2023 Hawaii Revised Statutes
Title 7. Public Officers and Employees
84. Standards of Conduct
84-13 Fair treatment.

§84-13 Fair treatment. (a) No legislator or employee shall use or attempt to use the legislator's or employee's official position to secure or grant unwarranted privileges, exemptions, advantages, contracts, or treatment, for oneself or others; including but not limited to the following:

(1) Seeking other employment or contract for services for oneself by the use or attempted use of the legislator's or employee's office or position;

(2) Accepting, receiving, or soliciting compensation or other consideration for the performance of the legislator's or employee's official duties or responsibilities except as provided by law;

(3) Using state time, equipment or other facilities for private business purposes; or

(4) Soliciting, selling, or otherwise engaging in a substantial financial transaction with a subordinate or a person or business whom the legislator or employee inspects or supervises in the legislator's or employee's official capacity.

(b) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit a legislator from introducing bills and resolutions, from serving on a committee, or from making statements or taking official action as a legislator. Every legislator shall publicly disclose the nature and extent of the interest or transaction that the legislator believes may be affected by the legislator's official action in accordance with section 84-17 and the rules of each house of the legislature.

(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent a person from:

(1) Serving on a task force; or

(2) Making statements or taking official action as a task force member or a task force member's designee or representative;

provided that every task force member or designee or representative of a task force member shall publicly disclose the nature and extent of any interest or transaction that the task force member or task force member's designee or representative believes may be affected by the task force member's official action.

(d) The state ethics commission shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 to effectuate the purposes of this section, except that each house of the legislature shall adopt rules regarding the disclosure of the nature and extent of any interest or transaction that the legislator believes may be affected by the legislator's official action. Rules adopted by the state ethics commission shall apply only until such time that each house of the legislature adopts its own rules. Upon the passage of rules pursuant to this section by either house of the legislature, the rules adopted by the state ethics commission shall be preempted by the rules of each respective house of the legislature. [L 1972, c 163, pt of §1; gen ch 1985; am L 2012, c 208, §4; am L 2019, c 119, §2; am L 2020, c 29, §1]

Case Notes

Although an application of this section was necessary to decide the union's complaint under §89-13, it could not be said that the question arose under chapter 84; where union filed the complaint with the labor relations board under §89-19, the board had "exclusive original jurisdiction" to determine prohibited practice complaints and the ethics commission would not have had jurisdiction to make that determination; thus, the board had the power to apply this section in order to decide whether a prohibited practice violation actually occurred and it did not exceed its jurisdiction in ruling that a violation did not occur based on the application of this section. 116 H. 73, 170 P.3d 324.

As this section prohibited the posting of campaign materials on a union bulletin board on the fourth floor of a state building, and nothing in chapter 89 was explicitly contrary to, or inconsistent with, that construction, there was no conflict between §89-3 and this section. 116 H. 73, 170 P.3d 324.

Where the posting of campaign materials on a union bulletin board on the fourth floor of a state building was prohibited by this section, and was thus not lawful, the postings were not protected under the express language of §89-3 (2006). 116 H. 73, 170 P.3d 324.

Where the State, as employer, expressed a "legitimate" concern with campaign materials postings on the union bulletin board on the fourth floor of the department of transportation building, inasmuch as the supervisors at the department believed them to be in violation of this section and an ethics commission bulletin entitled "Campaign Restrictions for State Officials and State Employees", and there was no Hawaii labor relations board finding of "union animus", the removal of campaign materials from the union bulletin board did not infringe on the "mutual aid or protection" clause of §89-3 (2006). 116 H. 73, 170 P.3d 324.