Hawaii State Ethics Commission asks for the Sugar Bowl List

About how they want to determine if people were illegally on the trip at state expense without a state function, Hawaii State Ethics Commission Director Daniel Mollway said:
"What the NCAA allows doesn't trump the state ethics code. Not at all. What they allow we would normally say is irrelevant." (HSB)

HSB Note: "The Hawaii State Ethics Commission has requested that the University of Hawaii provide it with a complete list of the travel party for the Sugar Bowl. A UH spokesman said the school will comply. It released a list on May 23, but 45 names were blacked out."

HSB Note: "Commission Executive Director Daniel Mollway wants the complete list to help determine whether any laws were broken, specifically the Hawaii State Ethics Code (HRS 84). The Hawaii State Ethics Commission is a six-member board that administers and enforces governmental and lobbying laws. The commission can refer cases to the state attorney general's office. Penalties for breaking the state ethics code can include recovery of losses, a $500 fine per offense and disciplinary action including discharge from employment."

About the Ethics Commission, Mollway said:
"We can subpoena for information and presumably obtain it. If there's some discrepancy we can ask why and see what happened." (HSB)

About how UH will provide the information that the Ethics Commission requested, UH spokesman Gregg Takayama said:
"Yes, we've been in contact and fully cooperating, as we have from the very start. One thing we both agree on is this is new territory for both of us. We have been fully cooperative." (HSB)

About the law, Mollway said:
"The Sugar Bowl was a unique, unusual thing, but the logic still applies. You need to be there on a legitimate state purpose." (HSB)

HSB Note: "Mollway met with Hinshaw, then-athletic director Herman Frazier, associate athletic director Carl Clapp and other UH officials on Dec. 20, five days before the travel contingent flew to New Orleans. Mollway said he initiated the meeting because he had "heard rumors" there might be problems with UH's proposed travel list. The UH officials told Mollway that Bowl Championship Series, NCAA and Western Athletic Conference officials required that UH send a sizable "delegation" to New Orleans to represent the school and the WAC, and that some spouses would be required to be part of it."

About how UH planned to send spouses at UH expense, Mollway said:
"They explained it as an official party that they had to put together a delegation very quickly. The BCS needed to see a very strong commitment. We were told there would be a lot of social events. Normally the state does not pay for spouses. Our basic thing is a spouse doesn't go. It's a freebie." (HSB)

HSB Note: "Mollway added he was told at the meeting that a few children would be on the trip, presumably at their parents' expense."

About how he was told that UH wasn't going to be paying for children to go to the Sugar Bowl, Mollway said:
"They said they (UH) would not be paying for their travel." (HSB)

About how UH people at the meeting dispute that they were told UH couldn't pay for children, Takayama said:
"They do remember that there was not a specific agreement about the children." (HSB)

Takayama said that discussions at the December 20 meeting were in:
"very general terms. The thing to remember is that, and the chancellor has said, there was no travel policy prior to (the Sugar Bowl invitation). Everything was developed on the fly as quickly as possible and to the best of our ability. We only had about three weeks from the (University of) Washington game to literally getting on the flight on Christmas Day." (HSB)