School Cleared In Ethics Case
The Hawaii Supreme Court has聽overturned a conflict-of-interest case due to conflicting state statutes.
The Hawaii Supreme Court has cleared Connections New Century Public Charter School聽employee Eric Boyd of ethics violations stemming from 2006.
The court ordered the Hawaii State Ethics Commission to dismiss the case that its former executive director, Les Kondo, brought against Boyd.
The justices determined there were two conflicting state statutes governing standards of conduct involving conflicts of interest for charter school employees, and that Boyd was exempt because of this inconsistency.
Ted Hong, Boyd’s attorney,聽said in a statement that the Ethics Commission’s former leadership聽should have listened to their arguments聽鈥渋nstead of ruining Eric鈥檚 life and dragging his name through the mud” for the past six years.
The commission charged Boyd in 2010 with 26 counts of violating the state Ethics Code. In 2012, the commission reduced it to 20 counts. After a two-day hearing, the commission found Boyd had violated the Ethics Code and imposed a $10,000 fine.
The strongest counts involved Boyd 鈥 the school’s聽administrative assistant who also owns and runs a food service business with his wife 鈥 signing off on payments to himself for providing hundreds of school meals and selling thousands of dollars worth of electronics equipment to the school.
The case involved a $100,000-a-year contract for the food services alone at the Hilo-based K-12 school, which enrolls more than 350 students. It was the commission’s first contested case in 27 years.
On appeal, the 3rd Circuit Court reduced the number of violations to nine and dropped the fine to $4,500, but聽then last year the Intermediate Court of Appeals denied Boyd’s appeal and reinstated聽all charges and penalties.
鈥淭he lesson of my case is to fight for what you believe in and it is something I teach my kids everyday,鈥 Boyd said in a statement.
Read the court decision below.
