Lingle ethics violation alleged
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Education Writer
A school librarian filed a formal complaint against Gov. Linda Lingle yesterday with the Hawai'i State Ethics Commission, asking the commission to investigate whether the governor and her education advisory committee have violated ethics law.
The complaint asks the commission to determine whether state employees and resources can be used to help Citizens Achieving Reform in Education, a non-profit, tax-exempt advocacy group, raise money and lobby the Legislature.
Lingle has directed $65,000 in state money toward the CARE committee, according to her chief of staff, Bob Awana, and state employees have helped run the committee from the governor's policy office.
"This has all been a big question mark," said Faith Tomoyasu, a librarian at Lehua Elementary School in Pearl City, who filed the complaint.
Awana said he will meet today with Dan Mollway, the executive director of the ethics commission, to discuss the situation.
He said the governor and the committee will "do whatever is necessary to be in compliance."
Several Democrats, and some in the state Department of Education, have been complaining about the CARE committee's activities. The questions were first raised publicly Sunday in a story in the Star-Bulletin.
Mollway said he could not talk about a specific complaint for confidentiality reasons. But, speaking hypothetically, he said such a committee may violate ethics' law.
Under the law's "fair treatment" section, no state employee is allowed to use their official position to grant special privileges, advantages or preferential treatment.
Mollway said state money is supposed to be neutral, meaning that it should not go to favor one cause over another. Opponents of Lingle's education proposals did not receive the same assistance from the governor's office.
"It would seem that there is a problem," Mollway said.
An analogous situation, he said, would be if the ethics commission allowed Common Cause, a public-interest group, to operate out of its office.
Lingle selected about two dozen people to serve on the CARE committee in October to raise public awareness and build political support for her education reform plans.
The committee later formed a 501 (c) 4 organization, a nonprofit with tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, to raise money and lobby for reform.
The committee has raised $80,000, Awana said, including $50,000 from Castle & Cooke and $25,000 from Unity House, a labor group. Among its largest expenses so far were about $13,000 in radio ads and $20,000 for a statewide poll by The Tarrance Group, a Republican polling firm.
State Rep. K. Mark Takai, D-34th (Pearl City, Newtown, Royal Summit), said it appears Lingle has "crossed the line."
Reach Derrick DePledge at depledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
