Posted on: Tuesday, May 13, 2003

ISLAND VOICES
Legislature failed us on ethics

By Daniel J. Mollway
Executive director of the Hawai'i State Ethics Commission

The Legislature's attempt to pass ethics reform legislation was a dismal failure. The following is a summary of eight ethics reform "no-brainers" killed this session:

• The Legislature failed to expand the state ethics code's conflicts-of-interests law. Under current law, a conflict only arises when a state official takes action affecting, for example, a business in which the official or the official's spouse or dependent child has a financial interest.

• It failed to expand the law to include the financial interests of other immediate family members, such as siblings, parents and emancipated children, as well as household members. A state official is thus free, for example, to award a hefty contract to a company owned by his or her adult child.

• It failed to reduce the threshold for disclosing gifts from the current $200 to a more sensible $100.

• It failed to close "loopholes" in the state ethics code's financial interests disclosure law. Thus, state officials do not have to report their financial interests in businesses or property outside of Hawai'i.

• It failed to amend the disclosure law to require the disclosure of the names of clients who contribute in excess of $25,000 to the business of a state official, or income of 25 percent or more of a state official's business. Thus, state officials are only required to report the name of a business in which they have a financial interest, even if the business obtains most of its income from a single client.

• The Legislature failed to pass legislation that would have barred companies from paying for, or supplementing, a state official's salary.

• It failed to pass legislation that would have required the disclosure of legislators' campaign fund-raisers if held 30 days prior to the opening of the legislative session, or if held during the legislative session. Passage of such a disclosure law would have allowed the public to see whether legislators time their campaign fund-raisers around critical legislative dates.

• The Legislature failed to address legislators' own conflicts of interests. A new law in this area would have established a reasonable conflict-of-interests rule for legislators, along with an appropriate rule for the disclosure of any potential conflict of interests.

Ethics is the cornerstone of democratic government. If legislators are unable to responsibly address these issues, there is something terribly amiss in Hawai'i.