The last two years have been transformational for the Maui County Board of Ethics.

In 2023 and 2025, the Hawaiʻi Legislature approved House Resolution Nos. 8 and 65 urging neighbor island ethics boards and commissions to use the rules and procedures of the State Ethics Commission as a template, beginning with the establishment of full-time staff. I was privileged to have served on the Honolulu Ethics Commission for nine years, and thus I was able to bring that experience to the Maui board starting 2023.

The Maui County Board of Ethics took heart and immediately drafted a charter provision for the establishment of its first full-time staff which was approved by the public in 2024.

After a thorough and exhaustive search and vetting of several qualified applicants, the board hired attorney and per diem District Court Judge Lauren Akitake as its first executive director/legal counsel, starting Aug. 1. She hit the ground running and soon hired an administrative assistant and investigator.

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Together, the Maui board and Akitake significantly rewrote the board’s rules, using the rules of the state and Honolulu ethics commissions as templates. The board has since been operating substantially as the state and Honolulu ethics commissions have operated for decades.

In the past, the most common way for Maui County employees to receive ethics advice, was to submit a formal request for advisory ethics opinions to the Maui County Board of Ethics. Because the board meets only once a month, and at times cannot meet due to lack of a quorum, it could take three or four months for a requester to obtain an advisory opinion. Often, by that time, the request had become moot.

With our new rules and system, Akitake may provide immediate informal ethics advice to any county employee or board and commission member via a phone call or email. As this procedure has become known among County employees, such requests have skyrocketed. Akitake has issued over 60 such opinions in five months — far more opinions than the Maui County Board of Ethics issues in two years.

Despite the enormous positive transformation that the board has undergone in a short period of time, unfortunately, conspiracy theories, misinformation, and harassment have reached our island community. Mark Twain once quipped, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Some social media posts have challenged the board with certain “facts” that “just ain’t so.”

Among the “facts” that “ain’t so” are the following claims:

• The claim that Akitake has improperly dismissed ethics complaints that do not comply with the criteria set forth in our rules without presenting them to the board is incorrect. That is precisely how the state and Honolulu ethics commissions have operated for decades. Also, under our new rules, when Akitake determines an ethics complaint does not meet foundational requirements to be processed (Rules §§04-101-61 and 04-101-63), the complainant may appeal that decision to the board. The purpose of the rule is to preserve the due process rights of all parties to an ethics complaint and insulate the board from exposure to ex parte communications, much like judges, so the board can make decisions based solely on the law and the facts. 
• The claim that the charter amendment for full-time staff was intended to eliminate the Corporation Counsel from also representing the Maui County Board of Ethics is incorrect. We drafted that change, and it was never intended to wholly eliminate simultaneous representation by the Corporation Counsel. Indeed, Maui’s charter section 8-2.3.2 expressly states that the Corporation Counsel is: “the chief legal advisor and legal representative of … all boards and commissions. …”
• The Corporation Counsel cannot disregard this charter obligation imposed by the citizens of Maui. The board’s executive director/legal counsel remains the board’s primary attorney, but the Corporation Counsel is also an attorney for the ethics board. That is precisely how the Honolulu Ethics Commission operates: at commission meetings, both its executive director/legal counsel and its assigned deputy corporation counsel appear.
• The claim that the Corporation Counsel appears before the Maui board when it is in a conflict is incorrect. The Corporation Counsel has always recused itself in the case of a conflict. 
• The claim that the Office of Information Practices has served a subpoena on the Maui board is false. OIP does not have independent subpoena power.
• The claim that the Maui board gave only one week’s notice of the new rules, giving the public insufficient time to respond, is false. The board published notice of the new rules, as required by law, for more than a month. The notice also stated that free copies of the draft rules could be obtained from the board.
• Finally, while the Maui board did pass a two-sentence addition to its confidentiality rule allowing a discretionary possibility of board dismissal for a breach of confidentiality by a complainant, within three days of the rule change, we published notice that those two sentences would not be enforced and will likely be removed in the next rule change. Nevertheless, social media posts continue to falsely state otherwise.

We understand the public interest in our work, especially concerning high-profile cases. However, our process, modeled after the Honolulu and state ethics commissions, is designed to uphold due process and the integrity of the Maui County Board of Ethics’s decisions.

Of particular importance to the integrity of our process is the board’s non-public adjudicatory function, again modeled after the Honolulu and state ethics commissions, which has numerous county and state equivalents such as the Board of Variances and Appeals, Board of Water Supply, Maui Planning Commission, Lānaʻi Planning Commission, Molokaʻi Planning Commission, Liquor Adjudication Board, Civil Service Commission, etc.

The Maui ethics board is a quasi-judicial board, and as such there are some parallels to confidential criminal grand jury proceedings. Our rules are designed to ensure fairness and full due process to both complainants and respondents.

Consideration of ethics complaints has always been in non-public executive or adjudicative sessions, both historically with the Maui board and with the state and Honolulu ethics commissions, to protect parties involved. The rules are also designed to insulate the board from ex parte communications, much like judges, to protect the fairness of the process and so the board can make decisions based solely on the law and facts. 

The Maui board must remain neutral adjudicators of facts and evidence, without undue influence or interference. Thus, it is crucial that the board keep details of ethics investigations and cases confidential to safeguard the privacy and reputational interests of individuals and entities involved in cases until allegations are substantiated, and to afford due process to the parties involved.

While we are constrained by these legal requirements, the board remains dedicated to transparency within the bounds of the law. We are committed to providing reports on completed contested cases, including findings and actions taken once confidentiality restrictions are lifted, providing public updates about our work, engaging with stakeholders to explain and educate about our procedures, and addressing any concerns regarding our operations.

The board is composed of upstanding citizens of our community, first vetted by the county’s Independent Nomination Board, then selected by the mayor and confirmed by the Maui County Council, who volunteer their time to serve Maui as its ethics watchdog. We are tirelessly working on initiatives to improve our oversight including proposing new countywide rules on lobbyists, gifts, and anti-nepotism in county hiring and supervising.

We have a strategic plan on which we invite citizens comment at public meetings and encourage the public to propose improvements. This provides a vehicle for citizen input on board operations. We also encourage those with a particular interest in the board to apply with the Independent Nomination Board to be on the Maui County Board of Ethics.

With our new investigator we are now able to investigate and eventually prosecute ethics violations, something we could not effectively handle in the past. We have worked closely with the state Office of Information Practices to ensure compliance with the Sunshine Law and anyone reviewing our recent agendas will see major improvements.

We are planning on implementing for the first time countywide regular ethics training for every county employee. The improvements since Lauren Akitake came aboard in August have been the most significant in the board’s history and we are poised to do much more. All geared to improving ethics oversight and assurance to the public that we are effectively carrying out our job as Maui’s ethics overseer. 

Now a few words about our executive director. Lauren Akitake was an outstanding choice to serve as our first EDLC. She has the intelligence, temperament, and skills to excel in carrying out her awesome responsibilities, and she has created a harmonious and effective staff. As a Maui-born citizen of our island, she has the best interests of all our citizens in her heart. She has the highest qualities of integrity and honesty, and we can all be proud that this Maui girl is leading the board’s office.