Week 48: What’s Going on at Honolulu Hale?

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It’s not every day that you hear a politician declare that he’s not “a whore.”

But that’s just what Honolulu City Council Chairman Nestor Garcia told Civil Beat’s Adrienne LaFrance this week when she asked him about his $60,000-a-year consulting gig with the Kapolei Chamber of Commerce, a gung-ho rail advocate.

The revelation by KITV’s Daryl Huff that Garcia had been taking what looks like an unreasonably large sum of money for not very much work since 2009 raised questions about ethics rules at Honolulu Hale.

I think from uber-investor Warren Buffett to his employees is a good guide for public officials 鈥 one that’s much easier to understand and follow than the rules of any ethics code.

鈥淐ontemplating any business act, an employee should ask himself whether he would be willing to see it immediately described by an informed and critical reporter on the front page of his local paper, there to be read by his spouse, children and friends.鈥

It was a week where we heard a number of statements out of Honolulu Hale that made us shake our heads.

A few examples related to ethics:

  • Garcia told Civil Beat that the city’s ethics commissioner, Chuck Totto, had told him, “‘You know you’re not required under the law to disclose this.'” If you’re asking an ethics commissioner whether you need to disclose something, that’s probably a good sign that you’re feeling uncomfortable and should make sure the public knows about your potential conflict.
  • Mayor Peter Carlisle said he was “comfortable” with Garcia’s consulting gig and went on to “strongly suggest that if you look at the private sector, too, there are just as many apparent conflicts.” Huh? No offense meant to the good lawyer, but there’s a difference between when somebody is supposed to be doing the public’s business than when he’s working for a private organization. Executives in private companies disclose conflicts to their shareholders. So if Carlisle wants to follow the private model, top public officials should opt for full disclosure.

Forget Conflicts, It’s Meetings That Are Hard to Remember

Tension has been building at Honolulu Hale between some members of the City Council and the Carlisle administration. The council members are concerned about transparency when it comes to rail. Translate that to mean they don’t think they’re being told the whole story. Transportation Chair Breene Harimoto, a rail supporter, has become so concerned that he’s raised questions about whether he’ll be able to continue to back the project.

So finally he got his one-on-one with the mayor to hash out their differences. And what did the mayor tell Adrienne about the meeting?

That he couldn’t remember what was discussed when they met. It seemed like he could barely remember that they met.

Here’s his exchange with Adrienne:

Civil Beat: I wonder if you’ve had a chance to talk to Council member Harimoto about his transparency concerns.
Peter Carlisle: When I speak to him, I’ll speak to him.
Civil Beat: OK, so you can’t confirm whether you met?
Peter Carlisle: I saw him this morning.
Civil Beat: So you don’t want to talk about whether you’ve discussed鈥
Peter Carlisle: I didn’t say anything to him. I walked by in the hall.
Civil Beat: So you guys haven’t had a meeting about his transparency concerns?
Peter Carlisle: I don’t remember.
Civil Beat: That’s baloney.
Peter Carlisle: No, that wouldn’t be, that wouldn’t be, uh, that wouldn’t be baloney.
Civil Beat: You really don’t remember?
Peter Carlisle: I don’t because I spoke to him a couple 鈥 a week ago, and I forget what all the subjects were.
Civil Beat: All right…
Peter Carlisle: What, you don’t trust me now? Oh, worse and worse… I just don’t remember, OK?

If I’m Harimoto reading that, I might wonder how seriously the mayor took my concerns. Probably not the best thing…

These were just a few of the fascinating developments you would have found only on Civil Beat this week.

Here are a few others:

It’s our job to report what politicians have to say. But not just about what they want to talk about.

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