In Your State - Hawaii
WASHINGTON, December 13, 2001 — The Center interviewed ethics agency officials, scoured ethics agency Web sites and combed through pages of state statutes to conduct this survey of state ethics agencies. Below is a snapshot of answers for this state. See how this state ethics agency compares on staff and budget, oversight and enforcement power, among other topics surveyed. Find out what other type of ethics oversight this state has. Go to the methodology for an explanation of how the survey was conducted and what exact questions were asked.
Oversight Summary
Oversight Survey
Hawaii is one of 23 states in which an outside ethics agency oversees ethical conduct of state legislators. It is one of 13 of those states where the ethics agency also oversees personal financial disclosure for members of the legislature.
Hawaii is the only state that established outside oversight of ethical conduct and/or disclosure requirement of lawmakers prior to the Watergate scandal of 1972; the Hawaii State Ethics Commission was set up in 1968.
Hawaii, along with California and Massachusetts, are the only three states that pick ethics agency commission members without any input from the legislature.
Budget
Hawaii is among 10 states that did not approve a budget for its ethics agency exceeding the rate of inflation, or 7 percent, between 1997 and 2000. Those states include Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon and West Virginia. Two state ethics agency budgets — in Missouri and Montana — actually decreased during this time period.
Conduct
To identify the extent of outside oversight applied to state legislators, the Center included six categories of conduct often found in ethics law in the survey of state ethics agencies: conflicts of interest, improper use of
office/abuse of power, nepotism, acceptance of honorarium and gifts and
post-term employment restrictions. Of the 23 states in which there is outside oversight of ethical conduct, all have a provision dealing with lawmakers'
possible conflicts of interest. However, Hawaii's ethics agency does not oversee
one category of conduct for legislators — nepotism.
Investigation
Of the 32 two states with outside ethics and/or disclosure oversight, only two
ethics agencies — in Florida and West Virginia — cannot initiate an
investigation or investigate an anonymous complaint. Only one agency, Alabama's,
cannot issue subpoenas.
Enforcement
Only Nebraska's ethics agency can directly prosecute criminal cases against
legislators; 25 more agencies can recommend criminal prosecution to the
appropriate authority. Hawaii's ethics agency cannot do either because the law
does not provide criminal sanctions. Only Rhode Island's ethics agency has the
power to remove legislators from office; another 11 state ethics agencies can
recommend removal as part of punishment, unlike Hawaii's, which cannot.
Opinions and Investigative Findings
All 32 outside agencies that oversee some ethics and/or disclosure requirements
for legislators can issue advisory opinions. Hawaii is one of 14 states that
does not publish legislator names within the advisory opinion reports, which can
be found on the agency's Web site. In addition, Hawaii's ethics agency, like
five other states, does not have the power to make its investigative findings
binding.
Actual Findings
Just three states — Connecticut, Pennsylvania and West Virginia — have not
issued a finding against a legislator for violating disclosure-filing
requirements in the past five years. However, out of the 23 agencies that
oversee some aspect of legislative conduct, Hawaii's is one of 12 state ethics
agencies that has not issued a finding against a legislator for violating
conduct laws in the past five years.
Meetings
Hawaii is among the 18 state agencies, of 32 with oversight of ethics and/or
disclosure laws for the legislature, that have at least one public meeting per
month, however minutes for those meetings are not on the Web site. Copies can be
requested from the state agency.
Note: Some information provided by the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws' "Ethics Update" 2000. For more information or to purchase the reference, visit www.cogel.org.