When the latest Hawaii state legislative scandal broke, Speaker of the House Scott Saiki formed a quick assessment.

The veteran Democrat was facing a crisis with two Democratic colleagues charged with federal crimes: asking for and getting money for killing or passing laws.

Simply put, Saiki told the Democratic House caucus actions like that are unacceptable and all members must follow the law.

This has not always been the case; legislators and other Hawaii politicians have been found guilty of unethical behavior and have served prison time for it. Right now, former state Senate Majority Leader J. Kalani English and state Rep. Ty J.K. Cullen, charged and pleading guilty to accepting bribes and even soliciting them, are to be sentenced later this year.

First off, Saiki said he asked House members to refrain from holding fundraisers while the Legislature is in session. It had been a more than a little greasy past practice for lawmakers to ask for campaign money before they made those laws. Saiki said a campaign reform bill, Senate Bill 555, is expected to move. It starts out by stating the obvious: “The Legislature finds that campaign fundraising events held during legislative sessions diminish the public trust.”

The ethics problem for the Legislature has been its collective inability to see that asking for money while deciding on law changes requested by people being asked for money is shaky at best.

Kids may be considered budding business people for asking how much they will get when asked to mow the lawn, but the entrepreneurial spirit does not include shaking down constituents in return for political favors.

Saiki said a committee he appointed is coming up with recommendations by the end of the month to go over legislative ethics, campaign ethics and lobbying ethics.

I asked Saiki why a review was needed: Hawaii has tons of ethics laws; what about some way to get folks to obey them?

“You are right, if we inventory all the laws, it would show that a lot of areas are probably already covered. Already there are criminal statutes prohibiting bribery,” Saiki said in an interview last week. Even so, he figures it wouldn’t hurt to review what is already on the books.

“Are the standards clear and have the people been informed of these standards?” Saiki said.

Of course you don’t have to be informed that a “No Parking” sign means it is illegal to park there, just like you don’t need anyone to patiently explain to you that you must not rob banks: it is the law and you are expected to obey it.

So the question really before Saiki is how will the actions of Cullen and English rub off on the rest of the legislative incumbents? Will voters assume the rest of the pack has the same lack of respect for state and federal laws?

“They know we have to improve standards because we need to show the public that we learned something from this,” Saiki said in response.

What is unknown is if the voting public will look at those candidates asking to be returned to the Legislature and assume them to be innocent until they have been proven guilty — or if candidates will actually have an inspirational reason on why they should serve the public.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays. Reach him at 808onpolitics@gmail.com.