The Honolulu Ethics commission fielded 60% more queries and reviewed 42% more enforcement filings in 2021 versus the previous year, according to its first-ever annual report.
The report, released this week, documents a significant increase in activity (due in part to the 2020 elections, which resulted in a change in city and county administration and five new City Council members) that was ably absorbed thanks to increases in funding and personnel and a pair of charter amendments that allowed the commission to work with greater independence and enhanced capacity.
The commission already reports statistics on legal advice, training, enforcement, disclosures and its lobbyist program annually via the City and County of Honolulu’s Department and Agency Reports. However, it said the new standalone annual report is part of an effort to provide greater transparency and accountability.
“An annual report provides citizens with public disclosure of our activities over the past year,” said Commission member Peter Adler. “There is much work yet to do, but this is a step towards restoring public trust and building the ethics program that our city deserves.”
The seven-member commission is charged with administering the standards of conduct and ensuring that approximately 10,000 elected and appointed officials and city and county employees understand and abide by the ethical standards that govern their work.
Last fiscal year, the commission reviewed 860 “contacts” compared to 536 the previous year. The most frequent topic of inquiry was ethics training (187 contacts), followed by financial disclosures (141) and misuse of city resources (68). The commission provided legal responses to 836 contacts, an increase of 58% over 2020.
Regarding the 2020 election, the report stated that outgoing administrators and council members sought advice on post-city employment and adhering to the one-year “cooling off” period while incoming officials sought guidance on conflicts of interest, use of city resources and gifts.
The Commission received 128 enforcement filings for review, compared to 90 in 2020, some of which resulted in investigations and corrective action. The most frequent types of filings were for misuse of city position or resource (20), benefit or disadvantage of another (18), conflicts of interest (18) and political activity (14).
Again, because of the 2020 elections and turnover within the administration and City Council, the number of initial, annual and leaving-office disclosures reviewed by the Commission increased to 1,044 from 811 a year before.
In contrast, the number of lobbyist registrations, annual reports and terminations reviewed drop 4% to 401 in FY 2021 from 419 the year prior.
Ethics attorneys provided 320 informal opinions (those shared via phone, email or other medium), an increase of 64% over FY 2020, and three formal advisories in written form, matching the previous year’s total.
The Commission also provided ethics training to 11,626 officers and employees over the fiscal year 2020-2021 biennium that was extended by six months due to the pandemic.
The increased productivity was made possible by increased funding to expand its staff from five to 11 full-time positions. This offset cuts to the Commissions budget for travel expenses, contract monies for conflict-of-interest and complex cases and salary increases.
“We are grateful to the mayor and his administration and Honolulu City Council for enhancing resources needed to grow and strengthen city ethics and lobbyist programs,” said Commission chair David Monk.
The new positions included an assistant executive director, attorney, investigator, training specialist, administrative specialist and private secretary.
