Rather than risk pushing ethical boundaries, organizers have cancelled Children and Youth Day at the state Capitol this year and will start anew in 2016. It’s a move that will disappoint thousands of keiki, but it’s the right decision.

For the past two decades, the first Sunday of October has been devoted to kids of all ages who converge on the Capitol grounds to learn, play games, collect prizes, sing, dance, rock climb and more. It has grown into a mega- gathering of 50,000 people.

But since at least 2011, concerns have been raised over the extent to which state Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland uses legislative resources — including her staff, office and discretionary allowance — to plan, organize and support the event. Chun Oakland’s office phone number is printed on event fliers and her office, up until recently, stored 25,000 “goodie bags” that have since been moved to a church.

While there’s no questioning the merits of the event, Children and Youth Day organizers have routinely obtained permits through the city, state and Hawaii Community Development Authority to use their facilities — without having to obtain liability insurance — because it has been represented as a “state” event. The state is self-insured.

However, the keiki fair on steroids is not a state-sanctioned event — which Gov. David Ige acknowledged and said raises “some very significant questions.” And that is the root of the ethical dilemma.

Should a state legislator be allowed to use state facilities, state workers, state resources for a non-state event? No — we should be dismayed if any legislator used their office and staff for any other purpose than legislative work.

Les Kondo, executive director of the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, in an Aug. 13 email to Chun Oakland, said that the representations that the event is an activity of the state and/or the Legislature’s Keiki Caucus, “raises issues under the fair treatment law of the State Ethics Code.” That section prohibits a legislator from using his or her position to gain “unwarranted privileges, exemptions, advantages, contracts, or treatment” for herself or others, Kondo wrote.

To be clear, no one is accusing Chun Oakland of using her position for personal gain. Chun Oakland, in sincerity, believes her work with Children and Youth Day directly relates to her legislative duties. “In everyone’s mind we are doing the work of the Legislature,” Oakland told the Star-Advertiser.

Not so, evidently. Last year, and again last month, Chun Oakland and state Rep. John Mizuno, co-conveners of the Keiki Caucus, requested that the Senate and House leadership designate the planning, implementation and activities of Children and Youth Day as official activities of the Legislature.

House Speaker Joseph Souki responded that while the Legislature would allow some limited support, House leaders would not grant their request. Souki said the event “has perhaps outgrown the State Capitol grounds and the limited resources which the Legislature is able to allow.”

Senate President Ronald Kouchi, in an Aug. 20 memo to Chun Oakland, cautioned that “it would appear to be in your best interest to cease using your office, office telephone number, staff and capitol facilities for any CYD activities.”

It’s unfortunate that such a well-intentioned and well-attended event will have to reinvent itself, but it’s clear that it must be organized differently. Nonprofits and volunteers could take on more planning, including applying for permits and footing the bill for liability insurance. State workers who once worked on the project during their work week could instead donate their time off the clock. Community groups could help.

“For me it just says that this is not an important enough effort that it would rise to the government being proud of sponsoring it,” Chun Oakland said.

That’s missing the ethics point. No matter how good the intentions, legislators can’t be using their office to secure special privileges and exemptions.