I’m still trying to digest yesterday’s news of the “merger” of KGMB, KHNL, and K5. If the rather self-serving coverage last night is any indication, this isn’t going to do anything for news coverage.

I did think one of those justifications was rather imaginative, when viewers were told that the deal was great because you will be able to watch the morning show on one station, and later turn to another station and continue watching it. Wow! Somehow I just don’t see that as a plus.

In any case, while thinking about the merger, I’ll pick on the remains of another recent inquiry.

How quickly some things fade into the recesses of history. Just five years ago, the State Ethics Commission advised that the UH president, and presumably similarly placed administrators, are required to disclose protocol funds received “for personal or official purposes” in annual gift disclosures required by law.

The ruling stemmed from a complaint by State Rep. Mark Takai, then chair of the House Higher Education Committee, who asked the State Ethics Commission to determine whether the UH president should disclose expenditures from so-called “protocol funds” routed through the UH Foundation.

In a March 29, 2004 complaint filed with the commission, Takai stated that if the UH Foundation paid for him to accompany the university president to Washington, Takai would have to disclose the cost as a gift. He questioned why the UH president would not be required to make the same disclosure.

The commission, in a lengthy opinion issued in November 2004, determined expenditures made through the protocol funds should be disclosed.

Of course, the president is not the only UH official who can draw on a similar protocol or similar account maintained by the UH Foundation, so presumably other officials may be in the same position as Dobelle.

So what’s the situation today?

Outgoing UH President David McClain reports unitemized gifts over the past year from the UH Foundation fund of more than $30,000 for such things as “meetings with business community and academic associates, alumni and potential donors”, as well as monthly dues and charges for membership at the Waialae Country Club and Pacific Club.

Peter Crouch, dean of the UH Manoa College of Engineering, made a detailed disclosure of expenditures from a travel account and a separate “enrichment account”.

Although a few other UH employees are on the list of officials filing gift disclosures, I don’t think any other include protocol accounts or similar funds.

I wonder about the UH Athletic Department’s funds, as well as things like donated cars, and whether at least some of them should be showing up in the gift disclosures. Little appears to have changed since I took a close look at the situation a dozen years ago, but I suppose an updated look is long overdue.