I’ve already seen “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which is leading in Oscar nominations. But the catchy title is a little like my experience serving on the House Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct established in February 2022.

The charge to this commission was to review ethics, campaign spending and lobbying laws, adding any other topics we thought best (everything). At first I thought this work was to counter two bribery incidents arising from the 2022 Legislature, but later the media was filled with stories of other Hawaii public officials behaving badly (everywhere?).

No, it’s not everywhere. But we were supposed to provide a March 2022 interim report, with a final report due nine months later in December 2022 (all at once). We’ll see what happens when the Academy Awards are announced. We’ll also soon see whether the public joins Gov. Josh Green, House Speaker Scott Saiki and a growing number of legislators to promote these changes. I hope they do.

My fellow commissioners are knowledgeable and experienced in their subject areas, and I relied on their expertise, even in a couple of instances — like mandatory minimum sentences for new fraud laws —when I didn’t agree completely with them.

Strengthening fraud laws as proposed in House Bill 711 is especially important: mandatory minimum sentences set by the Legislature — required in that bill — well, no, that should be a judge’s decision, don’t you think?

Though our commission wasn’t subject to the Sunshine Law because we were a House committee, early on I said, “Why not?” and helped craft a plan to publish meeting agendas and minutes, have public testimony, etc. We made decisions in public, and it turned out the most popular issue among testifiers was open government.

This experience informed us later when we endorsed a Citizen’s Bill of Rights, crafted by Jim Shon and now introduced as Senate Bill 1423 and House Bill 725. I think this is an innovative way to make democracy work a little better, don’t you?

We wanted to expand open meetings at the Legislature, so we suggested that task forces, working groups, and special committees be subject to the Sunshine Law (see House Bill 723 and Senate Bill 1427).

We stopped short of recommending the Sunshine Law be extended to the Legislature itself because it’s a part-time legislature with more than 2,000 bills to consider. What do you think?

I was always sure why I agreed to do this work. It was just a personal conviction that we could help restore the public’s trust in the Legislature’s work, especially if we tackled things without delay.

I recognize the scope of our package is a “big ask” of the Legislature, especially proposed term limits of 16 years’ service as in House Bill 831. Even though I don’t support this, there’s ample evidence the public does. Will the Legislature propose a constitutional amendment to do this? If you care, better speak up.

I think each of the proposals we suggested contributes to improvement in our public life; together it’s a formidable package of 28 bills and three resolutions. Here’s a link to the specific measures we sponsored. 

You can send email to legislators, but most of them receive so much email they don’t have time to read it all. You can telephone, but often they are in a hearing or floor session. 

The best way to take part in discussion of the Commission’s work and any other bills before the Legislature is to testify through the excellent, free Capitol website.

All you need is a userid and password, both of which are well protected. After logging in you can submit testimony here.

If you want help, there’s a Public Access Room — similar to a library — where you can find professional help on the legislative process, how to use the website, or write your testimony on a personal computer — all free. Visit in person in Room 401 of the State Capitol, call (808) 587-0478 or contact them at par@capitol.hawaii.gov.

And then there’s our public library system, where librarians and other staff can also help you with questions about the legislative process and use of the Capitol website. Our Public Access Room and public libraries — together with the Capitol website itself, they’re crown jewels of Hawaii’s public service. 

Who opposes corruption? Everyone I know, but without help from you the commission’s package may flounder. That would be too bad because we can improve how we govern ourselves in 31ways (at least).