Commission Welcomes Your Public Testimony on Ethics in State Government

From Hawaii State Ethics Commission, September 15, 2016

Do you have suggestions for how the State Ethics Commission can best serve the public? If so, please join us on October 20, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. for a public meeting on ethics in state government! The Commission is interested in hearing from state officials, lawmakers, lobbyists, non-profit organizations, and the general public as to how the Commission can best fulfill its constitutional duty to promote the highest ethical standards in state government.

As the Hawaii Constitution says, “The people of Hawaii believe that public officers and employees must exhibit the highest standards of ethical conduct and that these standards come from the personal integrity of each individual in government.” The Legislature passed laws to implement this mandate – specifically, the Hawaii Ethics Code (Hawaii Revised Statutes chapter 84) and the Lobbyists Law (Hawaii Revised Statutes chapter 97) – and created the Hawaii State Ethics Commission to implement and enforce these laws.

The Commission is considering its mission and how best to promote and foster integrity in state government; the Commission will discuss these questions at its October public meeting, and invites all interested individuals to participate – in person and/or in writing.

The Commission will consider issues such as whether to:

(1) ask the Legislature to amend existing laws;

(2) begin the process to pass administrative rules to interpret existing laws; and/or

(3) focus its enforcement efforts in a particular area.

The Commission intends to hold this meeting in its usual meeting location (1001 Bishop Street, Suite 960) but may move to a larger venue if necessary. To assist the Commission in its planning, kindly RSVP to ethics@hawaiiethics.org if you plan to attend (though a reservation is not necessary to attend). If you are on a neighbor island and would like to participate, please let us know; please also notify us if you require an accommodation of any kind and we would be happy to assist you.

The Commission strongly encourages those with feedback for the Commission to submit written comments in advance of the meeting (to ethics@hawaiiethics.org); this will give the Commissioners an opportunity to consider and address the community’s concerns in its discussion.

The meeting agenda will be posted on the State Ethics Commission’s website (http://ethics.hawaii.gov) no later than Friday, October 14, 2016. If you have any questions, please contact us at ethics@hawaiiethics.org or (808) 587-0460.

---30---