State Rep. Romy Cachola says former colleagues on the Honolulu City Council accepted the same meals that Ethics Commission staff accuse him of taking illegally.
And if that’s the case, Cachola says, their actions collectively could call into question the legality of some crucial decisions the Council has made, including ones that cleared the way for the city’s $5.26 billion rail project.
Chuck Totto, executive director of the city Ethics Commission, said he and the commission will look into Cachola’s allegations.
"We’ll give it the same analysis he got," Totto said. However, Totto said, Cachola’s revelations are "a way for him to distract media and public from what he’s done. … It’s not a defense for him to say somebody else did it, too."
Last week, Cachola (D, Sand Island-Kalihi-Airport) agreed to pay the city $50,000 to settle claims that the commission staff levied against him involving alleged ethical breaches during his time on the Council, 2000-2012. The settlement is the largest amount ever paid out by a party being investigated by the commission.
Cachola settled charges last week — without admitting guilt — that included accepting gifts valued at $3,820 consisting of meals, wine and golf outings from lobbyists, and then failing to disclose conflicts of interest when he voted on more than 100 bills and resolutions tied to rail transit, construction and rezoning that those same lobbyists represented.
Cachola said that if he accepted gifts, he has Excel worksheets — extrapolated from information provided by the commission staff as they investigated him — showing that up to five former colleagues also accepted the same gifts in at least 11 instances.
"It appears very suspect that Mr. Totto has chosen to only pursue matters against Cachola," said a release issued by the veteran lawmaker to news organizations Monday. "Will Mr. Totto and the commission fairly apply the laws — as they interpret them — against Cachola and apply such interpretation to others as well?"
Under a 2003 Ethics Commission advisory opinion, a Council member may vote on a bill as long as he or she first discloses that a conflict of interest exists by the acceptance of a gift. Failure to disclose such a conflict would void that Council member’s vote.
Separately, a city gift law bars a Council member from soliciting, accepting or receiving gifts valued at $200 or more during a fiscal year from any donor.
Among the measures Cachola said that the commission questioned were ones giving rezoning approval to the master developer of Kapolei, the former Campbell Estate and its successor, the Aina Nui Corp.; final approval for the city to move forward with a fixed-guideway technology for the rail project; and approval of the annual budget for rail. The worksheets show that meals, as much as $246 a person, were paid for by lobbyists for Campbell, Aina Nui and Pacific Resource Partnership, the controversial, union-backed construction political action group that has heavily supported rail.
Besides Cachola, those accepting meals were current Council members Ikaika Anderson and Ann Kobayashi, and former Council members Todd Apo, state Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz and Nestor Garcia.
Totto said he will review the information on the other Council members that was extrapolated by Cachola to see whether there need to be any full-fledged investigations.
"We’re going to interview the other Council members, also, and interview them and find out what their positions are, and we’ll go from there," he said.
But the actions of other Council members should not divert attention off Cachola’s, he said. Totto maintains that "many, many, many hundreds of dollars that (Cachola) received" were not detailed in the scathing 22-page advisory opinion and report his staff sent to the commission.
Among the other charges settled by Cachola: Commission staff said he collected $9,450 to pay for expenses related to his 2008 Nissan Pathfinder, for which he was already being reimbursed out of his campaign account. Last month, Cachola agreed to a separate settlement with the state Campaign Spending Commission to pay $2,496 in fines and to reimburse his campaign $32,166 to settle a complaint involving a series of election financing violations.
Among those alleged violations was that he used the Nissan, bought with campaign funds, for noncampaign travel.
The report states there is "probable cause" to conclude that Cachola violated city ethics laws from as early as 2006 and that he had "developed a pattern and practice of accepting dozens of gifts worth nearly $5,000 from lobbyists."
The report also says that Cachola sat on the committees that dealt with ethics laws and policies during all 12 years he was on the Council, even chairing such committees for six years, thus making his violations "that much more pernicious." It also says that in 2003 the commission specifically warned Cachola not to accept gifts over $200.
Totto denied Cachola’s claim that he had gone after him specifically, noting that a third party brought the matter to the commission.
City Council Chairman Ernie Martin said it is too early to determine whether any votes taken by previous Councils would be invalidated as Cachola suggests they might.
"First and foremost, the city Ethics Commission must complete its investigation of any alleged impropriety," Martin said in a written statement. "If conflicts of interest are determined, then the city attorneys need to weigh in on the possible impact of the findings on any votes cast without the required disclosure. It would then be up to the current Council to take any corrective action."
Martin added, "Former Councilman Romy Cachola’s case has cast an unfortunate shadow over the legitimate work of both lobbyists and legislators and underscores the importance of proper reporting at every step of the political process."
Jesse Broder Van Dyke, spokesman for Mayor Kirk Caldwell, emphasized that the commission’s advisory opinion said a staff review of 100 measures in which Cachola’s participation was called into question concluded that the outcomes would not have changed had Cachola not voted.
The opinion, however, did not address the possible outcomes if more members’ votes were removed.
Michael Green, Cachola’s attorney, said "what the law is — every single Council member who received those gifts, their votes are void."
Green said he doubts there is any corruption involved on the part of any of those who attended the meals.
"None of these Council members thought they were doing anything illegal," he said. "They were trying to listen to (what was happening) with rail."
