Clayton Hee was first elected to public office back in 1982, and has subsequently served in the House, Senate, and Office of Hawaiian Affairs. He’s had to file those personal financial disclosures with the State Ethics Commission many, many times over the years. You would think that he would have gotten pretty good at it by now. But he hasn’t.

Even after being called out for incomplete reporting, Hee still hasn’t managed to correct the record completely.

For example, it turns out his wife served nearly three terms as a member of the Commission on Judicial Conduct before her position was ever reported on his annual financial disclosure.

Senator Hee’s disclosures are, it seems, a work in progress.

May 17, 2011: Senator Hee submits his annual financial disclosure covering calendar year 2010. He indicates there have been no changes since his last full disclosure. Previously, he has disclosed a home loan and ownership of two properties, one in Kaimuki and one on Molokai. To all other questions about financial or business interests, Hee has answered “none.”

May 21, 2011: A blog post here on iLind.net calls attention to Hee’s false reports, comparing them to the disclosure filed by his wife, Lynne Waters, following her appointment to a top University of Hawaii PR post.

May 23, 2011: Hee filed an amended report for the most recent year. It includes all items that appeared on his wife’s disclosure statement.

May 25, 2011: Another blog post here coomments on Hee’s amended report, and points out prior reports back at least to 2008 are still incomplete.

May 31, 2011: Hee submits a letter to the ethics commission amending reports for 2006-2009, adding his legislative salary and wife’s income as business consultant, and her ownership of her business, Lynne Waters Communications. Nothing else is added or amended.

Three times a charm? Not so much.

There’s the question of those rental properties. Did the income just start flowing in 2010, or was it just undisclosed in prior years?

Then there’s the Commission on Judicial Conduct. I wondered when Lynne Waters had been appointed. Luckily, the information was easily found on the Judiciary web site.

Appointed 7/7/03 – 7/6/06

Reappointed 7/7/06 – 7/6/09

Reappointed 7/7/09 – 7/6/12

What does this mean? It looks like Waters had served nearly three full terms on the Commission on Judicial Conduct before Senator Hee reported it on his latest, amended financial disclosure filed in May 2011. However, this information still doesn’t appear on his earlier reports, original or amended.

There’s more.

According to Waters’ brief bio provided by the Judiciary:

Ms. Waters is a media and communications consultant, providing expertise in public relations, communications strategy and media management. Recent clients include the `Aha Punana Leo (the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program), the State Department of Education, PBS Hawai`i, the Hawai`i Commission on the Status of Women, and other non-profit and advocacy organizations. She is a former news anchor at KITV (ABC) in Honolulu and Hawai`i Public Television, and a graduate of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Hawai`i Consortium of the Arts.

I checked on the Hawaii Consortium for the Arts. It was dissolved in 2005, according to state business registration records, so it isn’t clear whether her position would have had to be disclosed by Hee.

But a check of the tax returns of the Honolulu Police Community Foundation shows Waters was a director at least as early as calendar year 2007, but this was not reported by Senator Hee until 2011, and was not included in his amendments to the reports for 2006-2009.

Her list of “recent clients” also provides some food for thought. Although Waters now works for UH and has presumably put her consulting business on hold, were there previously potential conflicts for Senator Hee that might have been flagged by full disclosure? It seems like a reasonable question.