EDITORIAL
Lawmakers must close loophole in ethics laws

It's one of those rare disputes in which both sides are right. The city prosecutor's office is using city resources to advocate for a constitutional amendment, an activity the state public defender says is unethical.

The proposed amendment would let prosecutors initiate criminal felony charges by filing written documents with a judge instead of traditional preliminary hearings or grand jury proceedings. It's easy to see why City Prosecuting Attorney Peter Carlisle and his deputies favor the amendment, and it's understandable that they are making an effort to line up voter support for it.

But state public defender Jack Tonaki is right that state ethics laws generally prohibit the use of public money or workers for political purposes, which this is.

Carlisle did the right thing by seeking the imprimatur of the Honolulu Ethics Commission and the Hawai'i State Ethics Commission before using city labor and materials to print brochures in support of the measure. We're confident the two bodies are correct that there's no technical violation.

What that suggests to us is a loophole in the law. We're willing to concede that Carlisle is within his rights. But because we support the principle that public resources should not be used to advocate for political causes, we also identify strongly with Tonaki's sentiment: "The whole thing reeks of impropriety to me."

What's needed is a clarification of the law so that public money, time and materials cannot be used to lobby a ballot issue any more than they can be used to advance the cause of a candidate.