How To Make $250K In Just Hours A Month!
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s lucrative board position with Territorial Savings Bank has become an issue in need of a more thorough explanation.
What on earth can Kirk Caldwell possibly be doing for Territorial Savings Bank?
Caldwell鈥檚 compensation for his primary gig 鈥斅燞onolulu mayor 鈥斅燾omes in at $164,928. He spends typically two of the vacation hours he accrues each month fulfilling his duties as a member of the Territorial board of directors.
For which he makes somewhere between $200,000 and $299,999 a year. We don鈥檛 know the exact dollar figure because the disclosure forms on file with the Honolulu Ethics Commission simply require that he specify a salary range.
But that would translate into somewhere between $8,333 and $12,500 an hour based on 24 vacation hours a year 鈥斅爊ot bad work, if you can get it.
We don鈥檛 mean to suggest that Caldwell is doing anything untoward or otherwise compromising his position in City Hall although, frankly, we don’t really know. Caldwell聽has pointed out that his work with Territorial has been reviewed twice before by the city Ethics Commission 鈥斅爋nce when he was the city鈥檚 managing director 鈥斅燼nd judged to pose no conflict of interest. The city has no financial holdings with Territorial, and the bank doesn鈥檛 do business with the city.
But his Territorial role has become a point of controversy in his re-election campaign, with his two top opponents calling his board membership into question. No matter what Caldwell鈥檚 justification for the work might be, it looks questionable. How can he earn a bigger聽paycheck from an organization to which he devotes a few hours a month than from the City and County of Honolulu where leadership is more than a full-time job?
When the issue came up during an Aug. 2 debate, Caldwell explained he was asked to join the Territorial board years ago because he 鈥渦nderstand(s) their business very well鈥 and that the bank is 鈥済etting the same thing from me as when I served on the board prior to me becoming mayor.鈥
Which is what, exactly?
For the city’s top elected official in a position of public trust, avoiding the appearance of impropriety is as important as avoiding actual impropriety.
Despite the ethics opinion and the fact that he鈥檚 held this position for some time, the public scrutiny Caldwell is facing is new. In a race in which the mayor鈥檚 oversight for the city Ethics Commission is already a major issue, he should neither be surprised that the matter has come up nor that the size of compensation has raised more than a few eyebrows.
And it鈥檚 not just the size, but the fact that his Territorial compensation is going up. Only six years ago, Caldwell reported聽the range of that compensation as $25,000 to $49,999. Now, the reports show, it’s at least $200,000 and maybe closer to $300,000.
Those are big numbers, and the explanation for them may be entirely reasonable. But for the city’s top elected official in a position of public trust, avoiding the appearance of impropriety is as important as avoiding actual impropriety.
Caldwell would do well to provide a more thorough accounting of his board position. A couple of opinions from the ethics office and the very general explanation he鈥檚 offered thus far may not pass the smell test, leaving voters with unanswered questions at a time when those answers may really matter.
