Maricopa Chamber Ethics Blog

maybe we should visit the islands

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Last modified: September 1, 2007

In our little city we occasionaly have some conflict of interest, perhaps we should take some notes from Hawaii.

Hawaii lawmakers urged to adopt ethics rules

By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Government Writer

State House lawmakers should adopt new conflict-of-interest rules to prevent lawmakers from voting on bills when they have direct personal or financial interests, the executive director of the state Ethics Commission told a House task force yesterday

The House has an internal code of conduct that warns lawmakers against using their offices to advance personal or private interests but none of the conflict-of-interest rules in state ethics law apply to lawmakers.

“If the public is suspicious, then government really isn’t going to work,” said Dan Mollway, the commission’s executive director.

The task force is considering the creation of a permanent House ethics committee that may be divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans. The committee would handle ethics complaints against lawmakers that may not fall within the jurisdiction of the Ethics Commission, such as conflicts of interest or outside conduct that casts the House in a poor light.

House leaders already have the power to form special committees to investigate lawmakers and recommend punishment to the full House, but such committees rarely have been used to police behavior.

Questions about conflicts of interest have come up in the House during the past two sessions. In 2006, state Rep. Jerry Chang, D-2nd (S. Hilo), privately told colleagues he had a potential conflict on a $50 million tax credit for a new motorsports facility at Kalaeloa. Chang had an ownership interest in a company that had offered to exchange land in Hilo with the state so motorsports developers could acquire the Kalaeloa parcel from the state. The bill was quickly tabled after Chang’s disclosure.

read the entire article at http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070822/NEWS02/708220387/1006/NEWS02