Category Archives: Ethics

Applicants sought for State Ethics Commission

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Concerned about ethics in state government? Want to make a difference? Here’s your chance top step up and give something back to the community as a member of the State Ethics Commission, which interprets and enforces the state ethics and lobbying laws, and oversees public disclosures of personal finances of public officials, and gifts, if any, they receive.

The commission appears to be having trouble finding a sufficient pool of applicants to serve as members of the commission, and has extended its application period again.

The following press release was distributed yesterday.

It isn’t necessary to be an attorney or to have any specific experience. A link to the application form is included at the end of the press release.

Deadline Further Extended to Submit Applications for State Ethics Commission

HONOLULU – The Judicial Council announced today that the deadline to submit applications to fill a vacancy on the Hawai?i State Ethics Commission is further extended from March 22 to April 15, 2024.

Members of the Commission serve on a voluntary basis. Travel expenses incurred by neighbor island commissioners to attend meetings on O?ahu will be reimbursed.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens, residents of the State of Hawai?i, and may not hold any other public office.

The Ethics Commission addresses ethical issues involving legislators, registered lobbyists, and state employees (with the exception of judges, who are governed by the Commission on Judicial Conduct). The five commission members are responsible for investigating complaints, providing advisory opinions, and enforcing decisions issued by the Commission. The Hawai?i State Constitution prohibits members of the State Ethics Commission from taking an active part in political management or political campaigns.

The Judicial Council nominates two individuals for each vacancy on the Commission. The nominees’ names are sent to the Governor, who selects one of the nominees for appointment.

Interested persons should submit an application along with a resume and three letters of recommendation (attesting to the applicant’s character and integrity) postmarked by Monday, April 15, 2024 to: Judicial Council, Hawai?i Supreme Court, 417 S. King Street, Second Floor, Honolulu, Hawai?i 96813-2902.

Applications are available on the Hawai?i State Judiciary website or by calling the Judicial Council support staff at 808-539-4702.

Senator Dela Cruz continues to misuse his public position

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Don’t miss Stewart Yerton’s story at Civil Beat describing the misuse of public power by Senator Donavan Dela Cruz (“Land And Power 2023: How One Influential Hawaii Senator Is Using Public Agencies To His Advantage/A decade after his controversial Public Land Development Corp. was dissolved in the face of a public outcry, Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz is using other agencies to buy and develop land“).

It’s an important story and deserves your attention.

Although members of the legislature aren’t empowered to personally attempt to set policies or demand official action be taken by agencies except through action by the legislature, Dela Cruz has been quite blatant in making personal demands that agencies follow his directions, “or else.” In this case the “or else” involves his threats to retaliate financially against recalcitrant agencies or employees by cutting their funding, in some cases digging down several layers in an agency and threatening to eliminate an employee’s specific position from the state budget if they don’t do the senator’s bidding.

It strikes me that the senator’s strong-arming of state employees, especially when he reaches down into an agency to pressure a specific employee or office within the agency, can be seen as a violation of the Fair Treatment provisions of the state ethics law. It is one of those ethics laws that applies to legislators as well as other state employees.

§84-13 Fair treatment. (a) No legislator or employee shall use or attempt to use the legislator’s or employee’s official position to secure or grant unwarranted privileges, exemptions, advantages, contracts, or treatment, for oneself or others….

And the provision is implemented in the State Ethics Commission’s administrative rules.

§21-7-10 Fair treatment. (a) Subject to article IlI, section 7 of the Hawaii State Constitution and section 84-13, HRS, legislators and employees shall not use or attempt to use their official positions to solicit, request, accept, receive, or grant unwarranted privileges, exemptions, advantages, contracts, treatment, or benefits, for themselves or others, or to subject others to unwarranted treatment, whether favorable or unfavorable.

It is one thing to publicly advocate for a favored project, as long as financial rewards don’t flow directly or indirectly back to the senator or his friends, a caveat that suggests further investigation would be appropriate.

However, it is something very different to go out of official channels to use behind-the-scenes political arm-twisting to influence their official action, and subjecting them to “unwarranted treatment,” including threats to their continued employment.

Dela Cruz has been at this for a while, and I’ve belabored this point several times before.

It’s payback time as two powerful senators twist arms to kill one of the governor’s nominations, iLind.net, March 22, 2023

UH budget tripped up by Dela Cruz pork, iLind.net, May 9, 2021

Stadium redevelopment plan’s legacy of deceit, iLind.net, February 25, 2021

Powerful state senators pressure agencies to back Hu Honua, iLind.net, September 17, 2020

Legislator’s tie to NextEra consultant shows gaps in required financial disclosures, iLind.net, September 15, 2015

Lost and found….

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We’ve got a problem. Meda and I had lunch yesterday (Tuesday, May 2) at Saigon’s Restaurant, on Waialae Avenue in Kaimuki. When we finished, we were walking over to the crosswalk at 12th Avenue, and spotted a wallet on the pavement. Meda picked it up. Inside there was some folded up cash and a few other items. Not a lot of money by our standards, but a good amount for a lot of people.

We left word at Saigon’s and at the small Bento place right next to the crosswalk, not wanting to keep this money without making an effort to find its owner. We left my contact info. If someone calls and can describe the wallet and what was in it, we will gladly return it.

Talking it over this morning, we realized perhaps it belonged to someone living on the streets, accounting for the usual stuff that you might find in a wallet or purse.
Does anyone know if there’s a social worker who maintains contact with those living on the street in the area, who might be in a position to have heard if someone lost their $$?
Thanks for any assistance you can give.

If so, please let me know, or pass along this info to them.

Two cases of legal fraud linked to prominent firm

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Earlier this month, Civil Beat published a very good story by John Hill reviewing a precendent-setting decision by the Hawaii Supreme Court in a case involving foreclosure of a Big Island home due to a dispute over a $500 repair (“How A Reverse Mortgage Lender Took A Hawaii Man’s Home Over A $500 Repair“).

The high court found the lender, James B. Nutter & Co., and its attorney had “committed fraud against the court, assuring a judge that all the proper steps had been taken for a foreclosure when they hadn’t,” Hill reported. “Not only that, the Supreme Court said in its decision last week – basic fairness should have prevented a person being ejected from his home over a $500 repair anyway.”

Civil Beat mistakenly identified the lender as “Joseph B. Nutter & Co.”

The case underscores both the dangers of fine print used by unscrupulous lenders, but also the issue of fraudulent practices by attorneys and law firms representing lenders.

Hill identified the attorney who had represented Nutter in the foreclosure action where the fraud occurred as Robert Ehrhorn who, Hill notes, “has since voluntarily made his law license inactive, meaning he is no longer eligible to practice.”

Although not reported in Hill’s story, Ehrhorn was an associate in the law firm known at the time as Clay Chapman Iwamura Pulice & Nervell, which recently changed the firm’s name to Clay Iwamura Pulice & Nervell, dropping named partner Robert Chapman.

The Supreme Court’s allegation of fraud in this mortage foreclosure case is not the only recent fraud allegation against attorney’s with Ehrhorn’s former law firm.

The firm’s name change followed the resignation of Robert Chapman, a named partner, who “voluntarily” surrendered his law license in lieu of discipline after being accused of fraud by the state’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

An ODC investigation had found Chapman committed numerous “egregious violations” of the court’s Rules of Professional Conduct over a five year period by fraudulently pursuing collection $2 million in “unclaimed property” belonging to a former client without their knowledge or consent by creating and using “fraudulent Power of Attorney documents.”

In an affidavit filed with the Supreme Court when turning in his original law license, Chapman said he had not arranged to return case files to any clients because each client for whom he performed any services were clients of the firm.

“Each and every one became a client of the Firm, not of myself personally,” Chapman wrote.

The firm’s responsibility, if any, in the apparent fraud was not addressed in either case.

And, as a footnote, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against Nutter Home Loans, formerly known as J.B. Nutter & Co., in September 2020 for “forging certifications and using unqualified underwriters to approve Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECM).”

Late last year, in the wake of the DOJ lawsuit, the company closed its doors and went out of business.

See:

“Fraud allegations lead to resignation of prominent business attorney,” iLind.net, Dec 29, 2022.

“News media turn a blind eye to attorney misdeeds,” iLind.net, Jan 17, 2023.