Most County Council members don’t like the idea of enlarging the Board of Ethics, or giving the council more say over its appointees. But that didn’t stop them Wednesday from spending more than an hour in discussion before once again postponing a bill that would do just that.
“If you’re for it, vote for it; if not, vote it down already,” said an outwardly exasperated Hilo Councilman Dennis “Fresh” Onishi, the only dissenter in a 7-1 vote to postpone.
It’s not known when the bill will next be taken up.
“We’ve been going over and around and all through. We’ve been going through this a real long time,” added Council Chairman Dru Kanuha of Kona, who nonetheless voted in favor of the postponement.
Bill 101 would put a charter amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot asking voter approval to expand the Board of Ethics from five to nine members, with one member from each council district.
An earlier version would have each County Council member submit two names to the mayor, who would pick one from each district and send the nomination to the council for confirmation. After separation-of-powers questions came up, the bill sponsor, Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille, changed that part to allow a council member to name an appointee only if the mayor didn’t act to fill a vacancy within 90 days.
That still didn’t satisfy most council members, who asked that a council member be allowed to informally recommend an appointee to the mayor, rather than appoint one outright.
Some council members maintain the bill is an overreaction to the current situation, where the Ethics Board stood stagnant after being asked to investigate a complaint against Mayor Billy Kenoi, who appoints the members. Kenoi is being investigated by the Ethics Board and was indicted by a grand jury on felony theft and other charges for his admitted misuse of his county-issued credit card, known as a pCard.
The Ethics Board has struggled to achieve a quorum — the required majority to have a meeting — particularly on hot-button issues that have members recusing themselves from voting. Two new members were added several months ago, but one new member — Darnel “Pili” Kalele of Kailua-Kona — already missed her first two monthly meetings.
Hawaii County is the only county with a five-member board. Honolulu and Kauai each have seven-member boards appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council. Maui’s nine-member board is selected the same way.
“It’s clear the system is broken,” Wille said. “There’s no accountability. … The entity that is supposed to address accountability was nonfunctional.”
“The structure is not broken, the system is not broken,” said Hilo Councilman Aaron Chung, adding he’s against enlarging the board because it will make it unwieldy. “I think ethics transcends district residency.”
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.
