Peacemaker-in-chief: The Sunshine Blog is still trying to get its head around the notion of Gov. Josh Green possibly running for president of the United States.

Although Green has insisted he wants only to be Hawaiʻi’s governor for another four years and that he will not ditch out if reelected next year, he continues to leave the door at least cracked open to that national spotlight.

Green was in Scottsdale, Arizona, last week for a session of the Western Governors Association where he did an interview with the Associated Press in which he opined that Americans will want a peacemaker after Donald Trump. And that would not be California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Green told the reporter, who would likely be seen as “a radical from California.”

The AP reporter took that as Green testing the waters for a White House bid.

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“The remarks reflect how ambitious Democrats are already jockeying for position in a crowded field of White House hopefuls three years before the next presidential election, especially with no heir apparent and uncertainty about how the party regains power in Washington,” the AP says.

Green warned that the country is “dangerously close to a political civil war” and suggested Democratic Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah and himself would be better choices than Newsom. He said he’s open to running but would rather support someone else, according to the AP.

“I will definitely try to heal America, even perhaps as president someday, if we’re really in deep trouble,” he told the AP.

Money matters: The Hawaiʻi Ethics Commission finalized its package of bills for the next legislative session last week by approving two new measures to strengthen requirements for state government officials and nominees to post financial disclosures.

You can’t get too much disclosure, The Blog figures, because the whole idea is to stamp out conflicts of interest.

One bill would expand the number of boards whose members must file disclosures that are open to the public while also requiring disclosures from the boards’ executive officers — folks who “usually have a lot of delegated authority,” said Robert Harris, the commission’s executive director. 

The other bill is all about timing. It would require nominees for top executive branch positions to file public financial disclosures within five days of their nomination or five days before their first confirmation hearing, whichever is earlier, “so that members of the public can see it and become a part of the confirmation discussion,” Harris said.

After all, what good is knowledge of a potential conflict of interest after a nomination is confirmed? And yes, The Blog is thinking of Supreme Court Justice Vladimir Devens, whose nomination was confirmed with no mention of the fact that months earlier he was a director for a powerful political action committee that helped elect Josh Green governor.

Unfortunately, the bill wouldn’t apply to judicial nominees because “the Judiciary has steadfastly — since the creation of the Ethics Commission — pushed back against any outside entity overseeing judges or justices,” Harris told Civil Beat.

At the same meeting Wednesday, ethics commissioners put the finishing touches on a proposed bill that would prohibit new state employees from helping out their former employers during a two-year “cooling off period” after they change jobs.

You can read all three measures in the commission’s packet of information from the meeting.

Two previously approved proposals are also part of the commission’s package for the Legislature. One would prohibit high-level executive branch employees from engaging in political fundraising. The other would apply the state’s anti-nepotism law to the legislative and judicial branches.

Penalty box: And speaking of the Ethics Commission, state Sen. Lynn DeCoite has agreed to pay a $500 administrative penalty to the commission for receiving duplicate reimbursements of $1,151 for the same food expenses on Opening Day of the Legislature in January. One reimbursement came from her legislative allowance and the other from her campaign spending fund.

The Molokaʻi lawmaker refunded the full amount to her legislative allowance from personal funds and indicated she would implement “internal office procedures” to prevent a recurrence, according to a press release from the commission Thursday.

The commission characterized the misconduct as “serious” and noted it is the second such incident by a legislator in five years.

In 2022, Kāneʻohe state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole agreed to repay $1,264 to the state that was reimbursed from his legislative allowance in order to pay off a campaign debit card and campaign funds.

Instead, says the commission, the senator deposited the allowance funds “that should have been allocated for these expenses” into his personal bank account.

The card and funds were used primarily to attend official meetings in Colorado Springs, San Jose and the San Francisco Bay Area. Keohokalole also paid an administrative penalty of $1,500.

The Ethics Commission also resolved an investigation involving Hawaiian Electric Co. for failing to register “certain employees” as lobbyists and to report their lobbying expenditures.

The press release does not name names nor clarify the exact number of lobbyists involved, but it appears to be in the double-digits. The lobbying took place during the 2023, 2024 and 2025 legislative sessions when, the commission determined, “that some individuals submitted significant quantities of testimony” on behalf of HECO.

The previously unreported lobbyists have since been registered by the utility with the state, increasing Hawaiian Electric’s compensation paid to lobbyists by $5,485 to $149,341 in 2023, by $13,598 to $440,073 in 2024 and by $11,790 to to $180,402 in 2025.

The company also agreed to pay a $10,000 administrative penalty.

Nine HECO employees, by the way, are reported to have completed their mandatory ethics training in August or September. The Blog should hope so.

Storybook ending: Last month Civil Beat reported on how the Hawaiʻi State Library, ironically, banned displays for Banned Books Week. The story reported that there is little public data on book banning in the islands but some library officials said it is happening.

Intrigued, the Public First Law Center asked the Hawaiʻi State Public Library System for information regarding any book-banning requests over the past five years.

It turns out there is a list off books that had been requested to be removed from facilities “by a patron,” but the agency said that no books have been removed from its collections based on the request.

Here’s the list:

• “Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human” by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan
• “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Kobabe
• “Call Me Max” by Kyle Lukoff
• “Wicked Little Letters,” a 2023 film directed by Thea Sharrock.