September 28, 2005 minutes, Official Web Site for The City and County of Honolulu

MINUTES

ETHICS COMMISSION

CITY AND COUNTY OF HONOLULU

Date and Place: September 28, 2005

Standard Financial Plaza

Conference Room, Suite 211

Present: Robin D. Liu, Chair

Lex R. Smith, Vice Chair

Susan S. Heitzman

Raymond H. Fujii

Matthew H. Kobayashi

Wayne T. Hikida

Cynthia M. Bond

Charles W. Totto, Executive Director and Legal Counsel (EDLC)

Matthew J. Viola, Outside Counsel

Stenographer: Norm Fisher

I. CALL TO ORDER

The 388^th meeting of the Ethics Commission (Commission or EC) was called to order at 11:40 a.m. by the Chair.

II. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE OPEN SESSION OF THE AUGUST 30, 2005 OPEN MEETING

The minutes of the open meeting of August 30, 2005, were unanimously approved.

III. OLD BUSINESS

A. Confirming the date and time of the October 18, 2005 meeting and setting the date and time for the November 2005 meeting

The EC confirmed the date and time for the October 18, 2005 at 11:30 a.m. and set the date and time for the November 15, 2005 at 11:30 a.m. meeting in the Standard Financial Plaza Conference Room, Suite 211.

The Executive Director and Legal Counsel (EDLC) referred to his memorandum dated September 21, 2005, outlining the total amount of web site hits and ethics training conducted to date in fiscal year 2006.

The EDLC reported that the EC was provided with a copy of the Ethics Commission’s Fiscal Year 2005 Annual Report via e-mail.

C. Report and recommendation regarding adopting Guidelines on Gifts to City Agencies

The EDLC reported that over the last few years, the Commission has received many questions from city department representatives about gifts to city agencies. The EDLC drafted Guidelines on Gifts to City Agencies reflecting the advice offered by the Commission staff. The EDLC stated that these guidelines are intended to replace the Guidelines on Gifts in Conjunction with Conferences and the Revised Guidelines on Gifts of Travel, Lodging and Meals in Connection with Travel, which were formulated long before the EC approved the Revised Guidelines on Gifts last year, and are inconsistent with some of the Gift Guidelines provision.

The EC moved, seconded, and unanimously carried to defer this topic until the next meeting.

A. Approval of the minutes of the executive session of the August 30, 2005 meeting

The minutes of the executive session of August 30, 2005 were unanimously approved.

The EC moved, seconded, and unanimously carried to adopt the City of Honolulu’s employee evaluation form to use for the evaluation process of the EDLC.

The commissioners were instructed by the Chair to complete the evaluation of the EDLC and submit the completed form to Commissioner Ray Fujii no later than one week before the October 18, meeting.

C. Request for formal hearing regarding the possible violation by a city employee of RCH Section 11-104 (misuse of city position or resources) by increasing overtime payments to employees at a city

The EDLC requested that this item be removed from the agenda. The EDLC reported that the city employee is no longer requesting a hearing before the EC.

The EC instructed the EDLC to prepare a memorandum outlining the details of this case.

The EC moved, seconded, and unanimously carried to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 12:10 p.m.