Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi filed his initial financial disclosure statement on February 19, 2021, which was 18 days after the deadline set by law.

Blangiardi’s disclosure should have included all financial interests during the prior calendar year (2020) held by himself, his wife, and any dependent children. Although Blangiardi signed off on the form, indicating it was “true and correct,” records show the disclosure form was incomplete.

Public officials, including the mayor, are required to make public certain information about their personal finances, as well as those of their spouse, and dependent children.

Financial disclosure is required of public officials and employees because it enables the public to evaluate potential conflicts of interest, deters corruption, and increases public confidence in government. It is considered an important part of the ethics codes that apply to public officials at all levels of government.

Categories of information required to be disclosed include income from services rendered, ownership interest in companies doing business in Hawaii, fiduciary positions held in businesses or nonprofit organizations, real estate owned or recently transferred, creditors, and clients represented before agencies in their level of government.

The requirement that public officials and government employees disclose their financial interests was added to the Hawaii State Constitution on the recommendation of the 1978 Constitutional Convention, and the requirement is now part of the constitution, as well as implemented in state law and in the county charters and ordinances.

In other words, the public has a constitutional right to expect state and county officials will comply with the disclosure requirements.

A quick online search found at least two substantial interests held by the mayor’s wife, Karen Chang, that were not included on the mayor’s financial disclosure. Both fall in the category of “Fiduciary Positions.”

Fiduciary positions include, but are not limited to, officerships, directorships, or positions as trustee in any business or organization, whether or not operated for profit. Fiduciary positions also include being a majority shareholder in a small or closely held corporation. Report fiduciary positions in non-profit corporations.

Blangiardi did report his wife had been a member of the Honolulu Police Commission for a term that ended in January 2020.

But records show she held two additional positions.

Chang is a member of the executive team of Livmor, Inc., a California medical technology company founded in 2016. According to the company website, she holds the position of Executive Board Chair. Although based in California, the company registered to do business in Hawaii in July 2018, and listed Chang as a corporate officer. It’s annual report for 2020, filed in September, still lists Chang as the company’s chief operating officer (COO) and executive chair.

If Chang received compensation for her executive board service, that should have been disclosed as well.

Chang was also named to the Board of Trustees of St. Andrew’s Schools in early 2019, according to an item in Pacific Business News.

According to PBN: “Trustees act as voting members of the St. Andrew’s Schools Board and member responsibilities include developing policies, procedures, and regulations for the operation of the school, and monitoring the school’s financial health, programs, and overall performance.”

In a filing with the state Business Registration Division, Chang was still listed among the school’s directors as of September 11, 2020.

In addition, Blangiardi’s candidate financial statement, filed at the beginning of the 2020 campaign, failed to disclose any of his wife’s interests and positions. It also omitted property she owns in the Sand Island Industrial Park, as well as the positions described above.

The crazy thing is that this is not rocket science. My advice to the mayor is to own up to the omissions, plead inexperience in public office, if you like, then file an amended disclosure. This time around, make it full and complete. And then move on. It’s a lot better to be caught on manini stuff like this and learn from it, than to blow it off and risk getting caught in something more politically charged later.

There are additional omissions in the mayor’s latest disclosure, but those may reflect more on the practices of the Honolulu Ethics Commission than on the mayor and other public officials. I’ll come back to that issue in a later post.

See:

“Financial disclosures by mayoral candidates Pine, Blangiardi, Hannemann,” iLind.net, July 9, 2020

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

“Questions raised by mayor’s late financial disclosure,” iLind.net, February 20, 2021