Complaint cites
Dobelle travelThe UH president has not
reported payments made on
his behalf by the UH Foundation
A key state legislator has filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission questioning why University of Hawaii President Evan Dobelle has not reported travel and other payments from the UH Foundation on his annual gift disclosure statement.
State Rep. Mark Takai, chairman of the House Higher Education Committee, also noted that Dobelle did not disclose a trip he took to Molokai and Maui paid for by the Molokai Chamber of Commerce in December 2001 and lodging paid by the Hawaii Visitors Bureau as part of the governor's delegation to an Aloha Mission to Japan in October 2001.
In a March 1 letter to Takai, UH Chief of Staff Sam Callejo said the university's general counsel advised Dobelle that he does not have to report expenditures from his protocol fund at the foundation.
The protocol fund pays for first-class upgrades when Dobelle travels on UH business and is available to the president and his staff for purposes that benefit the university.
In 2002, Dobelle's use of money from the protocol fund to take staff and donors to a Janet Jackson concert prompted lawmakers to call for an audit of university spending.
Dobelle's travel spending was criticized in a recently released evaluation conducted by the UH Board of Regents last year.
Bill King, the chief financial officer of the UH Foundation, said money for the protocol fund comes from interest income and fees. It is part of the UH foundation's operational budget, not from state funds.
Takai (D, Newtown-Pearl City) said that if the university claims the foundation is a private nonprofit organization not subject to state disclosure and auditing requirements, then the president must report gifts from the foundation on his annual ethics disclosure form.
"The university can't have it both ways," Takai wrote in his March 29 letter to the Ethics Commission.
Takai said Dobelle reported that he did not receive any reportable gifts during his first two years as university president.
State ethics law requires state employees to declare any gifts exceeding $200 from individuals or organizations that the state employee might be taking action on.
Takai used the example that if both he and Dobelle traveled to Washington, D.C., on a trip paid for by the foundation, he would have to report the trip on his disclosure statement, so why not Dobelle?
In a written response to Takai's questions, Callejo wrote that the foundation provides Dobelle with a protocol fund as "a resource to assist the president in performing the duties and functions of his office. As part of his duties, the president provides services to the foundation based upon the nature of the relationship between the foundation and the university.
"The purpose of the protocol fund is, therefore, for a legitimate state purpose and clearly not for any personal benefit to the president, and thus not a gift to the president," Callejo wrote.
Takai, who helped write a critical essay on Dobelle's presidency published last summer in the Star-Bulletin opinion section, said he filed the complaint because he feels the president's actions and spending should be transparent and accountable to the public.
"It matters because state law requires disclosure," Takai said.
The Ethics Commission is not likely to act on Takai's complaint for months. When it does, the commission could dismiss the complaint, issue an informal advisory opinion or hold a public hearing.
"I am happy to do whatever the Ethics Commission decides," Dobelle said in a statement released by UH yesterday. "One does eventually tire from what seems to be harassment."