State House Speaker Joseph Souki on Thursday issued a reprimand to Rep. Faye Hanohano, concluding that her behavior at committee hearings has been unacceptable, in violation of the House’s code of conduct and disruptive to the workplace.

Souki told Hanohano in a letter released publicly by the House that he found the complaints against her by a Hawaii Pacific University student and by staff at the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to be valid.

Souki warned Hanohano, chairwoman of the House Ocean, Marine Resources and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, that her conduct would be monitored by House leaders for the remainder of the legislative session and that any future incident would lead to the immediate loss of her committee assignments.

Hanohano (D, Hawaiian Acres-Pahoa-Kalapana) declined to comment on the reprimand. She has previously said her words have been mischaracterized and taken out of context.

A public admonishment of a fellow lawmaker is extremely rare but less severe than other options House leaders had considered against Hanohano, such as censure or removing her as committee chairwoman.

A reprimand was a deft move by Souki to end what had turned into a three-week stalemate with Hanohano.

Souki (D, Waihee-Waiehu-Wailuku) had initially considered a special committee to look into Hanohano’s behavior but then privately sought a voluntary agreement with her to resolve the complaints. Hanohano, sources say, insisted that she had done nothing wrong and refused to consent to any disciplinary action.

Souki told reporters that he asked Hanohano to help him with a solution, but said she never got back to him with an answer. The speaker also said House leaders had first wanted to oust Hanohano as committee chairwoman but that he opted for a reprimand and warning.

Other lawmakers who have been recently disciplined for conduct have accepted the sanctions voluntarily. House leaders could not recall an instance at the Legislature when a lawmaker resisted and had the punishment imposed.

Some reached as far back as state Sen. Steve Cobb, who was censured and stripped of his committee chairmanship in 1989 after being convicted of soliciting prostitution from an undercover police officer in Waikiki.

Forcibly removing Hanohano as committee chairwoman would likely have been done through a House resolution, which could have triggered an unpleasant floor debate where Hanohano’s defenders and critics of House leadership could have raised complaints about a lack of fairness and due process.

Souki said Hanohano’s behavior has improved since the complaints surfaced in February. But he said she was unhappy with the reprimand.

"No adult is happy being reprimanded by another person, and as expected she wasn’t very happy," he said.

Hanohano apologized last year on the House floor after she made references to "Japs," "haoles" and "pakes" in front of state exhibit specialists installing art in her office as part of the "Art in Public Places" program. Hanohano, who is Native Hawaiian, complained that none of the art was from Native Hawaiian artists.

In February, Aarin Jacobs, a 22-year-old HPU student from Portland, Ore., complained that he had been treated rudely by Hanohano when he testified before her committee in favor of a bill that would have protected sharks and rays. Jacobs said Hanohano asked him whether he wanted to take her food and whether she would be forced to eat people if there was a taro shortage and she faced penalties for eating shark. He also said she made dismissive comments about Westerners and his age.

William Aila Jr., director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, submitted a letter to Souki in February that said Hanohano had been perceived as abusive in authority, racially discriminatory and inappropriate toward department staff at committee hearings. Aila claimed, for example, that Hanohano said a department staffer was responsible for genocide.

Souki determined that the complaints were valid. He said the accounts from Jacobs and Aila were substantiated by others present at the hearings.

"Your conduct during the public hearings was intimidating and displayed, at a minimum, a lack of respect and courtesy, and would lead an impartial observer to agree that your references to age and ethnicity lessened public confidence in the integrity of the House of Representatives," Souki wrote in the reprimand.

"Your conduct was unacceptable, was in violation of the House Code of Legislative Conduct, and was disruptive to our workplace."