Hawaii County will pay travel expenses but not legal fees for a deputy corporation counsel to come from Maui to advise the Board of Ethics on charges against Mayor Billy Kenoi, following a vote Wednesday by the Hawaii County Council.
But it remains to be seen whether the Board of Ethics, down to just three members from its legal complement of five, will be able to hear the case when it meets Wednesday. If just one member recuses him- or herself, the board will not have a quorum to continue its work, said Acting Chairwoman Ku Kahakalau.
“I don’t know if anyone is going to or not. It’s always a question,” Kahakalau said.
Members of the Board of Ethics are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the County Council. All three of the current members are Kenoi appointees.
Kapaau resident Lanric Hyland, in his petition, charges that Kenoi violated the county ethics code provision prohibiting county officials and employees from using their official positions “to secure special privileges, consideration, treatment or exemption to themselves or any person beyond which is available to every other person.”
At issue is the mayor’s use of his county-issued credit card for personal and campaign expenses. So far, he’s paid back $31,112.59 of the $129,580.73 he charged during his tenure. He said he cut up his purchasing card, known as a pCard, and his account has been revoked.
State Attorney General Douglas Chin began investigating Kenoi’s pCard use last month after West Hawaii Today made some of his purchases public. About a dozen subpoenas should be arriving this week to county offices seeking credit card receipts and other information. Another subpoena asks for raw videos of an interview Kenoi gave to local media last month, Hawaii News Now reported Tuesday.
The County Council agreed 8-0 in open session Wednesday to allow the county Office of Corporation Counsel to recuse itself from the Kenoi case, as well as a case filed last year against the former Board of Ethics and corporation counsel. That case, filed by Keaau resident Dan Cole, had been held over from the 2014 Board of Ethics after the three board members at the time recused themselves because they were named in the complaint.
As the Cole case demonstrates, recusal by Kenoi’s appointees to the Board of Ethics in the Hyland case could put the complaint in limbo. If the Board of Ethics waits until a new mayor appoints members, Kenoi, who is term-limited after 2016, would then be out of office, and outside the reach of the Board of Ethics.
Council action on Wednesday, first scheduled to be behind closed doors in executive session, was brought out in public at the request of Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille.
“We all talk abut transparency and open government and this should be an open discussion,” Wille said. “I don’t think we should be just jumping into executive session. … This is all part of the problem and why we’re here.”
Wille pushed Corporation Counsel Molly Stebbins about what would happen if a Board of Ethics member recuses from the case. And, she questioned whether the council could get involved under a section of the county ethics code that allows the council to set penalties by ordinance.
“I’m also concerned … if everything gets pushed off and we’re just a spineless entity,” Wille said.
Stebbins, who has asked that her office not be involved in the case because of a possible conflict because she’s a Kenoi appointee, said she doesn’t want to speculate on what could happen.
“I don’t want to say anything that would influence what the board might decide,” Stebbins said, adding that the Maui corporation counsel will be “completely independent from our office. .. We’ve taken steps to screen our office from the Board of Ethics.”