Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-10-10 Board of Ethics minutes HAWAI‘I COUNTY BOARD OF ETHICS MINUTES – REGULAR SESSION Wednesday, October 10, 2012 10:02 a.m. to 11:53 a.m. County Council Chambers 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720 Members and Staff Present: John E. K. Dill, Chair Arne Henricks, Member Bernard Balsis, Member Glen Hisashima, Member Renee N. C. Schoen, Deputy Corporation Counsel Mary E. Fujio, Secretary 1. CALL TO ORDER Mr. Dill called the meeting to order at 10:02 a.m. and reminded attendees to turn off or silence their cell phones, and to refrain from sitting at the front table to speak until called to do so. He also asked that people refrain from talking over each other so that the secretary can accurately transcribe statements. Mr. Dill announced that he would be recusing himself from Petition No. 2012-04, item 6a on the agenda, and would clarify the reasons when that matter came up. He said his recusal necessitated the Board to select a vice chair, which is item 3 on the agenda. He proceeded to statements from the public. 2. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC Mr. Dill called up Margaret Wille, who had signed up to testify on Petition 2012-03. MS. WILLE: Good morning, members of the ethics commission. My name is Margaret Wille. I’m an attorney. I’m also a candidate for County Council in District 9. This agenda item concerns union meetings at County facilities on county time—employees paid to attend, at which they were urged to support certain candidates, including some County Council candidates. I am affected by this action, because I was not invited. I knew nothing about it and was not on the slate of able to communicate with the County employees as other candidates were. I think there are two questions before you. This keeps—(microphone is echoing). MR. DILL: Move it away from you a little. MS. SCHOEN: Yeah, move it a little bit away, Margaret. Thank you. MS. WILLE: Thank you. There are really two questions. One is, is there a violation? And second, if there is a violation, how can you best promptly and effectively mitigate the unfairness to those who were harmed by the violation? I think the violation here is obvious, and I’m not going to recite the exact County Code provisions. They’re in Cheryl King’s complaint. I don’t—the question as to how best to effectively mitigate the harm—I think your obligation would be to, what is the best and practical way to do that? And I think the only thing to do at this point would be to allow for employees, union employees or other employees, to meet with the County candidates that were harmed, that were not allowed to attend, and on whose behalf these employees were not urged to support and campaign for. I just want to say I don’t see this as a union issue. If it’s a union issue, then jurisdictionally you would have to be solely in a union issue. The County Code is not undermined by way of a—if it somehow affects the union or is involved with union negotiations, that would really undermine the whole government process. Just the general sense and general understanding is that, say at the senior meetings where they wanted to meet candidates, that no candidate could come alone—it could only be presentations or informational meetings where both candidates, everyone is treated fairly. And I think that’s the word and that’s the purpose. And I believe you really have an important choice before you. Either you uphold this law, or you really are enabling what I believe is unethical. It creates a culture of fear—fear the union people have if they’re allowed to do this, why aren’t they supporting some incumbent position. I mean in this case it’s really against the County, against the Mayor’s Office, the executive branch. Corporation Counsel, Lincoln Ashida, is not just an attorney for the _______. I think he also should be accountable here. He is also a member of the Mayor’s cabinet. And I don’t mean this as something anti any particular government official or anti the unions. I’ve been very supportive of the unions and their good works as a collective voice for the people. I testified on their behalf when the State, when Linda Lingle was manipulating union issues in terms of furloughs versus firing them. So I feel strongly about this. I’m clearly, I feel, been harmed by this and I hope that you take this seriously and realize how important your position is. Thank you. Mr. Dill called up Dan Cole, who had signed up to speak on agenda items 5a, 6a, 7a, 7b, and 7c. MR. COLE: Good morning, Board members. I’m sure you’re as pleased at me in front of you as I am to be here. I speak on all agenda items, as they’re all related. However, I will now call your attention to the fact that I have been coming before this Board to expose public corruption, deprivation of rights under the color of law, and conspiracy against rights. I now wish to present a letter dated September the 12th, signed by Neil Abercrombie, Governor, State of Hawai‘i, from the Executive Chambers, thanking me for bringing to the attention of the governor and the State racketeering influence, corrupt organization violations of this Board and of the government of the County of Hawai‘i. This Board, including Chairman Dill, has participated in criminal violations of the federal RICO act, to include extortion, violation of Criminal Title 18, United States Code; Tampering with a Victim, Witness, or Informant, Title 18, United States Code; Retaliation Against a Victim, Witness, or Informant. I wish to point out the irony of my very appearance here. I call attention to item 5a of Communications. It states, quote, 09/04/12 Memorandum Opinion by the Office of Information Practices regarding Sunshine Law Complaints about Agendas and Executive Meetings, end quote. Long I’ve been bringing before this Board, since November 2008, the fact that the Board, after I brought attention of public corruption, racketeering activity, no longer prints or publishes the names of individuals involved or the names or the circumstances of the violations until after such violations have been made public. However, all statements from the public are before any agenda items, so therefore the public has no information and can have no information by the rules of procedure of the Board of Ethics, which are effective by law of the Hawai‘i County Charter, to have informed speech. Denial of informed speech is implicit as a violation of the state and federal constitutions to freedom of speech. I had no idea, by reading the agenda that was sent to me, that the communication in reference here was in fact about me. So here we have a situation, a government body here is conducting business in secret, without the knowledge of the very people. So how many other people have been deprived _______--how many secret letters of extortion like Lincoln Ashida sent to John Dill here would influence this Board to take no action are there out there? (Timer went off). I understand, yes, thank you. I have signed up for all these meetings, or all these agenda items, as they’re all related. We go on to the New Business petition item, initial review of petition. A County officer has been very selective in disseminating public information and showed preferential treatment. Really? I mean, come on now. You people, this Board, has deprived citizens of their constitutional rights and ability to petition the government. Judge Henricks there covered up the fact and accessory after the fact to bank fraud, as this Board did, when he couldn’t hear a petition against Finance Director Nancy Crawford, because why? Oh, he was on her bowling team and didn’t want to jeopardize his position. David Heaukulani, he couldn’t hear a complaint against Jay Kimura, Lincoln Ashida, or others, that would have exposed public corruption and their conspiracy to deprivation of rights. Why? Oh, they were personal friends. Glen over here ________, same thing--personal friends. Bernard Balsis—oh, friends and associations. That’s how it’s done, people. When men of good faith and people of good faith do no action is when tyranny starts in our government. We have a situation here where Dominic Yagong is before you because of an anonymous complaint. Maybe if I’d filed anonymous complaints I would have been heard. But where’s Dominic Yagong now, when I brought to his attention and read into the records of the County Council meeting the tape recordings of the Hawai‘i County Police Department, with the knowledge of Police Chiefs Mahuna and Kubojiri, depriving and denying a person to file a police complaint that would have exposed public corruption? That is called deprivation of rights under the color of law, conspiracy against rights of the first amendment of the federal constitution to petition the government in redress of grievance. Why is Dominic Yagong not here now? Or why are none of you, sworn officials by the oath you took, by the fact that your actions have the effect of law, are authorities under the United States, and therefore you are subject to the criminal penalties and punishments of the federal RICO acts. I’d just like to sum up my entire structure before the County in ten years here, which will explain my actions. And unfortunately I have some grim predictions to make. All of my involvement with government here is derived from 2001, where the Hawai‘i County, under the contract of Mayor Kim, used 500 dump trucks of flood debris material from a federally funded job called P3535 to build illegal and unauthorized stream diversion works for the protection of private property and the enhancement of real estate values. That’s a violation of state and federal law, as the Waiakea Stream and other streams flows into navigational waterways of the United States. The Hawai‘i County Police Department refused to allow me to file a complaint—Officer Jason Grouns. Why? Because he didn’t think that people would like it. He went to the Hawai‘i County Prosecutor’s Office, Mitch Roth. Mitch Roth, in silent direction, instructed the Hawai‘i County Police Department to take no action. And therefore I was deprived of my constitutional rights. As we went on and I fought this, and I fought this, I tried to bring to the attention of the government, of our elected officials, and of the people, the severe danger and peril they are placed in when they alter the streams. Everybody stood by and did nothing. In 2008 we had an 80 million dollar flood. It was the direct result of the alterations of the Waiākea Stream above DeLima Street. Again I brought this to the attention of the Army Corps of Engineers. They had all these flood plans. What happened to the 80 million dollars that was used in all these studies? And now Derek Chow of the Army Corps of Engineers, Mayor Kenoi say—oh, they can no longer do the flood protection because it requires an act of congress. Yes, it does. The 1877 Harbors and Rivers Act of the secretary of war. Why would the Hawai‘i County Police Department not allow a complaint to be filed in 2001 and 2004 that would have prevented this? What we’re going to have here now is people are going to die. I’m flat out saying it. And Third Circuit Court, in the court of Judge Hara, is an order of the court, waiting for the signature of God to enact it, where the State and County will deprive people of life and property without due process. The flooding events that are going to occur, and are occurring, that have resulted from the alteration of the stream beds in Hilo, Hawai‘i, in 2000 and 2001, will result in the breach and overflow of stream banks and waterways, resulting in death and injury, which will bankrupt the County of Hawai‘i, as the personal injury involved and the suits ensuing will make the County liable for 100 percent. I bring this information before you. The governor of Hawai‘i is now involved and has knowledge of the RICO act. This Board is in violation of the federal RICO act and accessory after the fact. May you all sleep well, and may the conscience of the death and injury of people be on you for life. Mr. Dill called up Larry Gering, who had signed up to speak on agenda items 7a, 7b, and 7c. MR. GERING: Good morning, Ethics Board. My name is Larry Gering, of Hilo, and I want to thank you for all the hard work and diligent work that you do. It’s not an easy task that you have. And I also want to thank the testifiers who come forward, kind of the eyes and ears of the community. 7a, County Elections Office. The clerk, Ms. Kawauchi, is very competent. She knows how to get things done. She can get things done, and it would have been an easy task for her to run a very good election if the poor County union crybabies hadn’t laid down on the job. But then for Mr. Yagong to think that he is so knowledgeable that he can step in there and micro-manage that department is ridiculous. If there’s any way he can be censored, or if he’s proven guilty of that allegation, if he can be censored or fined or whatever, that should happen. 7b, Mr. Zendo Kern. I understand from what I read in the paper that this was dismissed. But just as a side note for anybody becoming a commission member or a board member or whatever, please recuse yourself from any impropriety or from any—from voting in any matter that might implicate you in some impropriety. And in this media day that we live in, a lot of people are watching, so if you’re going to be voting on something that might get you in hot water, don’t do it. 7c, on the union fiasco. Where do they get this authority, that they can schedule a meeting on workers’ time and then either demand that they attend it or allow—the County allows them to attend it? Who has oversight in this situation? The County legally terminated three employees back in January. Fast forward, the union, from what I understand from reading it in the paper, the union had the authority to reinstate that union worker. Where do they get this authority from? At the very least, on this particular meeting fiasco, the union should reimburse the County for the money, for the monetary loss that the workers generated, and/or the members should have their paychecks reduced, those who attended. And it says they were allowed to attend. I wonder if they were allowed or required. Thank you for your time. Mr. Dill called up R. J. Hampton, who had signed up to testify on all agenda items. MS. HAMPTON: I am very pleased to see the communication from OIP. I want to thank Sativa Sultan for having made the call. We became concerned. We have many issues with OIP in terms of how they respond to things. What am I talking about? The agenda. I don’t know about the executive session, but we have had a complaint into the OIP about agendizing and not being able to understand what’s on the agenda--one of them specifically as to the ethics of the Building Code. This made the paper. I am one of the people who put in a complaint. To agendize five items under one agenda, and not to describe it, especially something that is as important as penal codes and criminal things that might happen to people that do things wrong in the Building Code—it needed to be described. That’s why that meeting that day was so out of hand, to the point where the chair, Pilago, he called for the question, using parliamentary procedure. One reason why I believe that OIP has put this down now is because we’ve been agitating them. They are behind in a lot of things, and our case is 20 behind. But this issue of agendizing and transparency, and the ethics of how the County Clerk and the County Chair interact—I believe that we have to stop this. The County Clerk is the personal secretary of the Chair, that they can be in cahoots and do as they please, and upset all tradition and procedures? And to undermine people’s feelings about what they do in their jobs because they’re playing poisonous politics? That the west side put Dominic in that chair to do exactly what he did? If they want to control this island so bad that they don’t want to communicate with the very people who live here and just do as they please? And what is today? Today is a change day. Today is--I’m glad, chair, that you recused yourself on this issue. It shows that you have the wisdom to at least know what your responsibility is to this community. And if there is anything—like I told you last time, and I hear Lincoln saying, everybody saying, this is wake-up time. I’m not piling on. I’m going to stay. And if there is a question you’d like to ask me, ask me. I’m staying. On to the business of the Board of Ethics—oh, please, and while you’re at it, please allow us to develop the scope along with you, give us a way in which to communicate with you. I tried to call Corp Counsel to talk to you, Renee, but you don’t call me back. I’m not complaining. You’re busy, and you’re going to be busy, busy, busy in the next couple of weeks, because the complaints are going to come fast and furious until you fix this Charter, till you fix this Ethics Code, and you fix this County. I don’t need to say anything else about this. You know there’s something going on here. And I hope that you’ll dedicate your reputations and your ability to set this ship—this ship is stayed straight—to get to the bottom of it. Take your time. We’ll come. I’ll spend the gas money. I’ll be here to watch you deliberate over this, because we’re not going to have this in 2013, Corporation Counsel saying to people, it’s legal. But is it ethical? It’s legal, but is it moral? We need this in this government. Okay, petition for the Windward Planning. I’m going to say this. Youth--I’ve been waiting for the youth to step up and take charge. I’ve already spoken to Zendo about this. I don’t think you have dismissed this. What I’d like to do is read into the record a portion of what sounds like a political campaign speech by a planning commissioner at a meeting of over 80 people, in a community that he does not know, representing a personal friend that he’s known since 19 years of age, and participate in the program. How could you not see a conflict? How could you not see appearance? And that’s what ethics is about. It is the higher ground. It’s not mincing words and saying ______________. No, no, no, no. It’s time for you to assure confidence not only in the voters but in the constituents that sit in these seats and direct us and make us— Kern, thank you. Okay, is there any other discussion? I’ll give my two cents. What way is that for anybody to talk? This is a big deal, you better believe it is, because there’s a lot of votes in the Fifth District that are riding on this, Zendo. And had you revoked that—now how many people do you think would have supported you? Or how many people would have supported you and stood up? I don’t know, because he had an open— he had an open whatever. I hope you don’t dismiss this. I hope—because the only thing I applaud Zendo Kern for is not wanting to go into executive commission to study this. And I’ll stick around for this one, too, because I took the heat in the newspaper. And if the individual who did make this complaint is too cowardly to stand up here and know that it can protect you—that the law can protect you, then I will. So I’m sitting over here and you can ask me anything about May 3rd, 2012. Moving on. Let’s turn the page. Oh, I’m so sorry. Let me applaud the New Business. As a journalist, as a videographer, I know the power of the press. I don’t understand what the Tribune and the West Hawai‘i Tribune is doing, but I believe that they should be before you, too, because I think it’s unethical to report certain stories on the side and certain stories on another side. Then all of a sudden there’s another election and all of a sudden people on this side are reading about people they don’t know on this side, and this side, and this side. Poisonous politics being played by the Tribune. I would like to see every story in every newspaper so that the island doesn’t have this peek-a-boo, look who’s doing wrong now. I just need for there to be continuity in the press and for you to treat us all equally, and I’m going to tell you something, Tribune. We’re going to eclipse you in your reporting, because the camera does not lie. But the Tribune does, and it obfuscates often. And I don’t know, but I would not call these people investigative reporters. I would just call them lackey-splackeys for Stephens Media, Arkansas, Bill Clinton, coming over here to control this island. I’m sick of you. I hope you get yours. And I hope that Tiffany Hunt will be exonerated and given the respect that she needs. Amen to that. All right, now we’re going to move on to the last thing in this thing. It’s an open-ended thing. Okay, you know got nothing to cover it. I know, Renee, you smart. I know you already got it covered, just like the resolution for Dominic and Jamae. I know that I’ve read enough to know what your job is, and again I got no dog in this one. But I can see how dirty it is. Because I’ll tell you something right now, and I’m going to make it a part of public record. There’s something that’s going to come before you that’s even more sillier than—not silly, I won’t say that. I will say this, that this weekend at the World Peace Festival, a County employee—I don’t care if she’s on time, off time—used an event to promote her boss in an election year. Appearance is everything. Ethics is all about invoking trust, that we have trust in you to do what you do, which is to protect us from the greedy parasite who would try to engineer a take-over of this island. And I hope that Angel Pilago and all of his cronies will get theirs when it finally comes to task. Because this is a vindication for my boss, Emily Naeole, who had to take this crap on both sides of the island. And she was a good woman. Well, now you really got something. It ain’t no pencil being thrown across the room. And look around, how many people really care? They’re here, the ones that care. Please don’t waste our time. Get busy and do what you need to do. Thank you. Mr. Dill called up a testifier who had signed up as “Savita,” to testify on all items. SAVITA: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. I’d like to speak on the first one, Communication “a” put out by the OIP. I believe that this was part of the Building Code complaint that was made. What happened when they were passing the Building Code is the clerk, the County Clerk, Jamae Kawauchi, took five agenda items. What was supposed to happen is they were supposed to put, and just clearly describe, each agenda item—number one, number two, what it was about—so that people who come in can speak on each agenda. What she did was she took five communications and put them in one communication, so that number one, the people only had three minutes to speak on what they should have had more time to speak on. And number two, she didn’t describe any of the communications. So like R.J. said, some of the communications were very serious. You could go to jail for a year for putting a solar panel on your house. There were some very important communications that didn’t get discussed. So this is our complaint at the OIP. But unfortunately, there are so many procedures that are in question that our complaint is number 20. And so we have to wait for maybe years for our complaint to be heard. But at least they put this communication on, which is to say we’re having a problem with the agendas. People are playing—well, not people, because it’s the purview of the County Clerk—she’s playing politics with the agenda. And this was back in February. And had the OIP had the staff to deal with our issue back in February, the clerk would have come into the spotlight then, because she’s costing us money at the OIP because she didn’t agendize it correctly, the Building Code. But because they were busy and they can’t deal with our case, and it really didn’t get picked up in the media, and then she went on make a bigger mess with the elections. So that’s all I guess I have to say on the communications, thank you. This second one would be 6a. And I want to say that the alternative press has come a long way. Video cameras, the internet blogs, have helped us move into new territory when it comes to press. Press is no longer the reporter standing in front of the camera that gets played on NBC press. It’s every citizen that has a video camera and an editing system, or every citizen that can write and make a blog. These are the new press of the 21st century. And so our rules and our ideas about this have to change. And the alternative press has to be included in the conversation. And I think one of the reasons they do ignore us is because we really press. See, the traditional press, they’ve stopped pressing, and theirs is very political now. But the alternative press, we press. And they don’t like that. So they don’t—we don’t get invited, and so I think it’s a fabulous—I think this is fabulous this petition has come forth by a journalist in the community who’s considered alternative press, although who’s to say. But I think this is a fabulous petition, and I hope you act on that in an appropriate way. Okay, that’s all I have to say on that. And then on Unfinished Business, number 7a. What I want to say is I watched the video of Dominic Yagong’s performance in front of the ethics committee. I was not surprised because I—again, I’ve been dealing with him for a long time. To me it’s very childish to, when you get in trouble for something, to say, oh don’t look at me, look at my brother, look what he did. And what I also want to say about that is if he knew that there was something that was improper that was done a year and a half before, you don’t hold onto it. It’s improper for you to hold onto it. You need to come right out and say it right then and there. Don’t hold onto it and try to use it against somebody. So I think that was absolutely terrible behavior. And when somebody acts so bad, you have to wonder what are they covering up? That’s all I have to say on that. Now I’m going to go to 7b. And in this petition, I’m directly affected by this. I live in Seaview Estates, and many of us were concerned with Zendo’s relationship with Graham Ellis, who runs the Bellyacres. The reason we’re concerned is we’re a small subdivision, and we have Kalani Honua on one side. They play a lot of music. We have Bellyacres on the other side. They like to have night entertaiments. So my subdivision was caught every—because they did this for a year and a half without anybody, without permits. Every Friday and Saturday night you’d hear African rhythms coming from Kalani Honua, and you’d hear jazz coming from the Bellyacres. And our poor subdivision was caught having to listen to two bands for hours. So when this came up and we saw that Zendo was very connected to Graham, our community was concerned because we really—and anybody who lives there—you have to put up with one entertainment complex, but do you have to get caught in the middle of two? So although I love SPACE market and I support the school, I don’t support the night entertainment. So I came that day to express myself to someone who was directly affected. What I saw was of course, yes, the head of the Planning Commission was using it as a political rally. And he was already biased from the very beginning. Of course, if you think about would he have been elected had he told SPACE no, I’m revoking your license? We don’t want them to revoke SPACE’s license, but what we wanted to do was have a clear—we wanted to clarify, because the whole issue was about a night event. Our subdivision doesn’t want the night events. So what I’m going to say about this is that, in light of the fact that we don’t have any laws right now that say the minute you decide to run for a political office you must resign your commission, because you cannot do what Zendo did, which was to use his commission as the head of the Planning Commission to garner votes that day. And as proof, his signs went up—Zendo Kern went on both sides of the market the day after the decision, right after he did what he did on May 3rd. Then you saw big Zendo Kern signs go up in the entranceway of SPACE market. So of course he used his position. Many people would. Many people wouldn’t, but many people would. And so it needs to be a law that says you cannot act as the head—he’s still acting as head of the commission, giving out favors. We understand that. You’ve got to resign your commission when you’re running for politics, because the two get very muddied. And that was a fabulous example that day of how it got muddied. And I also want to say, he said in the beginning that people had asked him to recuse himself but he went and sought corporate counsel advice. To me, if you had to seek advice, you were already questioning it. I just want to add, when it doubt, throw it out. So if you were already questioning it, you should have acted appropriately. But that’s okay. I still expect great things from Zendo, and I hope he learns from this. Okay, so then I guess, let’s see—the ethics and the County employees and mixing politics with County employees. I also was at the Peace Festival. And as a journalist I did not want to shoot the emcee because she was wearing a Billy Kenoi t-shirt. And when a vendor complained and said hey, look, I don’t want to have to look at your t-shirt all day, this is a County event, all she did was take off her County employee badge which she had been wearing, turn it around, and continue to wear the shirt for the rest of the day. The event was billed as a non-political event and yet—and it wasn’t even mentioned that the mayor was going to speak there, but he did speak there. The reason we have to separate these is, that was like $20,000 of taxpayer’s money that went into that event, and they used it as a political fest. And I believe that Billy Kenoi should have to pay for the Peace Festival, since he used it to play politics, and he used his emcee, who is a County employee, to be the emcee, to wear his t-shirt with her badge. I’m not going to mention her name, because I have a lot of respect for the family. But I’m just going to say that this kind of stuff is happening every day. When I talked to the Tribune reporter about it yesterday, he told me it’s happening all over the island. So we’re out of control with our ethics. And I appreciate this day, because this is everything I’ve been dealing with for a long time, and these are not petty issues. These are very important issues. Thank you for your time. Aloha. Mr. Dill called up Hope Cermelj, who had signed up to testify on all agenda items. MS. CERMELJ: Hello, aloha. My name is Hope Cermelj. I chose to be a non-partisan candidate to run for Faye Hanohano’s job since she’s not doing it. The people behind me are some of my constituents in the future, if God lets me have this job. You folks took an oath. Just as R.J. said, you have to uphold that oath and have a little compassion for the people who are sitting in this room, giving full testimony of what’s going on. I come from Ohio, Florida, California, Arizona, Alaska, Missouri—Misery, and now I’m a Hawai‘i citizen running for office. I was denied the right by the Supreme Court to have a recount because I didn’t put the right verbiage in. So I have an attorney now, and my attorney has given all the information to the Ombudsman, the Attorney General, Brian Schatz, our lieutenant governor, as well as Neil Abercrombie, the Office of Elections in Pearl City, Scott Nago, and Jamae over there, who I believe in my own personal opinion—this is my own personal opinion—should be fired for what she’s done. Her father took an election box up the Miloli‘i hill and brought it down to the Miloli‘i voters late. Her own father. She denied it. I have testimony ready to go. So back to the Board of Ethics of the County of Hawai‘i. Dominic Yagong had a conflict of interest. He should have recused himself as being chairman of the Hawai‘i County Council, because he was responsible for the elections. That was a complete annihilation of federal and Hawai‘i State rights. Our people in Pāhoa alone, where I come from, were denied the right to vote. They were turned away. One man who was denied the right to vote in Pāhoa, they sent him to Kona, and when he put his voting ballot into the box, the lady said it probably won’t count. I purposely myself voted for myself. Of course, I’m non- partisan, as well as I have the right to vote for the people I want to go represent me in Washington. Therefore, my ballot for myself was blank. They took it away. They don’t even have the guts to show me that ballot, because they know they’re wrong. I know I was wrong, but I made a point. Non-partisanship is growing in America. I don’t know if you folks know that, but people are sick of the big parties. Dominic is a non-partisan County Council person for his district, and also the chairman. He should recuse himself of everything. And where is he? I’ve asked them to go get him. I live in Kalapana. I voted for Zendo, but of course my ballot didn’t count, so what the heck, you know. New Business—no, I’m not done (timer sounded). MR. DILL: It’s just indicating the three minutes per item. MS. CERMELJ: Okay. There it is, right there. Unfinished Business. Further discussion on a letter from August 31 to the Board, State Office of Elections, alleging that Council Chair Dominic may be inappropriately involved in the operations of the Hawai‘i County Elections Office. Therefore I challenge him to tell me what I just told you was wrong. I challenge him. And he doesn’t even have the guts to come here today. They’re in a meeting with Sharon, and the people of the State of Hawai‘i who are coming here to run this election—that’s pathetic. That is a waste of our money, County money. I’m sorry, folks. This would not happen in Ohio, California, for sure not Arizona. Those are cowboys, they’ll kill you. Petition Number 2012-02. Zendo, bad boy. You should recuse yourself. Come on. And don’t go into an executive meeting without the public knowing. That’s a violation of a federal law called the Sunshine Law. Right? We all know about the Sunshine Law? That’s a federal law, as well as I thought Hawai‘i was still in America, the United States. Maybe we’re not. These documents that I want to give to you people, but I didn’t have time to make a copy, are petitions that my constituents want to be back on the ballot. If I’m not back on the ballot because of this botched up County elections, we’re going to take this to the feds. And I mean it with all my heart. And my attorneys are ready to go. Back of the page. David Bock told me over the phone, and I will make this public finally—and I mean it with my heart in the name of Jesus Christ. Petition Number 2012-03. Informal hearing of a petition alleging violations of Section 2- 83 of the Ethics code when county employees are allowed to attend union meetings on county time, in which political campaigning takes place. That used to happen in Ohio, and they all got caught and they all got fired. They lost their jobs. When Jamae put that lady on executive leave or whatever you call it, I don’t remember right now, maybe she should have been running the elections. And Dominic Yagong is completely responsible, being the Chairman of this County Council. And he should recuse himself and quit his job right now. This has got to stop. David Bock told me, over the phone, oh Hope, your campaign isn’t important enough. I said David, I’ve been waiting. Everybody else has been in the paper. Why not me? It’s not important enough. He broke my heart. He broke my heart. They’ve never gotten back to me, so I will be suing the Trib-Herald for malfeasance. Shall I go on? It gets better. It gets better. Just as he had said, David Bock and the Stephens Media prints only what they want to, when they want to, where they want to. The lady in the back has been a real angel to help me. I won’t say any names. Good for Tiffany. God bless her and her children and her family. They’re Pāhoa people. I have a restaurant in Pāhoa. I don’t make any money, because there’s no jobs. I’m moving to Hilo so I can make some money. I sell Jewish food. But I want the job of Faye Hanohano’s, because she’s been there eight years. She’s done nothing. God be with you all, and I hope you make the right judgments, because God is watching. And so are we. Amen. Thank you. Mr. Dill announced for the record that public testimony had been received via email from Lynn Beittel regarding Petition No. 2012-03. 3. ELECTION OF VICE CHAIR Mr. Dill asked for nominations for vice chair. Motion: Mr. Hisashima nominated Mr. Balsis, and Mr. Henricks seconded the nomination. Mr. Balsis said he was willing to serve as vice chair to help out from time to time when Mr. Dill is not able to. However, he does not want to be the chair on a permanent basis. Mr. Dill said that he was appointed by Mayor Kim and his term would be ending in December, so the issue of selecting a chair and vice chair would be coming up again next year. Vote: All members voted aye and congratulated Mr. Balsis. 4. APPROVAL OF THE REGULAR SESSION MINUTES OF SEPTEMBER 12, 2012 Motion and vote: Mr. Hisashima moved to approve the minutes, Mr. Henricks seconded the motion, and all members voted aye. 5. COMMUNICATIONS a. 09/04/12 Memorandum Opinion by the Office of Information Practices regarding “Sunshine Law Complaints about Agendas and Executive Meeting.” Mr. Dill asked Ms. Schoen if she could elaborate on this communication, and she explained that a complaint had been filed regarding the Board’s agendas of October 14, 2009, and November 19, 2009, because they did not include the names of County officers and employees who were the subject of petitions. The Office of Information Practices found that the Board did not violate the Sunshine Law when it did not name the officers and employees on the agenda. Basically, the OIP determined that the Board’s agendas are fine. Mr. Dill said that as a point of clarification, the OIP opinion is not related to complaints some of the testifiers referred to having made which are pending with the OIP. Motion and vote: Mr. Balsis moved to accept and file the communication, Mr. Henricks seconded the motion, and all members voted aye. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Petition No. 2012-04: Initial review of petition alleging that a County officer “has been very selective in … dissemination of public information and showed preferential treatment to certain reporters and stonewalling others …” in violation of Section 2-83(a)(3) of the Code of Ethics, that all persons shall be treated in a courteous, fair and impartial manner. MR. DILL: As mentioned at the beginning of this meeting during announcements, I will be recusing myself from hearing this petition based upon a letter written as a personal—I wrote a personal letter to the State Office of the Attorney General dated July 25 as a result of private citizens coming and expressing their concerns regarding some of the elections issues that had been reported in the media. So I wrote a letter as a private citizen, not on behalf of this Board or representing this Board in any way. So counsel, you asked for some clarification from the State Office of Elections as well, because there were allegations made at the last meeting that I did in fact write on County letterhead? MS. SCHOEN: Yes. Board members, you were probably provided a copy of the letter that I issued to the State Office of Elections based upon allegations that the Chair wrote on County letterhead, or State Elections Office letterhead. And so I did request any and all documents from the State Office of Elections, and they provided the letter that Mr. Dill--not on letterhead and what I believe is in his personal capacity. So you all should have that. The second item, Mr. Chair--clarification just for this petition. You all should have before you a letter from Jamae Kawauchi, stating that she’s received a copy of this petition and is unable to attend this meeting this morning due to work commitments. And I did speak with her yesterday, and she advised me of that, and that is also articulated in this letter to you all. MR. DILL: Thank you for clarifying that. So the respondent is not here. The petitioner is here today. Ms. Hunt, I’ll be handing over this petition to the vice chairman, but you’re welcome to come up along with any counsel that you have brought. Mr. Vice Chair. MR. BALSIS: Ms. Hunt? MS. HUNT: Yes. MR. BALSIS: You’ll be using the other microphone. MS. HUNT: Aloha. MS. SONG: Good morning, members of the commission. My name is Sandra Song, and I’m representing Tiffany Hunt, who is present with me today. MR. BALSIS: We have your petition in front of us. The petition was previously read. I know that Jamae Kawauchi is not here today, and I’d like to ask the advice of counsel. Is this something that we should continue when she is present, or shall we hear from Ms. Hunt at this time? MS. SCHOEN: Mr. Chair, this Board in the past has proceeded without the presence of the respondent in cases, so you are free to proceed. I did inform Ms. Kawauchi what the Board would be doing today, what its options are, that this is an initial review. So what the Board does, if the parties are here, it seeks information if it needs. It may dismiss the matter. It may set an informal hearing or a formal hearing. So I think you’re free to proceed. MR. BALSIS: Ms. Hunt, or attorney – please proceed if you have any comments about your petition. MS. SONG: Let me begin, and then I’m going to turn this over to Tiffany _____. You received sort of a lengthy petition from Ms. Hunt about alleged violations, but I do want to point out that the Ethics Code puts an obligation on government officials to treat—to act with a certain, in a manner of conduct. And one of the provisions under Section 2-83 is government officials are supposed to treat the members of the public fairly. And it says all persons shall be treated in a courteous, fair, and impartial manner. And this applies to officers and employees of the County while discharging their duties. This may put a greater burden on County officers and employees than other members of the general public, and many times officers and employees of the County of Hawai‘i may have difficult public to deal with. Nevertheless, under this Code of Ethics they have a responsibility to treat everyone in a courteous, fair, and impartial manner. And if it is not done, then this commission has the obligation to issue an informal opinion to the employee’s supervisor so that the employee will not do that again. And that is one of the options that this commission has. There were numerous statements in Tiffany’s petition. I would like to point out one in particular. On election morning, Ms. Hunt and Dave Corrigan, who is also a reporter, had an appointment with Jamae Kawauchi at four a.m. They’re reporters, so they want to report about the election. They had an appointment to meet with her at four a.m. regarding the election. They were there outside the County Building, with the gates locked at four a.m., and they were told that she wouldn’t meet with them. They waited two hours there, and they were finally shown to a media room. But it is not—regardless of what kind of pressures Ms. Kawauchi might have been under on Election Day, and I wouldn’t doubt that she was under tremendous pressures, she still had an obligation to be courteous, fair, and impartial to Mr. Corrigan and Tiffany, and she was not, by making them wait like that and refusing to meet with them. I might also point out that even her—there was another incident when she had a press conference, where only certain reporters were included and not all. If Ms. Kawauchi is going to be fair and impartial and courteous, then all the media should be notified, not select media. Again, to some people these things might not be significant, but I just want to point out that Ms. Kawauchi is in a position of authority. She’s also required to comply with the requirements of the Ethics Code. And so it puts her in a more important position and more difficult position than members of the public. So under the circumstances, she is not here to defend herself, although she did have an opportunity. She did receive the petition. So I’m asking that based on the petition, with no opposing statement from Ms. Kawauchi, that the commission should issue an informal advisory opinion to her supervisor, who I believe is Dominic Yagong, that she should not continue to engage in this kind of conduct. I’m going to turn this over to Tiffany, because I think she has some more to say to this Board. MS. HUNT: Aloha. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to state my opinion. I’ve covered Hawai‘i County politics for various media outlets daily, weekly, monthly, and now in real time reporting on my website, BigIslandChronicle.com, since 2001, and I have never experienced such blatant—I feel stonewalling, actually. And the fact that Jamae Kawauchi is not present today, when I’m here and ready to look her in the eye and state all of my allegations, is symbolic to me. That’s another example of how I’m not able to get information or communicate with someone in such a position of authority. Not only is she running the Election Division, she is also in charge of the County Clerk’s Office, which runs Council Services, handles the minutes of meetings. If you read my petition, I’m sorry if it wasn’t typed out and more PC than it was. It was basically me just finding a moment and sitting down and writing everything out, because I had reached a point of exasperation after going to the Elections Division and being told for the umpteenth time that she wasn’t available, she was in a meeting. What I’ve also encountered is I actually have friends who are in the Elections Division who I don’t waive hi to so they don’t know that that’s my friend, but they tell me about what the reaction is when I call. So it’s just really very unfortunate that we’re at this state right now. To me it’s more on principle than anything that I’m here. There were statements made initially about alternative press, new media, all those things. If you want to see my credentials, I’ll share them with you. But the bottom line is that I am a journalist in this community. I’m here to stay. Jamae may not be very familiar with me because I have a 20-month old baby, that most of her term I’ve spent not covering the County Council. But the election is one of my favorite things as a reporter to cover, so it’s gotten to the point where here I am to share with you how difficult it has been to try to cover the campaign, at least from getting an authority’s perspective of it. Thank you. MR. BALSIS: Thank you very much. Do any members of the Board here have questions for - ? MR. HISASHIMA: Ms. Hunt, in your complaint you had written down that Jamae had you fill out the Media Notification Form. How many times did you submit this form, and what is the form for? MS. HUNT: As I said, I’ve covered the County government since 2001. I’ve never seen a form like this. The form—it seemed like they had printed it that day. She had called me in for a meeting, and in the meeting was her administrative assistant, Sharon Takata, and Steve Offenbaker, who at this time I’m not really quite sure what he does at the County, but he has worked as a legislative aide for Dominic Yagong in the past. He was present. And it was on County letterhead, and it said Media Notification Form. And in the meeting--this was in response to the fact that I was objecting that they had a press conference that included select members of the media, very few, and then candidates, which was so odd to me. And there were comments made about how wonderful the food was. And I’ve just never encountered anything like that, and so I had inquired what was going on. Why was there a press conference prior to the official filing of the poll books, or the close of the poll books? And so she said well, I’ll come down and meet with me in person so we can try to resolve this. And then I was handed this Media Notification Form. I’ve never seen it again, and obviously it wasn’t effective. MR. HISASHIMA: Would you know if all the reporters have to fill that out? And how long prior to the meeting, the press release meeting, was it? MS. HUNT: I’ve polled some of my reporter friends, and they’ve said that she had them fill out this form as well, but it’s not really clear like how many and who has filled out the form. In fact, that would be a great inquiry with the County Clerk’s Office, is to find out whatever happened to those forms, who has them, because anecdotal evidence for me—I have—I could bring in Le‘a Gleason. She’s a freelancer for me. She actually had made an appointment with Jamae Kawauchi on primary Election Day, just like Dave Corrigan and I. She had the nine o’clock shift and showed up and Jamae did not show up for her appointment. And what had happened is Brian deLima and Darryl Smith came to the County Building to complain about procedures that were going on on Election Day. Jamae actually came out to the front of the building to greet Brian deLima, and Le‘a Gleason intercepted that meeting and was able to meet with her briefly. And Le‘a said to her, oh can you please let me know updates throughout the day, and Jamae said okay, well I’m going to need your contact information. And Le‘a said you already had me fill out the Media Notification Form, and she said oh, that was not the right form. So that was actually documented in one of our media reports on Election Day. MR. HISASHIMA: In reviewing the form, was it a County form or a form just printed up? MS. HUNT: It had the County of Hawai‘i letterhead. MS. SONG: Mr. Hisashima, I don’t think this type of form was required in past administrations, at least I don’t know of reporters having to fill out this form in the past. MR. HISASHIMA: Thank you. Do you think it’s just a one-time form, or just to cover something? MS. HUNT: It’s curious. Just for the record, I receive updates from the County of Hawai‘i Mayor’s Office, the County Parks and Recreation, just about every other County office. And the County Clerk’s Office doesn’t really have a record of issuing press releases, but whenever the Council Chairman has issued a press release, I’ve been on the media notification list. So the whole thing is very curious. MR. HISASHIMA: Thank you. MR. BALSIS: Mr. Henricks, do you have any questions? MR. HENRICKS: None. MR. BALSIS: So at this point, does any of the Board members have any comments, or do you think we should look further? It looks like we need to find some information about this form to see if there was fair and equitable treatments, so we would need to obtain some more information specifically concerning, in my case—or in my thoughts—the fair treatment may come down to being able to evidence this, finding out more about this form to see if it really was used for media notification, if it was used properly, or if it was used unfairly. Do you have any questions? MR. HISASHIMA: No. MR. HENRICKS: None. MR. BALSIS: Do I need to move--? MR. HISASHIMA: --Mr. Chair, could I ask the counsel to—again, I would like to request the following: Media Notification of Ms. Hunt and whatever or whoever reporters that filled it out, origination date of that form. They should have a file for it already, and that way it’ll be clear that every reporter would have the same opportunity. So I would like to see that. Thank you. MR. BALSIS: So we will continue this, the next meeting, with this information. MS SCHOEN: Mr. Chair, excuse me. So it sounds like you either are requesting me to provide you more information, so we are continuing either the initial review of this or you are setting this matter for informal hearing. So whatever it is the Board decides to do, you need a motion for either of those, just so that it’s clear that that’s the entire Board’s desire. MR. BALSIS: In my thinking, I believe that if we have the information regarding this form, we can make a determination at that time whether or not there was fair and impartial treatment to this particular individual from the media. MR. HENRICKS: I move we move this into an informal hearing. MR. HISASHIMA: I agree. MR. BALSIS: All those in favor? MR. HENRICKS: Aye. MR. HISASHIMA: Aye. MR. BALSIS: Aye. MS. SCHOEN: So with that, Mr. Chair, then this will be scheduled for your next Board meeting next month— MR. BALSIS: --That is correct. MS. SCHOEN: Do you still want me to provide that information? MR. BALSIS: Yes, we will need to have that specific information to – MS. SCHOEN: Okay, and I will let Ms. Kawauchi know the items that you are requesting. MR. BALSIS: Yes. Are there any other items that—in my reading of the petition, also, it seemed to narrow it down to that in terms of determining and evidencing the unfair treatment. MS. SCHOEN: Okay. MS. SONG: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. MR. BALSIS: So with that in mind, we should ask Chairman Dill to return. MS. SCHOEN: Yes. The next item would be 7a. Mr. Balsis called a ten-minute recess. 11:13 a.m.: The Board recessed and resumed the meeting at 11:23 a.m. 7. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Further discussion on letter dated 8/31/12 to the Board of Ethics from the State Office of Elections, alleging that Council Chair Dominic Yagong may be inappropriately involved in the operations of the Hawai‘i County Elections Office. MS. SCHOEN: Mr. Chair, if I may, this matter—we have it on Unfinished Business because as you recall, the Board was unable to proceed when there were allegations of a conflict of interest to the Chair. There was discussion at the last meeting regarding anyone having a--asserting that a member of this Board has a bias or some kind of conflict, to file an affidavit with the Board, per your rules. No affidavit was filed with the Board of Ethics to date. MR. DILL: Based on the allegations made at the last meeting and documented in the minutes. All right, thank you, counsel. For the sake of openness, fairness, I would like to at this point relinquish the chairmanship to the Vice Chair to manage the procedures on this issue, Unfinished Business. Are you in agreement with that, Vice Chair? MR. BALSIS: Yes, I am. MR. DILL: All right, thank you. That way I’d like to address the allegations made, the corresponding lack of affidavit being filed— MR. BALSIS: --Please do. MR. DILL: I again assert that--deny the allegations made at the last meeting. I also would like to reiterate my feelings that I can rule on this matter fairly and impartially. However, I’ll defer to the other Board members, if you have any questions for me or any concerns regarding the allegations that were made. MR. BALSIS: Mr. Henricks, do you have any questions? MR. HENRICKS: None. MR. BALSIS: Mr. Hisashima, do you have any questions or comments? MR. HISASHIMA: None. MR. DILL: Okay. If that’s the case, then I will gladly participate in this matter and allow you to manage the procedures of this matter. MR. BALSIS: That’ll be fine. In further discussion of the August 31, 2012, letter to the Board of Ethics from the State Office of Elections, alleging that Council Chair Dominic Yagong may be inappropriately involved in the operations of the Hawai‘i County Elections Office, we were in the middle of discussion during the last meeting when some allegations were flying around the room, which allegations were not formalized by affidavit as instructed. But I believe that, and if I’m correct from the other Board members present, that there were some other questions and discussions that we were wanting from Mr. Yagong. If that be the case, I think it’s appropriate that we enter into an informal hearing at the next meeting, where Mr. Yagong will be present, and we may ask him some very specific questions. What do the other members of the Board say? UNKNOWN PERSON: He’s right here, Mr. Chairman. MR. YAGONG: I’m here today. MR. BALSIS: Oh, you’re here today. I didn’t see you walk in. MR. YAGONG: Sorry, sir. MR. BALSIS: Would you like to come up to the front, please? MR. YAGONG: Sorry about that. There were some phone calls I had to take care of. MR. BALSIS: I’m glad you’re here. MR. YAGONG: Thank you, sir. MR. BALSIS: Mr. Henricks, do you have any questions for him? MR. HENRICKS: Yes, I have two questions to finalize the previous— MR. YAGONG: --Yes, sir. MR. HENRICKS: --discussion that we were having last time. MR. YAGONG: Okay. Is this on? MR. HENRICKS: My first question, you stated that after the election, you stated that you were going to get more involved in the election process. Is that correct? MR. YAGONG: That is correct. MR. HENRICKS: All right. Did you in fact get more involved in the election process? MR. YAGONG: I guess during the election time we really took a complete hands off to the elections for the obvious reason—I was running for office at that time. And of course I did not make it through the general election. In the statements that I’ve made, I did make the statement I would get more involved with the elections. And to that extent I think it had to do with—we had scheduled meetings, or we’d looked to help support the County Clerk’s Office in scheduling meetings, with the precinct chairmen of the different precincts. So some of my involvement was actually trying to help coordinate that. And it was shortly thereafter that Mr. Dill sent me that information about the complaint, and so I just stepped back from that, so I didn’t even participate in that at all. But as far as my involvement, what we did was we did schedule a meeting with the staff here in these chambers, and we talked about—the Clerk talked about the plans that we have in terms of trying to schedule meetings with the precinct chairs, with the people that do the distribution/collection of the election boxes, and to actually have the Clerk go out into the different precincts to meet with them so that they can find out from them if they have any suggestions, any recommendations of how they can make sure some of the mistakes that took place do not happen. So at that point my involvement was helping to coordinate those meetings. So we basically—my involvement was calling the different places such as the community center in Nā‘ālehu, and calling the—trying to arrange for the West Hawai‘i Civic Center and here in Hilo Chambers, but that was to set the logistics for having the meetings with the Clerk and the people out in the field, because certainly the Clerk thought, and I thought as well, it would be a good idea to make sure they meet with the people that are out there on the field that actually help with elections. But it was shortly thereafter that meeting that took place that I did receive that letter. So at that point in time I said I want to be completely hands off, which— MR. HENRICKS: --So part of that letter, all you did was schedule meetings and things like that? MR. YAGONG: Well, we started to get the beginning logistics of the plans by the Clerk to have these meetings out there in the community, to meet with the different people. MR. HENRICKS: All right. Were you involved in making the decision-making process about any of these for the County Clerk? MR. YAGONG: No, because at that point in time what happened was—when I received the letter, no contact was made by me with any of the people out in the field. We had just put up on the board that on these dates were going to meet in Pāhoa, this date was set for Kea‘au, or Kona and Hilo. So we just put the basic bones together for the meeting, but once I received that thing from Mr. Dill, I had just turned it over to the Elections staff, and they made all the arrangements for that. MR. HENRICKS: Okay, the last question I’m going to ask is, your daughter is in District 1 or Precinct 1, is that correct? MR. YAGONG: That is correct. MR. HENRICKS: All right. The hiring of personnel for Precinct 1, it’s done by the County Clerk, isn’t it? MR. YAGONG: Actually, the hiring—I did mention that at the last meeting. The actual hiring of people that work in the precincts, that is the responsibility of the State of Hawai‘i. MR. HENRICKS: The State of Hawai‘i. MR. YAGONG: Yeah. MR. HENRICKS: So you had nothing to do with hiring any— MR. YAGONG: --I have nothing to do with any hiring of any Elections staff. MR. HENRICKS: So then none of your people are in there? MR. YAGONG: Yes. I don’t hire anybody. In fact, most of the people that you find out in the precincts are return people that work there year after year after year. So most of them—my understanding of it is that when a new election comes up, what they would do is they would actually notify the people that worked there in the last election and to find out whether they’re going to continue to work—will work in the upcoming primary, general election. But most of that is done, but that’s done through the Elections staff. We have nothing to do with that. MR. HENRICKS: So you have none of your people in there at all? MR. YAGONG: That is correct. MR. HENRICKS: All right, thank you. MR. BALSIS: Mr. Hisashima, do you have any questions? MR. HISASHIMA: Yes. Mr. Yagong— MR. YAGONG: --Yes, sir. MR. HISASHIMA: Under your rules and procedure of organization for the County Council, as the Council Chairperson, you do appoint the County Clerk. MR. YAGONG: That is correct. MR. HISASHIMA: What is your jurisdiction over her? MR. YAGONG: She does report to me as the supervisor of the legislative branch. Keep in mind, now, Mr. Hisashima, the legislative branch is far reaching. It runs the County Council. It handles all the legislation that flows through. It runs both the committee and Council meetings as well. Council Services. It runs the legislative branch, and it also runs Elections. So although I do—the chairman normally is the one that would bring forth a name for selection of a county clerk, but it has to be confirmed by all of the Council members. MR. HISASHIMA: Do you have any jurisdiction over the operation of the office, or do you leave it to her, to the County Clerk? MR. YAGONG: Pretty much with the Elections, that really is something that we—I’ve from the very beginning tried to keep extremely distanced from that, because I was a candidate, Glen. It’s just the right thing to do. MR. HISASHIMA: Thank you. MR. DILL: Mr. Yagong, you keep referring to me sending you a letter. Are you referring to the July 25th letter I copied you on? MR. YAGONG: The actual complaint, yeah. MR. DILL: The complaint. Which complaint? MR. YAGONG: From Scott Nago. MR. DILL: Oh, okay, the letter sent to us. MR. YAGONG: Yeah, that’s correct. That’s correct. MR. BALSIS: I have no questions. Does anybody else on the Board have any comment or any opinion on where we may want to go with this? MR. HENRICKS: I’d like to say that the things that we’re looking at specifically is under 2-83(b), whether he would be in a position to give an unfair advantage or unfair privilege to his daughter because of his position as overlooking the election process. I think from his statements now, number one, he has been totally removed and so I don’t think that would be an ongoing problem. And secondly, from his past participation, I don’t think he had any effect on precinct number one, where his daughter is actually running—had any direct impact upon that precinct, so I don’t think we need to go any farther at this point, as far as I’m concerned. MR. BALSIS: Do I hear a motion to dismiss this further investigation? We don’t have a petition in front of us, where—it’s more of an inquiry than anything. MR. DILL: Yeah, Mr. Chair, we are actually responding to the letter that was sent that Mr. Yagong referred to, requesting an investigation to see if there is a conflict of interest. We are not conducting an investigation at this time. However, as we all know here, perception is a lot of—is a lot when we’re dealing with these things. And we also need to take into account I think the recent actions by the State Office of Elections that has transpired since our last meeting, and whether or not that factors into this decision. Mr. Yagong, the State Office of Elections—can you clarify what their role is now and what responsibilities remain in your office for the elections? MR. YAGONG: Mr. Dill, thank you for that question. Honestly, I have no idea as far as what was discussed between the Clerk’s Office and the State’s Office. There was a letter that was sent that sort of outlined the transition, but I honestly do not know what responsibilities have been—what having the State take over, what that means, exactly. I honestly do not know. I have not had any conversations with the State Elections Office. The only thing that I got was the same letter that all Council members received, as far as their announcement and asking, and talking about this transition. So I think— MR. DILL: --You did say part of your duties are to supervise the County Clerk, and so the County Clerk hasn’t reported to you as her supervisor in terms of the changes? MR. YAGONG: No. What she’s reported to me, she also has questions as far as what that—what that takeover means, who has what responsibilities. That certainly has not been drawn out yet, and that’s what she has shared with me. So that is something that I think Mr. Nago and the County Clerk would certainly need to kind of nail down over the next week or so, just so that everyone knows what they’re expected to do. MR. DILL: So those issues still need to be figured out, then, I mean in terms of what the County’s responsibility is, what the State is taking over, and then additionally what your role is as the supervisor of the County Clerk who is overseeing the elections. MR. YAGONG: I think the State is clear in terms of overtake—taking over that. They’ve made that clear. In fact, they’ve been—you’ve also had statements from the governor that was made in regards to that. I don’t think there’s any clarification. The real question is, as far as I guess the actual details of what takes place out there, who’s going to handle what, who’s going to be in charge of what functions. But all of that is with the County Clerk’s Office. Even without the State takeover, I would have no involvement in that as well. MR. BALSIS: Go ahead, counsel MS. SCHOEN: Yeah, if I may just clarify. My understanding is that the County still retains the duties regarding registration, absentee ballots, and then also voter registration. MR. BALSIS: That is my understanding also, from what I’ve read in the paper. MS. SCHOEN: So that’s my understanding, and that the State has taken back the duties that it normally delegates to all other counties except for Honolulu. As Mr. Yagong said, what that means in terms of details, I’m not sure, but those are the two items that the County will be doing. MR. BALSIS: So the question that we have in front of us is whether or not we should move on with an investigation, or just acknowledge the receipt of this letter at this time. Am I correct, counselor? MR. DILL: No, we’ve already acknowledged the receipt of this letter, the last time. MS. SCHOEN: I believe at the last meeting you accepted and filed the communication, and then what was before you was what this Board would do, if anything—how it wanted to proceed if it wanted to proceed or not. MR. BALSIS: Are there any comments as to how different Board members feel that we should proceed? MR. DILL: I think yeah, by Mr. Yagong’s own admission, there’s still some clarification that needs to be done on their end in terms of what the County’s role is. And since he is the Council Chairman and the direct supervisor of the County Clerk, I think we should schedule an informal investigation into this so those things can be clarified, and just make sure things are in the open and that there is no conflict of interest. If Mr. Yagong is admitting that he has no clue in terms of what the State’s role is and now what the County’s role is, then I think it’d be in our best interest to do our due diligence and look into this a little further. MR. BALSIS: Any comments from the other Board members? MR. HISASHIMA: No comment. MR. BALSIS: Mr. Henricks? MR. HENRICKS: I made my comment, thank you. MR. YAGONG: Could I make a comment, too? MR. BALSIS: Yes, you may. MR. YAGONG: Thank you for that. Well, first of all, in terms of the State taking over the elections, as far as my having no clue, what that basically comes down to is that I do not know the details of which—what the takeover would be, but I can assure you that the takeover by the State is something that’s being worked out between the State and the County Clerk’s Office. It certainly isn’t something that’s delegated to the Chairman’s office, and there would be no relationship between the Chairman’s office and this takeover. Certainly they did not ask for my opinion or ask whether the Chair needs to be involved. As a matter of fact, I think just from the letter that was sent from Scott Nago, I think clearly states that they’re concerned that there is a relationship, and of course there isn’t, but to make sure that there isn’t one. And I assure this body at this point in time that there is—whatever would end up being the plan between the State and the County Clerk’s Office has absolutely nothing to do with the Chair’s office or the County Council. Thank you. MR. BALSIS: Is there a motion as to where we would want to go? Mr. Dill? MR. DILL: Sure, I’ll move to schedule this for an informal investigation at our next meeting so we can gather some more details in terms of how the roles are changing, just to make sure that we are ensuring the voters of the County of Hawai‘i that there are no conflicts of interest as stated here. MR. BALSIS: And this is to say that the informal hearing will be limited to those factors? MR. DILL: Yeah. In other words, answering the request of the State Office of Elections, in their letter, to look into this further. MR. BALSIS: What other information may we need? MR. DILL: We could—I did respond, as you noted, to the letter sent by Scott Nago at the State Office of Elections, initially spelling out our rules, our procedures. I think we can request additional information in terms of what their roles will now be, now that they’ve announced that they’ve taken over portions of the operations, and how it affects the reporting to the Council Chairman if at all. MR. BALSIS: Is there a second to this motion? MR. HENRICKS: Before you make that motion— MR. BALSIS: --Go ahead. MR. HENRICKS: I’d like to reiterate my comment. I think we’ve gone far enough. Thank you. MR. BALSIS: Is there a second to this motion? MR. HISASHIMA: Could I make a statement? MR. BALSIS: Yes. MS. SCHOEN: Excuse me, I don’t want you to make a statement. I want you guys to see if there’s a second to the motion. MR. BALSIS: Yeah, and then we’ll have discussion. MR. HISASHIMA: I’ll second it. MR. BALSIS: Is there discussion, Mr. Hisashima? MR. HISASHIMA: Yes. The State is going to take over the elections, per se—the operations—because of certain things that happened during the primary. The State has their own rules set. I don’t think the rules is made by the Council Chair or the Council. It’s made by the State. Therefore, if the State—my question is going to be, what is the State messes this up? What is the next outcome? The federal? The County’s off the charts now. It becomes a State issue. We can request for all the information. Until the day it happens, we’re not going to know how it pans out. So I would think, if we’re going for more information, I would like Mr. Nago sitting where Mr. Yagong is, so he can clarify what ______. But this has to be done before the next election. Thank you. MR. BALSIS: Is there any further discussion? Mr. Dill? MR. DILL: No further discussion. MR. BALSIS: Well at this point in time, my opinion on all this is that if we’re going back into history, there must have been a perception that Mr. Yagong was somehow involved in the election. There is this perception that he was out there, he was out into the precincts, or he was manipulating something. From what we’ve discussed today, apparently that was not the intention. But yet there was this big perception out there, and the perception in some peoples’ eyes is real, and in some peoples’ eyes it’s like okay, it’s only a look-see kind of thing. I tend to agree with Mr. Henricks that the issue has been exhausted. And when I call for a vote, I would be calling to—against the motion. I would be voting against it, but with the caveat that Mr. Yagong has to take into account that he is Council Chair, and as was mentioned in a previous testimony today on a related matter, that elected officials, County employees, are held to a much higher standard in terms of the perception and how they conduct themselves. Apparently, in my mind, he let this go by the wayside a little ways, and that has to be publicly stated. So at this point in time, if there’s no further discussion, I’ll call for the question. All those in favor of continuing with the informal investigation, say aye. MR. HISASHIMA: Aye. MR. DILL: Aye. MR. BALSIS: And those opposed? MR. HENRICKS: Nay. MR. BALSIS: Nay. Counsel, at this point we have a tie. How do we proceed? MS. SCHOEN: The motion does not pass, so you proceed on to the next item. MR. BALSIS: We will proceed on to the next item. The motion does not pass. MR. DILL: Thank you, Vice Chair. MR. BALSIS: You may have the chair back. b. Petition No. 2012-02: Review draft order dismissing the petition alleging that Zendo Kern, Chair of the Windward Planning Commission, “in light of strong questionable appearances to the public, should have recused himself from voting … regarding the revocation of special use permit #1122” during the Planning Commission meeting of 5/3/12, thereby violating Sections 2-83(b)(2), 2-83(c), 2-84(e), and 2-91.1(g) of the Ethics Code. Motion and vote: Mr. Henricks moved to approve the order as drafted, Mr. Hisashima seconded the motion, and all members voted aye. c. Petition No. 2012-03: Informal hearing of petition alleging violations of Section 2-83 of the Ethics Code when County employees are allowed to attend union meetings, on County time, in which political campaigning takes place. MR. DILL: This petition was filed and initially heard at the last meeting, and we voted to schedule an informal hearing on this matter. We also requested quite a bit of information from counsel and Mary. Thank you. I received quite a bit of information. MS. SCHOEN: Mr. Chair, if I may just interrupt. I did—part of what was provided to you was two State of Hawai‘i Ethics Commission opinions, and I’m not sure if the Board members had a chance to review that. I did send it to you, I think it was yesterday, but if there are any discussions regarding legal matters, I’d prefer that we go into executive session. I just wanted to state that. MR. DILL: There’s quite a bit of information, and just speaking personally as Chair, I didn’t get a chance to review those previous judgments and opinions on that. I did get a chance to look briefly at the collective bargaining agreements, and it was made clear I believe in Fire and Police, in the bargaining agreements, that this type of activity was specifically not allowed. Is that correct? MR. HENRICKS: Only them. MR. DILL: Yeah. But apparently UPW, HGEA was - MR. HENRICKS: Silent. MR. DILL: I haven’t been able to look at the other stuff, but I agree. Why don’t we-- MR. HENRICKS: --Mr. Chairman, can I make a motion, please? MR. DILL: Sure. MR. HENRICKS: In essence what’s occurred here is I think we’re stuck in a very, very narrow legal matter. That’s where I see it, anyways. It’s very, very narrow and a very, very complex legal matter we got ourselves caught up in. And we have just got some input from the attorney general as to what she sees--some of those cases that may be relevant to that legal matter, and I’ve just received those cases so I haven’t been able to go over them carefully. So therefore what I would request is I would request a continuance to allow me to go over that legal matter, because it’s going to come down to a legal issue, as far as I’m concerned, and I’ve got to resolve that legal issue in my mind before I can go forward. So knowing that, I’d like to ask for a continuance. So I make a move that we continue to next time to go over the legal matters that are before this Board. MR. BALSIS: I’ll second the motion. MR. DILL: All right, we have a motion and a second to continue this to allow for time to review the precedents that were provided to us. Actually, I don’t even see them. Can you re-send them to me? Because I got the collective bargaining agreements. I didn’t—I might have it here someplace. So we have a motion to continue this matter and a second. Any further discussion? Thanks, Arne, for clarifying. Any further discussion? MR. HISASHIMA: None. MR. BALSIS: None. MR. DILL: All in favor, say aye. MR. HENRICKS, MR. BALSIS, MR. HISASHIMA (simultaneously): Aye. MR. DILL: Aye. Opposed? Okay, we’ll continue the matter. Motion and vote: Mr. Balsis moved to go into executive session for review of the confidential matter agendized therein. Mr. Hisashima seconded the motion, and all members voted aye. 11:50 a.m.: The Board left regular session. * * * * * 11:55 a.m.: The Board returned to regular session for voting on the executive session matters 8. VOTING ON EXECUTIVE SESSION MATTERS a. Approval of the executive session minutes of September 12, 2012. Motion and vote: Mr. Henricks moved to approve the minutes with the correction noted in executive session. Mr. Balsis seconded the motion and all members voted aye. 9. ANNOUNCEMENTS Mr. Dill asked the other members if he could request a different meeting date in November from the usual second Wednesday of the month, as he had a scheduling conflict. He asked if the other members were available to meet on November 19, 20, or 21, 2012, and Mr. Balsis, Mr. Henricks, and Mr. Hisashima said they were. The secretary was instructed to schedule the meeting for one of those dates and notify the members. 10. ADJOURNMENT 11:53 a.m.: Mr. Dill adjourned the meeting. Respectfully submitted: Mary E. Fujio (with her signature) Secretary