The Honolulu Ethics Commission issued a formal opinion Wednesday that City Council member Andria Tupola improperly used city funds to buy materials for COVID-19 community events put on by her former private employer.

Tupola, who represents District 1 covering the west side of the island, used about $1,500 in public funds to pay for banners, chairs and promotional materials for COVID-19 vaccination and testing events at S&G Labs Hawaii, where she was the executive director of operations.

The councilwoman has returned $1,119 and will be giving the city about $400 worth of chairs that she bought for the event, according to her spokesman.

Tupola resigned from S&G Labs Hawaii several weeks ago.

S&G Labs Hawaii is not an approved vendor by the city, and a city spokesman said there is no record of any funds being paid to the business.

Tupola explained that S&G Labs Hawaii did pay to reimburse the city for the materials since the Ethics Commission made its ruling.

“I immediately went to S&G Labs, and I said, ‘You guys are going to have to pay for this. They said that you guys were involved,’” she said.

“They consented to cover their costs.”

Each of the Council members gets a $25,000 annual contingency allowance each fiscal year that can be used broadly, although there are guidelines that prohibit using the money on alcohol or lavish meals.

Tupola purchased items for S&G Labs Hawaii’s COVID-19 events using her allowance between August and September 2021, according to her posted expense reports.

On Aug. 30, Council Chairman Tommy Waters made funds available to support COVID-19 vaccination efforts through the Council Serv­ices department budget. Tupola then asked for reimbursement of funds she spent on the S&G Labs events, with the funds going back to her ACA, according to emails obtained by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Council Services staff saw that the events were put on by S&G Labs and declined to do the reimbursement saying it could be in violation of state law. Tupola said that she reached out to Honolulu Ethics Director Jan Yamane, who she said gave broad verbal permission on the matter over the phone.

“She said, ‘I don’t really see any conflict here. Especially because you have not only used S&G, but also handfuls of other people: Project Vision Hawaii, Kaiser (Permanente), (Hawaii Pacific Health),” Tupola said.

“I waited to get a formal ruling on it … as soon as they have their rulings, and they said, ‘OK, these ones allowed, these ones not,’ then we immediately submitted the reimbursement back to the city.”

Emails between Council Services staff and Tupola’s office indicate that Tupola continued trying to get the reimbursement for her ACA while the Ethics Commission was deliberating.

“There were also efforts thereafter on the part of Council member Tupola to try and have (Council Serv­ices) reimburse these expenses, which we were able to decline by pointing to the ongoing Ethics investigation,” wrote a staff member in a December email to Waters.

“This included a follow-up inquiry with Ethics regarding Tupola’s claim that the Executive Director for the Ethics Commission gave approval verbally (of which we subsequently learned that was not the case).”

The Ethics Commission issued its formal opinion on the matter Wednesday.

“City officer’s relationship with City Officer’s non-city employer is a conflict of interest with the city because city funds were used to benefit the non-city employer,” wrote the Ethics Commission.

“Further, City Officer gave preferential treatment to City Officer’s non-city employer when City Officer approved reimbursement with city funds for monies spent to affect events in which non-city employer was a primary participant.”

Sandy Ma, the director of watchdog group Common Cause Hawaii, said the Ethics Commission’s conclusion was reason for concern. “Any amount of money that’s public dollars, is a lot of money … it’s our tax dollars … every penny counts,” she said.

“Why are they taking my money to enrich their private employer? It ultimately goes back into their pocket.”

Ma said she wants to see more detailed expenditure reporting, noting that Tupola’s expenses were listed as, “banner patch stickers for Kapolei &Waianae Mall COVID-19 testing &vaccination event,” with no indication of who was running the events.

Ma said she thinks that ACA funds should be used to connect with constituents.

Tupola is not the only Council member to have her allowance usage questioned. Council member Heidi Tsuneyoshi’s spending on an advertising and public relations firm raised eyebrows in 2019. Tsuneyoshi continues to pay about $929 a month for social media support.

Since taking office in January 2020, Tupola spent $8,185 on photo and video shoots and other marketing services, including design of a website that is separate from her honolulu.gov landing page.

Vendors who shot photos and videos and created marketing materials included Valen Ahlo, a local filmmaker and actor; Ijfke Ridgley, a fashion and travel photographer; and Shane Perry Marketing, which also worked on Tupola’s gubernatorial campaign in 2018.

“A lot of what we use is to help support the community, and show the results and the efforts of the things that they’ve asked for. And then some of it was for professionalism on the website, as far as shots of the photo of the staff members here at the Honolulu Hale,” Tupola said.

“It was for the transparency and for the benefit of the public to see all of the things the initiatives that we’re working on in the community.”

She asked Waters for a communications budget for Council members so that they do not need to use their allowance for those types of expenses.

While Council members generally use their ACA funds to purchase honorary certificates for community members and refreshments for town halls, they frequently differ on bigger purchases.

While Tupola and Tsuneyoshi use their funds to make bigger purchases related to marketing, Council members such as Brandon Elefante and Esther Kiaaina have used their allowances to attend legislative policy conferences on the mainland or neighbor islands. Council member Augie Tulba used some of his allowance for a video camera. Council members Radiant Cordero and Calvin Say’s largest purchases are for paper and stamps.

“Common Cause Hawaii would really like these discretionary funds to be used to reach out for their constituents, to let the constituents know what is going on within their neighborhoods, within their communities, to improve the lives of their constituents, and not to make flattering montages of themselves, you know, have these glamour shots,” Ma said.

“This money should really be made to outreach to people to find out what their constituents need, what could improve their lives and not to make themselves look good for reelection, or to get elected to higher office.”