Bills moving for government transparency
Mar. 3—Bills calling for more transparency for lawmakers and state boards continue to move through the Legislature.
Bills calling for more transparency for lawmakers and state boards continue to move through the Legislature.
The Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct was created following the February 2022 guilty pleas of disgraced former Senate Majority Leader J. Kalani English and now-former Rep. Ty J.K. Cullen. They pleaded guilty in federal court to accepting bribes to support and kill legislation on behalf of Milton J. Choy, owner and manager of a company called H2O Process Systems.
The Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct was chaired by retired Judge Dan Foley, who told the House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, "Thank you so much for hearing every commission bill, even those that have companion bills through the Ethics Commission and Campaign Spending Commission. It is deeply appreciated, and I think it serves a public purpose."
The Legislature aimed to address the 31 recommendations made by the Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct with 16 bills including their companions still alive. Three bills that the commission did not recommend call for a year-round Legislature and more campaign funding transparency.
Bills that continue to move based on the commission's recommendations :—House Bill 727 and its companion, Senate Bill 1425, limit uses of campaign funds that are directly related to candidates' campaigns.—HB 732 allows the state Campaign Spending Commission to presume a violation of campaign spending laws if a respondent fails to explain or respond to a complaint alleging a campaign spending violation.—HB 707 establishes a Class C felony to make false claims against the state, county or any of their departments and agencies. Anyone convicted would be barred from public office for 10 years.—HB 710 and its companion, SB 1422, would establish a Class C felony for using or making false statements within the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the state and counties. Anyone convicted would be barred from public office for 10 years.—HB 711 and its companion, SB 1421, establish the offense of fraud as a Class B felony and disqualify anyone convicted from holding public office for 10 years.—HB 712 and its companion, SB 1426, encourage state boards to maintain electronic audio and visual recordings of board meetings on their websites and require boards to provide the state archives with the recordings before removing them from their websites.—HB 717 prohibits legislators and state employees from hiring or promoting relatives and household members and from making or participating in certain employment-related decisions. It would also prohibit awarding a contract to or taking official action on a contract with a business if the legislator's or employee's relative or household member is an executive officer or holds a substantial ownership interest in that business.
Rep. David Tarnas (D, Hawi-Waimea-Waikoloa ) chairs the House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee and said in a statement that the House has adopted revised House Rules regarding nepotism. He recommended that the House pass amendments to focus on establishing a nepotism policy for state employment and to include a section regarding hanai relationships.—HB 723 and its companion, SB 1427, expand the application of the state's Sunshine Law to legislatively appointed bodies, including task forces, working groups, special committees and select committees. It would also require the Senate and House to hold public hearings on a biennial basis to solicit professional and public feedback on how chamber rules can better comply with the intent of the law.—HB 724 amends the prohibition against contributions to a candidate committee or noncandidate committee by state and county contractors to include state and county grantees and the owners, officers and immediate family members of a state or county contractor or state or county grantee.—HB 726 and its companion, SB 1420, prohibit state and county elected officials from soliciting and accepting campaign contributions during any regular session or special session of the state Legislature, including any extension of any regular or special session, recess days, holidays and weekends.
Other bills that were not based on the commission's recommendations :—HB 463 lowers the threshold for disclosure of campaign expenditures for noncandidate committees to $100. The bill states that Hawaii's current campaign finance laws "fail to reveal the source of campaign expenditures for non-candidate committees when the expenditures are under $1, 000."—The latest version of HB 141 and its companion, SB 188, require every state legislator to disclose the names of lobbyists with whom they have a financial interest. The bills are part of the state Ethics Commission package.—The latest version of SB 149 requires the Legislature to meet year-round, creates a two-year deadline for bills to be submitted and standardizes the number of days in which the governor must approve or veto bills.
