Posted on: Monday, May 9, 2005

EDITORIAL
Senate has duty to review ethics issues

Who checks up on the ethics of the state Senate? Certainly not its Democratic membership.

In the waning days of the just-past legislative session, the Senate's majority leaders — now in disarray following an unrelated power skirmish — left that responsibility to the state Ethics Commission.

The GOP, not the Democrats, summoned the commission to investigate Sen. Brian Kanno, a Democrat, accused of abusing his power by helping a man fired by Norwegian Cruise Line in a sexual harassment case. The minority caucus also petitioned Senate President Robert Bunda to remove Kanno as labor chairman.

But other than to ask the commission to be quick about it, Bunda regrettably has not moved to launch any independent proceeding to evaluate Kanno's behavior. Such a proceeding — authorized under the Senate's administrative Rule 72 — would enable the Senate to hear the issue and decide for itself whether Kanno had acted appropriately.

And, in fact, this is the more appropriate venue. Just what is the majority caucus opinion on the actions of Kanno? Does it approve or disapprove? There is no need to wait for an Ethics Commission review to answer this question.

Neither has the Senate acted in the case of Sen. J. Kalani English. Republicans also asked that the commission decide whether English was unethical for accepting free flights on Hawai'i Air Ambulance planes. The only push for an administrative review originated from outside Capitol walls, from George Fox of the public-interest group Citizen Voice.

State lawyers later decided that only senators can call for a Rule 72 inquiry.

It's important to recognize that there is no finding of wrongdoing simply because there has been a call for an ethics review, even if that review is under way. Anyone can accuse, anyone can investigate.

Still, it's appalling that this call for review never came from senators, who seem to think they have no collective duty to examine their own standards. Bunda decided by himself that English had done nothing wrong.

There's nothing wrong with Bunda arriving at that conclusion, but it would be far better for the body as a whole to consider: What are acceptable practices for state senators?

The failure to answer that question leaves voters convinced that where ethics among lawmakers are concerned, the Senate has set the bar quite low, indeed.