HILO — A bill seeking a larger Board of Ethics with more County Council authority over its members found very little traction Tuesday in the council Finance Committee.
HILO — A bill seeking a larger Board of Ethics with more County Council authority over its members found very little traction Tuesday in the council Finance Committee.
The committee gave the bill a negative recommendation on a 2-6 vote, with Hilo Councilman Dennis “Fresh” Onishi absent. Only Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille, the bill sponsor, and North Kona Councilwoman Karen Eoff voted yes.
Bill 101 would have put a charter amendment on the ballot asking voter approval to expand the Board of Ethics from five to nine members, with one member from each council district. Each County Council member would have submitted two names to the mayor, who would pick one from each district and send the nomination to the council for confirmation.
“The position of mayor, regardless of who it is, is the one position where there’s no supervisor … there’s no peers,” Wille said. “You have one person in the county who is essentially above the law unless that one board takes action.”
Wille said the current board is “totally dysfunctional.” She pointed out that the Ethics Board, which has only three members, hasn’t met since August since it can’t field a quorum — the minimum number of members needed to legally conduct business — for a meeting. The mayor hasn’t submitted nominations for the two vacant seats in several months.
Kailua-Kona resident Cheryl King also questioned the vacancies.
“What would you propose to do if for some reason the mayor just doesn’t nominate someone to fill Ethics Board positions, even if there are applicants, as has happened recently?” King asked.
But opposing council members such as Hamakua Councilwoman Valerie Poindexter characterized the bill as a “knee-jerk reaction” to the current situation, where Mayor Billy Kenoi is being investigated by the Ethics Board and the state attorney general for misuse of his county-issued credit card, known as a pCard.
“The most important checks and balance is the people, because they voted,” Poindexter said. “You vote for the person you want for mayor.”
Wille insisted her bill wasn’t a “Billy-did-wrong-centric bill,” saying issues with the Ethics Board predate his administration.
The mayor’s office had put nominations on hold while the investigation, which began in April, was being resolved, but has since resumed vetting nominees for the seats, Executive Assistant Charmaine Shigemura, who is tasked with filling boards and commissions, said Tuesday. She said Managing Director Wally Lau is taking the lead on the nominations.
“There will be questions, no matter what,” Shigemura said. “We’re aware of the situation and we do want to get people on the board.”
Kenoi, in a text message, affirmed the new course of action.
“The managing director is currently working with the chair of the Board of Ethics to forward names to the County Council for their consideration,” Kenoi said Tuesday.
Most council members said the current system where the mayor appoints and the council confirms is similar to all other boards and commissions. It’s important for the separation of powers and the system of checks and balances for that process to continue, they said.
“Amending the charter is a very serious thing that we undertake,” Eoff said. “We don’t legislate through the charter. It is the foundation of this government … We were presented a unique situation in this point in time .. I don’t think we should go too far.”
Eoff unsuccessfully tried to change the bill so that the Ethics Board could be expanded to include a member from each council district, while keeping the mayor as appointing authority and the council as the confirming body. Some West Hawaii council members and residents worried that the board too often consists of East Hawaii members, with meetings held only in Hilo.
Hilo Councilman Aaron Chung opposed that idea. The Ethics Board is a quasi-judicial body, he said, and it would be unwieldy with nine members.
“You don’t have nine judges doing something,” Chung said.
Wille also opposed Eoff’s measure, saying the entire appointment process needs to be changed.
“Whether you pick out your buddies from one council district or from nine districts really doesn’t make a difference,” Wille said.
The bill will be forwarded to the council — composed of the same members as the Finance Committee — for an official vote.