Weeks after the legal deadline, Rick Blangiardi’s initial financial disclosure after being sworn in as mayor was filed with the city clerk at 11:14 a.m. on Friday, February 19. It was signed and dated the same day.

I first noted that the disclosure report, required by law, hadn’t been filed in a post here back on February 13 (“Mayor’s financial disclosure is MIA“). And then on Thursday, February 18, at the tail end of another post, I noted again that the mayor’s disclosure had still not been filed.

For a good overview of the mayor’s belated disclosure, I recommend Christina Jedra’s piece in Civil Beat (“Honolulu Mayor Files Financial Disclosure — 3 Weeks Late“).

In his filing yesterday, Blangiardi disclosed what appears to be a large mortgage loan with an outstanding balance between $800,000 and $899,000, with no other reported debts, no other business interests, and no fiduciary positions in any business or community groups that continue at the present time. The mayor listed four properties owned by himself or his wife, each estimated to be worth upwards of $1 million, including their primary residence, a 4,380 square foot penthouse in the Admiral Thomas Apartments near downtown Honolulu currently valued for real property tax purposes at just under $2 million. In the financial disclosure Blangiardi filed last year when he was a candidate for office, he estimated its value at $4 million.

Another property owned by Blangiardi’s wife, Karen Chang, is located at 1186 Mikole Street in Honolulu. It’s value is given as category “P”, indicating at least $1 million, and “year obtained” reported as 2015.

This is an industrial-zoned parcel within the Sand Island Industrial Park, controlled and administered by the Sand Island Business Association. SIBA has been pushing the council to adopt Bill 31 (2020), a special interest measure that would provide its members special real property tax breaks. The bill had passed second reading last year, but was put on hold by the council’s Budget Committee on February 3, 2021, following the election of three new members to the council. It can be considered again at the discretion of Budget Committee chair Calvin Say. I’ve previously critiqued the bill and the arguments made by its proponents (see links below).

Real estate records show Chang purchased the property in September 2014 for $725,000, and SIBA finally blessed the assignment of the lease from the prior owner in October 2019.

Chang’s ownership of one of the SIBA properties would put the mayor in an awkward political situation if Bill 31 is passed by the council. On the one hand, contributors with links to SIBA gave nearly $100,000 to his mayoral campaign and are small but important political constituency. On the other hand, the mayor needs to avoid appearing to favor a bill that would provide special benefits to a small group of property owners and campaign contributors that includes his wife.

There are a couple of additional issues raised by the mayor’s disclosure that are worth noting.

First, it appears Blangiardi’s financial disclosure filed in June 2020 when he was a candidate for office was incomplete, as it did not include any of his wife’s financial interests.

There’s an interesting technical/legal point here. Honolulu’s financial disclosure ordinance, and similar provisions in the state ethics law, require candidates to file financial disclosures that provide the public a basic glimpse of their interests during the election campaign. Both the state and county require that officials disclose their own personal interests as well as those of their spouse, and any dependent children.

However, state law includes a significant exception. Section 84-17(f) provides, in part: “Candidates for state elective offices, including candidates for election to the constitutional convention, shall only be required to disclose their own financial interests.”

The city financial disclosure requirements can be found in Chapter 3, Article 8 of Revised Ordinances of Honolulu. It mirrors the state requirement that disclosures include interests of the person filing, as well as their spouse and dependent children. However, neither the city ordinance, nor the rules of the Honolulu Ethics Commission, contain an exemption for candidates from this broader family disclosure.

Unlike Blangiardi’s incomplete candidate financial disclosure, which omitted all of his wife’s interests, the other major candidates, including Keith Amemiya, Colleen Hanabusa, Mufi Hannemann, and Kym Pine, all reported spousal interests as well as their own.

Second, the City Clerk failed to comply with the requirement that “a notice of violation” be given to any officer or employee of the city who fails to file the required financial disclosure on time. The ordinance provides that those missing the deadline “shall be given a notice of violation of the provisions of this section by the ethics commission or the city clerk, whichever is applicable.” The use of the word “shall” means this is mandatory and not discretionary.

However, in her Civil Beat article, Jedra reports: “The city clerk’s office said it did not issue Blangiardi a violation notice but did encourage his office on Friday to file his disclosure, which he did.”

That certainly makes it appear that the mayor was given special treatment because of his position, which itself could violate city ethics laws.

See:

“SIBA: Singing the same tune for nearly 30 years,” iLind.net, Feb. 8, 2021

“Mayor’s financial disclosure is MIA,” iLind.net, Feb. 13, 2021

“More SIBA campaign contributions to Mayor Blangiardi,” iLind.net, Feb. 18, 2021