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Ethics Commission appoints new executive director

The Honolulu Ethics Commission today announced it has appointed Jan Yamane as its executive director and legal counsel replacing Chuck Totto.

The Honolulu Ethics Commission today announced it has appointed Jan Yamane as its executive director and legal counsel replacing Chuck Totto.

Yamane will begin her term immediately, the commission said, in a press release.

Totto resigned in June amid controversy following a series of skirmishes with city Corporation Counsel Donna Leong and commission members, particularly those appointed by Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell.

Totto has stated publicly that Caldwell’s appointees hindered his ability to manage the commission office, to which he had been a longtime appointee. This spring, Totto served a 30-day unpaid suspension for, among other things, allegedly fostering a stressful work environment. When he returned, the seven-member commission instituted a policy requiring its attorneys and investigators to complete daily work time-sheets detailing their tasks in six-minute increments.

Yamane was acting state auditor from the time longtime auditor Marion Higa retired in 2012. Les Kondo was appointed as a permanent replacement effective May 1, 2016.

32 responses to “Ethics Commission appoints new executive director”

  1. pgkemp says:

    something about that hairdo?????

  2. islandsun says:

    She will not have an impact working for Caldwell.

  3. allie says:

    I hope she has better luck than her predecessors.

  4. XlllX says:

    Is it throwback to the 80’s…i was like whats going on..

  5. Alohaguy96734 says:

    Note to self: Don’t investigate Caldwell for anything or you’ll have your budget cut and get run out.

  6. Blunt says:

    Nah. She’said a lovely lady. Want to see how fashionable she dresses. Welcome to our TV screens.

  7. st1d says:

    attended an annual ethics class in which the instructor had several videos to show during the eight hour course that included lectures, discussions and workbooks. as the end of the day approached, he realized there was no time to show the rest of the mandatory videos and he was not sure what to do.

    i asked him to hold up the videos he had left to show us, he held up two handfuls. i asked the class if they could all see the videos the instructor was holding up. when the class said yes, i thanked the instructor for fulfilling his requirements by showing us all the videos for the mandatory class.

    we were dismissed without further discussion. it was the only ethical thing to do.

  8. AmbienDaze says:

    I think she is trying to look like Justin Bieber.

  9. GoldenDisk says:

    I wonder why a big deal is made about keeping time sheets to every 6 minutes, or tenths of an hour. It is not like one has to stop every six minutes to write in the timesheet. Just note the starting time(“1:00 pm”) and the activity being worked on(“Project A”.) When done, note the ending time (“2:13 pm”). Use a spreadsheet to automatically calculate time worked to nearest tenths of an hour (“1.2 hours”). It is common among Professionals to keep log of hours worked among different Projects. In fact, all civil service City workers turn in daily timesheets.

    • saywhatyouthink says:

      Are you serious? Special Ed maybe? It’s a form of harassment designed to get an employee to quit when they have no good reason to fire him. It worked too, the message to Totto from Caldwell was loud and clear.
      If Caldwell did nothing wrong other than this, it would still be enough reason to remove him from office. He has no ethics whatsoever and is unfit to serve as Mayor or in any other public office. His public service will come to an end soon.

      • GoldenDisk says:

        It sounds worse than it is because someone decided to say reporting to 10ths of an hour is reporting to every six minute intervals. Nothing harrassing about reporting that today you worked on Project A for 0.5 hours, Project B for 3.2 hours, Project C for 2.4 hours, and Project D for 1.9 hours. The requirement was also imposed by the 7 Commissioners on all their employees, not just Totto, and the other employees haven’t quit.

    • justmyview371 says:

      It is common for professionals to fudge their time. For example, consultants often charge for every moniute on the plane from the Mainland. Right!

  10. bumba says:

    I already voted, and it wasn’t for that sleazy Caldwell.

  11. kennie1933 says:

    I just hope she is afflicted with a severe case of common sense!

  12. HRS134 says:

    Nothing like a dated glamour headshot to show the person at their best….

  13. YOTARE says:

    Ten bucks says she’s voting Djou. Only way she’ll actually be able to do her job without getting harassed by Donna Leong on orders of Krook is with Krook gone.

    Don’t worry, Ms. Yamane, I voted Djou as well and after that rigged disgrace of a “forum” that Hawaii Noose Now put on last night, Chuck D might actually hit his magic 50+1 next Saturday and send the entire lying regime packing next year.

  14. Ronin006 says:

    What have I missed? Jan Yamane worked for the state auditor’s office for more than ten years as deputy auditor and acting auditor. She was appointed as executive director and legal counsel of the Honolulu Ethics Commission, but I could not find anything to show she has a law degree or legal experience. What are her qualifications to serve as legal counsel?

  15. Pacificsports says:

    So what happened to the puppet acting director Laurie Wong-Nowinski? Or was CADwell dropping in the polls so much, including the ethics commission snafu that they had to change?

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