A 2014 law that has had unappreciated far reaching positive effects is about to be gutted by the Hawaii Legislature. That law made the financial disclosure statements of members of key boards and commissions public, including the Board of Land and Natural Resources, the Commission on Water Resource Management and the Land Use Commission.
(I serve on the LUC, but this is written solely in my personal capacity.)
Many people will recall the large number of resignations that ensued, including five members of the LUC, four members of the Board of Regents and a CWRM member whose work as an appraiser for private water diverters had been raised as a concern during his confirmation.
What has not been explored or covered by the media is how decision-making has changed since then. This past Tuesday, March 20, I saw the CWRM — for the first time since it was created in 1987 — voluntarily order diverted water back to streams, without a citizens group filing a legal action.
The University of Hawaii Board of Regents meeting, June 2014. The Legislature is considering requiring less financial disclosure information for boards and commissions.
PF Bentley/Civil Beat
As a member of the LUC since 2014, I have participated in thoughtful and respectful public debates with my fellow members. During that time we have both moved forward with development projects and denied proposed actions that lacked sufficient disclosure.
I firmly believe that the 2014 law has attracted people to serve who were truly willing to put the state’s and the public’s interests above any private interest. I serve with extremely qualified business people, labor leaders, and others. I am not saying those who served before 2014 all had nefarious motivations — but the level of open and diverse debate is startling compared to what had held before.
Sadly, two separate Senate bills are set to gut this financial disclosure law for public officials, and they are both moving smoothly and in lock step through the Legislature.
We Are Not Stupid
A few weeks ago Civil Beat covered Senate Bill 2609, which would redact the financial information from our financial disclosures, essentially reversing the disclosure requirement passed in 2014. According to one testifier in favor of the bill, the financial disclosure requirement is a “barrier to attracting and keeping qualified nominees…”
When I read comments like that, after serving nearly four years on the LUC, it reminds me of my reaction when I hear a politician bellyache about the supposed “brain drain.” As someone who was born and raised here and has made my adult life in Hawaii I always end up thinking, “I guess all of us still here are stupid?”
In regards to SB 2609, apparently there are those of us who are qualified, and then there are those of us who are qualified.
The second bill (Senate Bill 2231) would have the same effect but in a trickier manner. It would eliminate the $10/day penalty for failing to timely file a financial disclosure statement.
Those who wish to have special interests dominate our decision-making are the real forces behind this rollback.
With this the total cost for my refusing to disclose my finances would be $75. So if I didn’t want to tell anyone I had just taken a $50,000 contract with a company that was going to appear before the LUC (I haven’t, of course) — the only cost to me to avoid that disclosure would be $75.
Both these bills passed out unanimously from the House Committee on Labor and Employment last week, and have been referred to the House Judiciary Committee for hearing. If they pass that, it is on to conference committee.
I urge that both of these bills be held, and people contact their legislators asking them to kill these measures. If the actual decision-making by these boards and commissions had become worse since 2014, if boards weren’t meeting because of a lack of quorum, we would have a problem.
However, I believe (and have observed) that the opposite is true. I can only assume those who wish to have special interests dominate our decision-making are the real forces behind this rollback. Let’s hold onto the progress we have made.
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