KHON: Ethics officials tell lawmakers to tighten up spending

KHON2′s Always Investigating recently unveiled details about how lawmakers spend nearly $1 million a year on things like food, flowers and furniture. Staff at the Hawaii State Ethics Commission wants to see changes.

Lawmakers were given new recommendations Thursday from the watchdog agency that keeps tabs on state ethics, including how they spend the legislative allowance — about $12,000 a year per lawmaker.

Some have complained the allowance has become a personal slush fund....

read ... Slush Fund

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COMMISSION TO CONSIDER ISSUING GUIDANCE TO LEGISLATORS ON USE OF THEIR LEGISLATIVE ALLOWANCE

From Hawaii State Ethics Commission, June 5, 2014

At its June 18, 2014 meeting, the State Ethics Commission will consider whether to issue ethics guidance to State legislators regarding the use of their annual legislative allowance. The Commission’s staff has prepared recommendations for discussion by the Commission. A copy of staff’s recommendations to the Commission can be found here.

Persons who wish to provide written comments or testimony to the Commission on this issue may submit them by email to ethics@hawaiiethics.org or U.S. mail addressed to the State Ethics Commission at Suite 970, American Savings Bank Tower, 1001 Bishop Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813.

Persons who wish to provide their comments or testimony in person may attend the meeting which will be held on June 18, 2014 at 10:00 a.m. in Suite 970, American Savings Bank Tower, 1001 Bishop Street, Honolulu, Hawaii.

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APPLICATION OF THE STATE ETHICS CODE TO USE OF LEGISLATIVE ALLOWANCE FUNDS 

Hawaii State Ethics Commission June 5, 2014

The Hawaii State Ethics Commission (“Commission”) has received complaints from legislators regarding expenditures made by other legislators using state funds from their annual legislative allowance accounts. These complaints raised issues under the State Ethics Code, chapter 84, Hawaii Revised Statutes (“HRS”).

In response to the complaints, the Commission’s staff requested records from the clerks of the Senate and the House of Representatives (“House”) relating to the use of legislative allowances by all legislators in 2012 and 2013. Based on the information provided by the Senate and House clerks,1 the majority of disbursements from the legislative allowance accounts appeared to be for expenses reasonably related to a legislator’s official duties. However, some disbursements, on their face, appeared to be personal in nature and unrelated to a legislator’s official duties.

In a letter to the Senate President and the House Speaker dated February 28, 2014, the Commission’s staff identified several types of disbursements that appeared to raise concerns under the State Ethics Code, and invited the Senate and House leadership to provide their input and comments to assist the Commission in its review of this matter….

read … Full Text

Footnote 1) -- The Senate and House clerks provided the Commission’s staff with summaries of disbursements from the legislative allowance accounts that appeared to cover the period of January 2012 to October 2013. The summaries listed expenditures by legislator, the payee, date, and payment description. The Commission’s staff did not review any documents submitted by legislators to support their claims for reimbursement from their legislative allowance accounts.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Brower’s sledgehammer attack on the homeless was covered by media starting November 18, 2013 and the Star-Advertiser reported at the time that Brower had been smashing carts "over the past few weeks".  This makes it likely that he bought the sledgehammer with State money on or before October 31, 2013.  His sudden decision to refund the State for the sledgehammer seems timed to coincide with the Ethics Commission investigation into the misuse of legislative funds.

May 14, 2014:  Rep Brower Billed State for Sledgehammer Used to Attack Homeless, then suddenly decided to buy it back from State