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A former State Historic Preservation Division archaeologist faces an ethics investigation into an allegation he violated the state’s “revolving door” policy by going to work for a private business before a required one-year cooling off period.

The complaint alleges Andrew McCallister stepped down as a SHPD archaeologist on Maui in April, and soon after went to work for the development consulting firm AECOM — in some cases on the same projects he oversaw at SHPD. 

“He is, in essence, reviewing and following the directives he wrote as a State employee,” Michael Dega, chief executive and principal investigator of , in Honolulu, wrote in the complaint he filed with the state ethics commission. 

On Thursdsay, Jared Elster, an Ethics Commission investigator, told Dega via email that a preliminary investigation was underway, and that the commission would be issuing a subpoena to McCallister’s firm.

The generally requires state employees to sit out for a year before representing a paying client before an agency where the state employee worked.

McCallister stepped down from the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources on April 1, an agency spokesperson confirmed. Dega’s complaint provides documentation from SHPD’s  showing McCallister is representing as an archaeologist before SHPD less than a year later, specifically on the Maui Department of Public Works’ Lila Drive Extension Project.

McCallister did not return calls for comment.

Robert Harris, executive director of the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, declined to comment on any specific matter, but said violations of the revolving-door law are rare mainly because state employees know about the restriction and are careful not to violate it.

“Generally speaking, most employees are aware of the provision and understand the reason for it,” Harris said. 

The State Ethics Code arises from the state constitution, which 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.” 

Provision Meant To Prohibit Influence Peddling

The ethics code’s post-employment provision prevents state workers from appearing to peddle influence they might have gained as state employees, Harris said. The commission gets calls regularly from former state employees making sure they’re not running afoul of the law, he said.

In some cases, it’s OK for former state workers merely to work behind the scenes for companies doing business before the agency where the employee previously worked during the cooling-off period, Harris said. But the worker is prohibited from communicating with the agency, he said.

For example, Harris pointed to an  involving Ted Shiraishi, a former administrative rules officer with the Hawaii Department of Taxation. According to a document resolving the case, in January 2023, less than a year after leaving the tax department, Shiraishi called the agency’s rules office on behalf of a private employer to discuss a tax matter. After a disagreement about the application of the tax law, Shiraishi followed up with a letter to the tax department.

Citing Shiraishi’s contrition and cooperation with its investigation, the commission fined Shiraishi $2,000.

SHPD’s archaeology branch reviews projects that have that have the potential to impact historic places and cultural resources, including ancient Native Hawaiian burial sites. To that end, the agency permits archaeological firms to conduct archaeological surveys for private developers and to submit reports to help ensure historic sites won’t be affected. McCallister’s firm, AECOM, was one of  permitted by SHPD in 2024.

Like other agencies regulating land-use and building in Hawaii, SHPD has frequently faced criticism for delaying projects. According to Dega, McCallister was particularly difficult to deal with when he was at SHPD.

Nico Fuentes, principal of Atlas Archaeology, concurred that McCallister “was difficult to work with.”

“A lot of stuff didn’t make a lot of sense when it came to his reviews,” Fuentes said.