Honolulu Ethics Commission to review city gift-giving bill
The Honolulu Ethics Commission is scheduled to meet today to discuss the recently adopted gift-giving measure aimed at city employees.
Crafted with the assistance of the Ethics Commission, Bill 23 is supposed to tighten existing rules that bar city workers from accepting gifts valued in excess of $50, also clarifying which gifts may be solicited or accepted.
The legislation, introduced in April by City Council Chair Tommy Waters and Vice Chair Esther Kia‘aina, is mainly meant to prohibit city employees from soliciting, accepting or receiving gifts from lobbyists or other third-party sources in relation to their official duties. The Council formally adopted the bill June 5.
It replaces Bill 26, a similar 2022 measure that expired earlier this year after surpassing its two-year deadline without Council passage. The 2022 bill, introduced by Waters, materialized in the wake of public corruption scandals at the Honolulu Police Department and city Department of Planning and Permitting.
As defined, a gift means any gift, whether in the form of money, goods, a service, a loan, travel, entertainment, hospitality or a thing “of value, favor, gratuity, commission, or promise of a gift in such form or any other form” received by a city employee from anyone doing business with the city.
Laurie Wong-Nowinski, the Ethics Commission’s assistant executive director and legal counsel, said there likely will be a discussion over the future of Bill 23.
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“We’ll probably be talking about our plans for rollout, and our outreach efforts,” she told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser on Tuesday. “We’re working on drafts right now of administrative rules,” and “newsletters/informational flyers to help guide the city employees and officers on what the changes are and how they can comply.”
Bill 23 still awaits the mayor’s signature for it to become city law, she said.
In addition, the commission might receive updates on a resolution calling for a voter-approved charter amendment to cap the annual pay of Council members.
The Council voted unanimously June 5 to adopt Resolution 105, which is designed to prevent the city’s top legislative body from approving its own future salary increases.
As adopted, the resolution seeks to limit the powers of the Honolulu Salary Commission — the appointed, volunteer body that annually establishes salaries for all elected officials, including the mayor, Council and prosecuting attorney, among other city workers.
As approved, the following question would be placed on the 2024 general election ballot: “Shall the Revised City Charter provisions relating to the salaries for Council members be amended to cap any annual increase at no more than five percent, require that any changes be tied to the average annual salary changes of city employees in the city’s collective bargaining units, and remove the Council’s authority to vote on its own raises?”
Another agenda item — to review the annual evaluation for the Ethics Commission’s Executive Director and Legal Counsel Jan Yamane — may be referred to a closed-door executive session.
Yamane has led the commission since 2016 when she replaced Charles Totto, who resigned from then-Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration. Previously, Yamane was acting state auditor after longtime Auditor Marion Higa retired in 2012.
COMMISSION MEETING
>> Where: Kapalama Hale Conference Room 153, 925 Dillingham Blvd.
>> When: 11:30 a.m.
