City leaders choose silence over ethical governance

This will not be the summer of ethics in Hawaii. The tradewinds die, and apparently also waning is an interest in beefing up local government ethics agencies.

The number of city and state scofflaws violating local ethics laws is not the issue; the concern is who is watching the watchers.

This year both the Honolulu County Ethics Commission and the state Ethics Commission started poking at their respective executive directors, Chuck Totto at the city and Les Kondo on the state level.

Kondo has been a "call them as I see them" sort of executive director and something of an irritant to the state Legislature since taking the job.

Kondo took over in 2011 and set an immediate new tone by telling lawmakers that they couldn’t take free tickets to expensive charity fundraisers. Recently he told state workers no way can they take free golf outings, especially from companies or individuals who have business with the state.

Along the way, both Kathryn Matayoshi, superintendent of education, and state Rep. Joe Souki, House speaker, voiced concern over Kondo’s decision on forbidding teachers from accepting free travel from tour companies on educational trips.

Grumbling that Kondo’s ethical demands are unreasonable and unrealistic has been a legislative backroom theme for years, but this year it was serious enough for it to be flagged in public.

Legislators are paid nearly $56,000 a year, plus expenses, office allowances, health and retirement benefits, so demanding that they pay for their own tickets and amusement is not an irrational request.

The state Ethics Commission kept Kondo on the job, but downgraded his performance rating from an "outstanding" in 2012 to "average" this year.

If the commission was slow to support, the lack of praise by Hawaii’s major leaders was disturbing. Only one Republican, state Rep. Gene Ward, said anything in support of Kondo and that was after the hearing was over. Neither Gov. David Ige was heard nor was any other member of the Legislature saying, "Good government means good ethics and good enforcement."

Over at the city, the complaint from the county commission was just hearing director Totto at all.

Essentially the guidance given by both that commission and city officials to Totto was, "put a cork in it."

In May, the commission formally drafted a media policy restricting Totto’s ability to "explain, clarify or give context to advisory opinions … without permission from the commission."

Star-Advertiser city hall reporter Gordon Pang checked around the country and found that gagging your ethics director or having a specific rule for when your ethics director can speak is mostly not done.

Whether the search included dog obedience classes is not known.

Totto recently slapped Nestor Garcia, a former city councilman, for not disclosing as required that he had been given free meals and golf games from lobbyists. Another councilman also reprimanded by Totto, now-state Rep. Romy Cachola, and his attorney Michael Green speculated that if Cachola and Garcia were voting improperly then their votes approving the city’s rail project should be nullified. Asked about that, Totto said that might be true.

Totto might have kept his thinking to himself, but it certainly didn’t require Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s corporation counsel to write the city Ethics Commission and call for media restrictions.

It would have been the perfect time for city officials to show leadership, but instead, they chose silence.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.