Mansho may face
additional sanctions

The Councilwoman
has offered $40,000
to settle ethics claims

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

City Council members today are considering what, if any, additional sanctions should be handed to beleaguered colleague Rene Mansho.

The city Ethics Commission yesterday recommended that the Council accept a $40,000 offer by Mansho attorneys to settle claims that she had her staff work on nongovernment activities while on city time.

Additionally, the commission recommended that the Council "explore measures beyond the settled reimbursement amount."

The commission found that Mansho staff spent city time working on her election campaign and the Aloha Boat Days Committee, an organization devoted to promotion of the cruise ship industry.

The commission said the violations came with Mansho's full knowledge and that she even had staff members lock their office doors when doing noncity work.

The Ethics Commission decision came on the heels of a ruling Tuesday by the state Campaign Spending Commission to accept $40,000 to settle its claims that she misused campaign funds for nonelection purposes.

Mansho's colleagues on the Council expressed surprise at the tone of the Ethics Commission's opinion -- and that the recommendation asked them to determine additional punishment.

According to the opinion, "The commission proposes that the Council discipline Ms. Mansho, but we leave it to the Council's sound judgment to determine the type of discipline based upon the findings and conclusions stated in this opinion."

"This situation is unprecedented," said Councilman John Henry Felix, who has been on the Council since 1990. "The Council has never had this problem, to the best of my knowledge."

Council members said several options are available.

The most serious move would be to initiate impeachment proceedings against Mansho, but that would require 1,000 signatures from people living in her North Shore-Central Oahu district. If that is done, the matter would be forwarded to the Hawaii Supreme Court.

The Council also could choose to remove Mansho from her chairmanship of the Public Works Committee and position as Council representative to the Hawaii State Association of Counties. It could also remove her from all committees.

Another suggestion was that the Council could forward Mansho's case to prosecutors or state attorneys in an effort to recover more money from her.

Council members could also determine that Mansho has been punished enough. On Wednesday the Council accepted her resignation as chairwoman of the Budget Committee and as Council vice chairwoman. Several Council members said they feel additional punishment -- beyond the fines -- is in order.

"I would support additional sanctions at this point based on what we've learned," said Councilman Steve Holmes.

Councilman Gary Okino agreed. "This is pretty serious," Okino said. "We need to show the public that we're taking it seriously."

Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura said he will "recommend to my colleagues that we accept the commission's recommendation."

He noted that in addition to being removed as chairman of the Budget Committee and as Council vice chairwoman, his office has barred Mansho from receiving any more city-paid travel.

Mansho could not be reached for comment.

But Mansho attorney Charles Price issued a release stating that she is apologetic to her constituents for the violations.

"Staff time spent on these activities amounted to approximately 8 percent annually on average," Price said in the release. "Ms. Mansho's charitable and civic intentions were good and noble. Her staff's time spent on these activities was wrong."

The release also acknowledged the findings of the state Campaign Spending Commission. Mansho did not contest claims by the commission that she misused her campaign funds for nonelection purposes.

"The campaign spending proceedings were primarily about whether Ms. Mansho gave away too much money for charity," Price said.

Among the charges was that she used $9,841.28 in her campaign fund to pay for travel and lodging for city-related conferences on the neighbor islands, the mainland and abroad when she was also being reimbursed for these trips from the city.

According to Price: "She advanced monies for such trips from her personal funds and campaign account. When the city later sent her reimbursement checks, some of the checks were deposited into her campaign account, but by mistake some were not."

Under that ruling, Mansho will need to come up with $10,000 of the money personally. The remaining $30,000 can come from her campaign spending account, where she last reported having $30,947.26.

Price said Mansho is "trying to make things right" by paying the amounts stipulated in the settlements.

"She did not intentionally violate any laws," Price said. "Council work was not sacrificed due to these activities."

---

City & County of Honolulu