By Alice Keesing
Advertiser Education Writer
Both the state ethics and campaign spending commissions are investigating possible violations by newly elected Board of Education member Carol Gabbard.
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| Carol Gabbard says the charges against her are "a campaign of hate."
Advertiser library photo |
Both inquiries are in response to complaints filed by Mitchell Kahle, a member of the pro-gay rights Civil Unions-Civil Rights Movement, which has opposed Gabbard’s position on the board.
Gabbard yesterday denied the claims of wrongdoing, saying they were the latest in a "campaign of hate" against her and her family.
Bob Watada, Campaign Spending Commission executive director, said his office is addressing the possible omission from Gabbard’s campaign spending report of three months’ rent for the Vineyard street office that she used during the election.
Watada said Gabbard did not report paying any rent for the space, or receiving it as an in-kind donation.
The commission has given Gabbard until the end of the month to respond.
In a written response to The Advertiser yesterday, Gabbard called the charge "nonsense" and said the office was rented by the Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values — which is headed by her husband, Mike Gabbard — and was used by many candidates.
Gabbard also has one month to answer Kahle’s complaint filed with the state Ethics Commission about alleged omissions on her financial disclosure statement.
Elected officials are required to disclose positions held by themselves or their spouse including officerships, directorships and trusteeships.
Gabbard’s filing does not include her former position as secretary of the Science of Identity Foundation or her husband’s position as president of the Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values, which helped lead the campaign against the legalization of same-sex marriage in 1998.
Gabbard said she resigned last year from the Science of Identity Foundation, which she described as a "nonprofit, nonsectarian religious organization that promotes love for God and brotherhood amongst all humankind."
And she described as "laughable" the claim that there was any attempt to hide her husband’s affiliations.
Kahle also charges that Gabbard’s association with those organizations leads to a conflict of interest in her board position.
"She is furthering the interests of an organization of which she is an agent or officer by voting on any issue that deals with ... homosexuality or sexual issues in general," Kahle said.
During last year’s election campaign, Gabbard became embroiled in the debate about whether gay students should be given specific protection under the schools’ anti-harassment rules. Gabbard opposed that provision of the measure.
The board approved the rule change prior to the election and the new board will soon vote on how to implement it.
"I and a number of other people are going to push anytime one of these issues comes before the board that (Gabbard) recuse herself," said Kahle, who also is president of Hawai‘i Citizens for Separation of State and Church, which has been involved in several disputes on religion and government, including the removal of eight wooden crosses in memory of those who died in the 1999 Sacred Falls landslide.
Ethics commission executive director Daniel Mollway said he cannot comment on specific cases, but said acting on personal beliefs does not necessarily constitute a conflict of interest. State ethics law deals more with financial conflicts, he said. The commission has yet to decide if Kahle’s charges bear weight.
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