Mayor Kenoi’s commitment to strengthen the County’s ethic laws is commendable. In the wake of various allegations of procurement contract tie-ins to County employees, Mayor Kenoi is committing to work with the Ethics Board and the County Council to make necessary changes.Kenoi said: “We are committed to a fair and open procurement
process, and we want to avoid any perception that the process improperly favors any vendor.” See 5-27-09 West Hawaii Today “Kenoi Promises Stronger Ethics Code” (page 4A)

I would like this effort to be a first step, not a last step, to improving ethics in County government. For example a next step should be prohibiting appointed heads of departments who have since left office from being hired by the entities that were regulated by that County department– at least for a reasonable amount of time. For example, should the previous Planning Director now be representing one of the developers whose development he approved so many months ago?

Other states have such ethics laws and ordinances in place, but Hawaii does not.