinion on Petition 2003 -09. All in favor. SC: Aye. RW: Aye. CHAIR: The Chair votes aye. It's deferred. BLT: We have to vote and state the reason why we're going into Executive Session. CHAIR: We need a motion to go into Executive Session, for the purposes of reviewing the Financial Disclosure Statements. SC: Second. CHAIR: It's moved and seconded. All in favor. SC: Aye. RW: Aye. CHAIR: The Chair votes aye. Okay. Moved into Executive Session: 10:37 a.m. Returned to Regular Session: 10:50 a.m. CHAIR: Okay, we have returned to Regular Session, it is 10:50. This morning there are several of the Financial Disclosure Statements that are not actionable this morning. They are number 1- Sharon Cislo, number 5 -Glenn Hara, 6- George Harai, 7 -Peter Hoffman, 9- Robert Kawakone, 10 -Merle Martin, 14 -Leroy Victorine, 15- Michael Williams. I need a motion to defer this. RW: I so move. SC: Second. CHAIR: It's moved and seconded that we defer numbers, 1, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14 and 15. All in favor say aye. SC: Aye. rA RW: Aye. CHAIR: Chair votes aye. They are, those numbers are deferred. I need a motion to accept and file Disclosures number 2, 3, 4, 8, 11, 12, 13, and 16. SC: So moved. RW: Second. CHAIR: It's moved and seconded that we accept and file... all in favor say aye. SC: Aye. RW: Aye. CHAIR: Chair votes aye. Any opposed? Disclosure Statements number 2, 3, 4, 8, 11, 12, 13, and 16 are accepted and filed. Are there any other business that we need to discuss this morning? If not, next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, March 10th at 10:00 o'clock a.m. at the Department of Liquor Control Conference Room, at the Hilo Lagoon Building. If there are no further motions, we'll adjourn this meeting effective at 10:53. RW: I move to adjourn. SC: Second. CHAIR: All in favor, aye. SC: Aye. RW: Aye. CHAIR: Aye. Meeting adjourned. (Meeting adjourned at 10:53 a.m.) Respectfully submitted, Paulette Cainglit Secretary Secretary's Note: Any blank line indicates inaudible word(s) on audio tape recording. 8