HILO — A lingering ethics complaint against Council Chairman Dru Kanuha could be revisited next month, just a few days before the primary election.
The unresolved ethics issue is one reason Kanuha, who’s never had an opponent in his four-year political career, faces a challenger for his Kona council seat. Challenger Nestorio Domingo, 63, said Tuesday he’s emphasizing integrity in his campaign to give voters a choice. But he stopped short of criticizing the two-term incumbent councilman.
“I have some concerns with that,” Domingo said, “but I am running a clean campaign.”
Domingo, an engineer and retired chief warrant officer for the U.S. Navy who finished his career in civil service for the Air Force, said the concept of conflict of interest was “drilled into my mind,” making it second nature to avoid such situations. He moved to Kona two years ago from California.
Kanuha, 32, a graduate of Kealakehe High School, earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, with a minor in business administration, from the University of San Diego. When he returned to Hawaii, he worked a year with state Sen. Clayton Hee, an Oahu Democrat, then moved back to Kona and worked for Kamehameha Schools in the land assets division.
The ethics complaint alleges Kanuha acted improperly when he accepted $536 in airfare from the Honolulu-based Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii on Sept. 11, 2014, and Nov. 10, 2014, prior to a bill he introduced to ban electronic cigarettes anywhere conventional tobacco cigarettes are banned. The resolution was introduced Oct. 14, 2014, and passed Dec. 11 that year.
It was the second bill in as many years that Kanuha sponsored on behalf of the coalition. The other one, in 2013, raised the tobacco purchasing age from 18 to 21.
The Board of Ethics had deadlocked 2-2 on the complaint in April, and then postponed the issue until Deputy Corporation Counsel J Yoshimoto could do some legal research to decide how best to proceed. A tie is generally considered a “no” vote, but the wording of the motion left some doubt as to whether the issue was really dead, Yoshimoto said Tuesday.
He said the Ethics Board chairwoman will decide when to schedule it now that his research is completed. Chairwoman Ku Kahakalau said Tuesday that she wasn’t ready to discuss the schedule, having just flown back to the island from Australia.
The Ethics Board next meets Aug. 9. The primary election is Aug. 13.
The issue has been lingering since September, when Irie Hawaii Smoke Shops owner Mariner Revell filed a complaint, saying the two flights to Honolulu were gifts from lobbyists trying to influence Kanuha’s vote.
Kahakalau and Vice Chairman Kenneth Goodenow in April voted to dismiss the complaint, while board members Douglass Adams and Rick Robinson voted to uphold it, and member Darnel “Pili” Kalele recused herself from the vote. She said she abstained from voting because she knows Kanuha.
Kanuha had earlier been cleared by the Ethics Board of a complaint that he was listening to unregistered lobbyists rather than his constituents after the Tobacco-Free lobbyists registered with the county and both they and Kanuha apologized.
Kanuha was ready Tuesday to put it all behind him. He said it won’t matter if it’s done right before the election.
“Whether the board takes it up now or later will not be an issue,” Kanuha said. “I am looking forward to being cleared of this complaint.”
Revell agreed the case has gone on long enough. He said some board members were too biased to make a factual determination.
“At this point, it’s all just a waste of time,” Revell said. “The Ethics Board is joke. It’s a mockery of a board.”