[ OUR OPINION ]
Charges of conflict
of interest unwarrantedQUESTIONS are being raised about a potential conflict of interest in a state official's retention of her position with a Kailua accounting firm. However, the circumstances reflect, at most, an appearance of conflict that could be erased simply by recognition of the facts and a more formal break.
THE ISSUE
The state Senate Judiciary Committee chairwoman has suggested that a state official's connection with her private firm creates a conflict of interest.
When Governor Lingle appointed accountant Kathy Thomason to be deputy director of the state Department of Accounting and General Services two years ago, Thomason retained her positions as vice president and director of IMS, Inc., a Kailua accounting firm. Senate Judiciary Chairwoman Colleen Hanabusa says that creates a potential conflict because IMS prepared campaign spending reports for Lingle and Republican Sens. Fred Hemmings and Bob Hogue.
The Campaign Spending Commission is under administrative control of Thomason's department, but the department exercises little if any control of the commission. After state Comptroller Russ Saito, the DAGS director, briefly required Bob Watada, the commission's executive director, to obtain his permission to testify before the Legislature in its current session, Hanabusa complained and Saito backed down.
"The head of a department does not have the power to supervise or control the board or commission in the exercise of its functions, duties or power," Attorney General Mark Bennett wrote at the time in a letter to Hanabusa. Bennett said there had been "some semantic misunderstanding."
Hanabusa has introduced legislation that would clarify the independence of the commission and other semiautonomous agencies that are assigned administratively to state departments. The Legislature should enact Hanabusa's bill to end any such confusion.
Any state official who has a financial interest in a company cannot ethically take any action that will affect that company. Thomason, who was a volunteer in Lingle's 2002 campaign, says she invested money in IMS, becoming a part owner, when she began work in the administration but has received no income from the company in either salary or dividends. She said she does no work for IMS.
Thomason's situation would look tidier if she were to avoid any appearance of conflict by taking a leave of absence from IMS rather than retaining her titles at the firm. When Thomason represented Lingle last fall at a Kahaluu Neighborhood Board meeting, she was accompanied by Sharon M. Wong, the IMS president. Lingle named Wong in May to the board of directors of the High Technology Development Corp., a semiautonomous agency assigned administratively to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
None of this creates a conflict of interest, but Thomason would do well to guard against creating the slightest perception of impropriety.
