AS LONG AS THEY CAN

AS LONG AS THEY CAN: By far the most often violated ethics provision in the document dump provided by reporter Michael Levine- whose article on the $3 million the county has spent on outside attorneys since Jan 2007 appears in today’s print version of the local newspaper and is far more extensive than his preliminary report posted on-line Tuesday night- is of course the oft-flouted section 20.02(d) of the county charter which states that “(n)o officer or employee of the county shall (a)ppear in behalf of private interests before any county board, commission or agency”

Far and away the grand prize winner in the batch with at least 14 violations is Roger M. Caires, the CEO of CLS Hawaii Land Surveying & Mapping who according to the CLS web site

is a life long resident of Kauai. He started this business after retiring from the State of Hawaii, Department of Transportation, with twenty-five (25) years of experience. Mr. Caires leads a team of land surveyors using the latest surveying technologies including the GPS (Global Positioning System), total stations, electronic data collection, and CAD equipment.

According to his disclosure statement Caires sits on the Public Access Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Fund Commission and his “(c)lients represented before Kauai County Planning Commission during 2008 for subdivision applications” include “Perl Kato, Marilyn Planas, Robert Keown, Rodney Soares, Andrew Baik, Bruce Narramore, Daryl Kaneshiro , Rick Haupt, Kurt Bosshard, Kapaa 382 LLC, Stephen Gatchell, Seatrace Inc., Alan Packer, (and) Kevin P. Hurst.

Caires and his wife Susan C., who apparently also works for CLS, reported a combined income from the company of $31,600.

The Public Access Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Fund Commission is administratively attached to the planning department and commission which means that, unlike other apparent violations recently exposed Caires serves in the same department as the one he has appeared before.

Is Caires a “bad guy” because he is in violation of the county charter? Probably not.

But should he be serving on a county board or commission while “(a)ppear(ing) in behalf of private interests before any county board, commission or agency”. Certainly not.

Nonetheless, in the upside down, black is white and up is down world of the county’s Board of Ethics (BOE) where the county ordinance can overrule the county charter- and that of the county attorney who can’t seem to provide simple legal advice without jumping down the rabbit hole and that of a mayor who can’t seem to find qualified people to serve among the 99% of the local people who never “(a)ppear in behalf of private interests before any county board, commission or agency”- all in hunky-dory is Lihu`e la-la land.

It is presumably the job of the BOE to review these disclosure forms for conflicts-of-interest. That’s why the charter mandates they be delivered to the BOE. But despite blatant violations such as the ones we detailed yesterday and Wednesday there has never been a conflict of interest charge filed by the BOE itself based on the information provided on any disclosure form... presuming they can even read some of them, another matter the BOE seemingly ignores.

The fact that Caires so cavalierly lists his clients before the planning commission either means he doesn’t read the newspaper or more likely has chosen to drink CA Al Castillo’s Kool-aid. And until someone files suit to force the BOE to follow the charter’s code of ethics the dysfunctional labyrinth of the minotaur will keep filling the crevices of the maze and posting Sergeant Schultz clones at the gates with those who are willing to do what’s wrong as long as they can.