Open government laws aim to restore public trust

Seven bills requiring greater transparency from lawmakers and state boards were signed into law Friday by Gov. Josh Green.

“Last (legislative) session, state government was rocked by ethics violations of grave concern,” Green said. “This shook our faith statewide in government, created a dark cloud over our state. The motives of some of our elected officials and colleagues were questioned, and that’s why it’s important that we’re signing bills today.”

In February 2022, disgraced former Senate Majority Leader J. Kalani English and now-former Rep. Ty J.K. Cullen pleaded guilty in federal court to accepting bribes to support and kill legislation on behalf of Milton J. Choy, owner and manager of a company called H2O Process Systems.

Green was surrounded Friday by members of both the state House and state Senate, including Sen. Karl Rhoads (D, Nuuanu- Downtown-Iwilei) and Rep. David Tarnas (D, Hawi- Waimea-Waikoloa), who chair the House and Senate Judiciary committees.

Green said they told him that “this is a start, and there are many other bills that they’re considering as we go forward with the rest of the session.”

“I would be honored to take those up, too … and assuredly sign more pieces of legislation that make things more transparent and thoughtful in our state,” Green said.

“These bills are important to address the concern that the public has really made very clear: that it is not acceptable to have gov­ernment officials, elected officials, government employees acting unethically,” Tarnas said.

Some of the bills were backed by the state Campaign Spending Commission, Ethics Commission and a special Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct that was created by House Speaker Scott Saiki following the English and Cullen scandals.

The open-government bills that Green signed into law Friday include:

>> HB 90, which requires state candidate committees and noncandidate committees to file fundraiser notices regardless of the price or suggested contribution for attending a function.

>> HB 130, which changes the deadline for the validation of ballots following an election to five business days.

>> HB 99, which sets a $100 limit on the total amount of cash a candidate, a candidate committee or a noncandidate committee may accept from a single person during an election period. The measure is part of the state’s Campaign Spending Commission bill package.

>> HB 142, which prevents lobbyists from giving gifts to legislators that are prohibited under state ethics laws. The measure is part of the state Ethics Commission bill package.

>> The latest version of HB 137, which requires the statement of expenditures filed by lobbyists and others engaged in lobbying activities to include certain information on the identity of the legislative or administrative action that was commented on, supported by or opposed by the person filing the statement during the statement period. It would go into effect Jan. 1, 2025. The measure is part of the state Ethics Commission bill package.

>> HB 140, which provides the State Ethics Commission with the discretion to maintain or destroy records of financial disclosure statements beyond the current six-year statutory requirement. The bill also applies retroactively to applicable disclosures that are in the commission’s possession and control.

>> HB 93, which requires the state Campaign Spending Commission to publish on its website the names of candidates and people who qualify as noncandidate committees who fail to file an organizational report or a corrected organizational report with the commission. The measure is part of the Campaign Spending Commission bill package.

“It takes a House, Senate and governor to pass bills and change policy on government culture, and you can see from this list we’re doing just that,” Rhoads said.

Bills proposing term limits on state senators and representatives introduced in an effort to limit unethical behavior by veteran legislators appear dead this session.

Green was asked at the signing Friday whether he would consider signing a bill proposing term limits, if such a measure were to come across his desk in the future.

“There is value on the side of having legislators with a lot of experience, because they’ve just produced with a lot of experience some great legislation,” Green responded. “But if the Legislature, the House and Senate decided to send that bill to me, I would sign.”