UH policy limits
political work

Employees will not get university
pay while at the Legislature

University of Hawaii employees who want to work at the Legislature will have to do so without pay from their university jobs, under a new policy adopted by the Board of Regents.

The change was requested by interim President David McClain and approved by the board at its regular meeting Thursday, UH spokeswoman Carolyn Tanaka said.

McClain asked board members to approve the policy to be consistent with long-standing guidelines from the Office of the Governor regarding state employees working at the Legislature. Those guidelines stipulate that state employees who wish to work at the Legislature must apply for and be granted leave without pay.

The request was sent to board Chairwoman Patricia Lee in a memo dated April 22, two days after Senate Higher Education Chairman Clayton Hee apologized on the Senate floor for the actions of his policy adviser, a UH department head on loan to his staff. The adviser had solicited campaign donations from university officials, including two regent nominees who were questioned by Hee's committee.

Amy Agbayani, director of the UH Department of Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity and a former Hawaii Democratic Party national committeewoman, resigned as Hee's policy adviser days later.

Hee called the solicitations an error in judgment on behalf of his campaign volunteers and said the nominees' decision to buy or reject the fund-raising tickets had no effect on their confirmation process.

Big Island businessman John K. Kai, who did not buy the campaign tickets and whose nomination was rejected by both Hee's committee and the full Senate, has filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission.

Hee (D, Kahuku-Kaneohe) said yesterday that while he understands it is the board's prerogative to set policies, he believes it will have a "killing effect" on university employees working at the Legislature because many may not be able to work part-time at the Capitol without being paid their university salary.

"Their benefit to the university is clear," Hee said, noting that lawmakers raised spending for the 10-campus system and added full-time positions based largely on input from Agbayani and other university employees working with legislators.

"I know that the contributions of university personnel in the Legislature is a benefit to the legislators and the university insofar as the first-hand experience that the professors and others who come to the Legislature have," Hee said. "The benefit of those people to the Legislature is really derived to the university at the end of the day."