There was bloodletting on the House floor yesterday, figuratively but just barely. Rep. Josh Green made several emotional speeches expressing his belief that one provision in SB945 HD1 prohibiting nepotism and extending existing restrictions on state employees or officials receiving non-bid contracts to include contracts from those quasi-independent entitites that have become popular in recent years.
But the provision Green and others objected to would prohibit any legislator or a business controlled by a legislator from landing a contract valued at more than $10,000 with any state agency “or with any body corporate or public instrumentality established by law.”
If passed into law, Green said he would be prohibited from continuing to practice medicine at Kona Community Hospital while serving as a member of the Legislature. Green filed as a candidate for Senate in District 3 on April 1.
Green accused Judiciary chairman Tommy Waters of inserting this particular provision on behalf of special interests as retaliation for Green’s aggressive advocacy of medical malpractice insurance reform. It got nasty indeed. Speaker Calvin Say at one point ordered a specific pointed reference out of order and stricken from the official record because Green had spoken about the motive he sees behind the ethics provision.
Republican Cynthia Thielen was outspoken in her attack on the bill, calling it “a punitive attack against a legislator who has worked for tort reform.”
“This bill is aimed to silence him and it’s wrong,” she said.
“This is about as low as we can go,” Thielen said angrily, while Speaker Say tried to rule her remarks out of order.
Even former Speaker Joe Souki stood to express “extreme reservations” about the bill.
Waters stood and defended the measure, citing the testimony of State Ethics Commission Executive Director Dan Mollway. But Waters sidestepped the issues by referencing Mollways comments concerning the nepotism provisions rather than anything directly concerning the contracting provision.
It seemed clear from Mollway’s testimony that he had advocated extention of the existing restrictions on nonbid contracts to include deals with quasi-public entities. But it was equally clear that the provision restricting legislators employement contracts did not originate with the commission, and he made several pointed criticisms of it.
In the end, the bill passed with Belatti, Berg, Bertram, Cabanilla, Ching, Finnegan, Green, Herkes, Marumoto, Meyer, Pine, Rhoads, Sonson, Thielen, and Ward voting no and several others voting “with reservations”.
Waters looked bad, as did the House leadership and the majority caucus for letting matters reach this stage.
I wonder whether Judiciary chairs worry about the long string for formers who have ended up paying a price for creating similar high profile perceptions of strong-arm tactics?
Speaking of the State Ethics Commission, they’ve revamped their web site. New look, new layout, new structure. It looks great, but I’m not sure if it actually works well. The older setup offered very simple navigation with only a few mouse clicks to get around and scan available public records. I found the new design more cumbersome to navigate on first foray into the new design. I’ll have to play with it a bit before making a final judement.
The House also killed SB 958 SD1 HD2 after the Agriculture Committee amended the bill to establish a moratorium on research into genetic modification of Hawaiian taro by inserting a huge poison pill, a total ban on any other restrictions of any kind on GMO research. That made the measure wholly unpalatable to opponents of GMO research, underming assertions by the committee chair it was intended as a “compromise”.
Too late to influence the debate but important nonetheless is a story in the latest issue of Vanity Fair by noted investigative reporters Donald Bartlett and James Steele targeting Monsanto, the big player in the GMO debate.
From the teaser:
Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.
I got a few laughs from my co-workers at the capitol yesterday when Meda called and asked for the license number of our car so that she could fill out a UH parking application.
I spelled it out for her: “V as in Victor, N as in Nancy, and P as in…Leo.”
Readers familiar with Leo’s attention-getting behavior will understand the joke.
Republican Cynthia Thielen was outspoken in her attack on the bill, calling it “a punative attack against a legislator who has worked for tort reform.”
punitive?