Ethics panel raps Dobelle
for not telling about gifts

Evan Dobelle should have disclosed trips to Molokai and Japan and benefits from the University of Hawaii Foundation's protocol fund in his annual gift disclosure form when he was UH president, the state Ethics Commission has ruled.

The commission issued an informal advisory opinion last month after state Rep. K. Mark Takai (D, Newtown, Pearl City) filed a complaint over the nondisclosure. As chairman of the House Education Committee, Takai had been trying to find out about spending from the protocol fund.

UH regents also cited the protocol fund spending as a factor in Dobelle's dismissal last summer.

Rick Fried, Dobelle's lawyer, said Dobelle had been willing to disclose the information but was told by the UH general counsel that it was not required.

Fried said use of the UH foundation funds and the two trips in 2001, paid for by the Molokai Chamber of Commerce and the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, were part of Dobelle's official duties as president and that he did not personally benefit from them.

"He's always been a supporter of complete openness," Fried said.

In the opinion, the ethics commission noted that state law requires legislators and certain state employees to disclose gifts worth more than $200.

The commission said the gift disclosure law applies to both personal gifts and those given to a state official in the performance of official duties.

The commission asked that Dobelle re-file his disclosure statements through 2004. Fried said Dobelle would do so.

"I think the opinion is right on. We always knew that no state official, whether it be a legislator or a university employee is above the gift disclosure law," Takai said. "Moving forward this is an important clarification."

The opinion did not mention Dobelle by name, but Fried and Takai both confirmed it was about him.