The state Ethics Commission has been shorthanded for more than a year, but that could change soon.

The commission is set to welcome Ruth Tschumy as its newest member Wednesday. That’ll keep the five-member commission at four members, since it was already down two and the most recent meeting was Chair Maria Sullivan‘s last. 

Ethics Executive Director Les Kondo said in June that he expected two new members to come on board in July, but that didn’t pan out. The commission didn’t even hold a meeting last month.

Still, a person at the commission’s office said Tuesday that the fifth member is likely to come on board soon, just not in time for the August meeting this week.

Tschumy, the former chair of the Charter School Review Panel, would bring an interesting perspective to the commission, which has focused heavily on charter schools in recent years.

The commission fined Connections New Century Public Charter School employee Eric Boyd $10,000 in February for 20 violations of the ethics code.

State lawmakers tried to exempt charter school employees from the ethics code last year, purportedly to address concerns about for-profit companies that they sometimes work with. But it drew the ire of good-government groups and the exemption was removed from the final version of the bill.

Check out the commission agenda for Wednesday’s meeting here.

— Nathan Eagle

 

Hawaii Ethics Director Les Kondo, center, takes notes at a recent meeting. (Photo by Nathan Eagle/Honolulu Civil Beat)