Takai, D-34th (Pearl City, Newtown, Royal Summit), and chairman of the House Committee on Higher Education, was not available for further comment because he is on the Mainland doing National Guard training.

According to documents submitted with his complaint, Takai, a frequent Dobelle critic, said the Moloka'i Chamber of Commerce paid for Dobelle's trip to that island Dec. 10 and 11, 2001, to attend meetings with Maui Community College personnel and others. Takai also included documents that indicate Dobelle's hotel costs as part of the Governor's Aloha Mission to Japan were paid by the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau.

According to Dan Mollway, executive director of the Ethics Commission, ethics laws require any state official or employee to file gift disclosure statements if they receive $200 or more in gifts from a single source if they take action affecting that source.

Takai's office released to The Advertiser a letter he wrote March 29, 2004, to Mollway filing a "formal complaint" against Dobelle "regarding the applicability of the gift disclosure law on the president's use of funds provided by the UH Foundation and other non-state entities."

Dobelle

Meanwhile, attorneys for Dobelle and the UH Board of Regents are in their third week of mediation over the firing.

UH Chief of Staff Sam Callejo wrote Takai on March 1 to say that the UH office of general counsel "has advised President Dobelle that he is not required to report expenditures from his protocol fund on his annual gifts disclosure statement."

Callejo's letter said the protocol fund provided to the university president from the UH Foundation is a "resource to assist the president in performing the duties and functions of his office ... The purpose of the protocol fund is, therefore, for a legitimate state purpose and clearly not for any personal benefit to the president and thus not a gift to the president."

According to former Gov. Benjamin Cayetano, Dobelle was invited to be part of the state's Aloha Mission in 2001 after the terrorist attacks "to establish relations with Asian universities.

"Education tourism was and has always been part of the package," said Cayetano. "Once, (former president Kenneth) Mortimer went on a mission with me to Taiwan. In any event, the trip was for the state, not for Dobelle personally."

Cayetano said that when he went on tourism missions he asked the Hawai'i Visitors Bureau to pay the expenses because of budget shortfalls.

"That was for state business, not personal," he said. "And I don't think I declared it as a gift."

Barbara Haliniak, president of the Moloka'i Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber did pay for Dobelle's trip, as they have for most CEOs they invite to the island to familiarize themselves with issues and problems. That payment included $170 for his flight, $15 for a buffet meal and $75 for lodging at Hotel Moloka'i because she asked the president to stay overnight for an evening meeting with business people.

"We didn't ask him for a special deal," said Haliniak. "It was just to learn more about this new president and what his vision was for the Moloka'i Education Center."

Haliniak said that in addition to meeting business people, the former president was introduced to students, Native Hawaiians being served at a healthcare center, and personnel at Moloka'i Hospital where he suggested scholarship link-ups with the medical school.

As a result of a question while meeting with 40 students at the Moloka'i Education Center, Dobelle followed up and saw that a video production class that students wanted was offered, said Haliniak.

Mollway, of the Ethics Commission, said he could not comment on the complaint. If there are violations, they will be referred to the governor, he said.

Attorney Rick Fried, who is handling Dobelle's mediation case with the UH Board of Regents in the wake of his firing, said he could not comment on the complaint, but would handle it for Dobelle.