Tom Cook  
Tom receives $8,000/month to be a consultant for the construction industry
while in office as a County Council Member. Below are the facts.
MAUI COUNTY BOARD OF ETHICS
FORMAL COMPLAINT

Please explain, in full detail, the Section 10-4.1.c Violation Council Member Tom Cook is paid $8,000 per month to provide consulting services to construction companies via an intermediary called LC Hauling LLC.

Please explain, in full detail, the Section 10-4.1.g Violation If not required to recuse from votes regarding the clients of LC Hauling LLC, CM Cook is in a position where he may grant unwarranted consideration, privileges, exemptions, advantages, contracts, or treatment for himself or others.

Please explain, in full detail, the Section 10-4.4 Violation If not required to recuse from votes regarding the clients of LC Hauling LLC, CM Cook may inadvertently represent the interests of the companies that pay his $8,000 per month consulting fees.

Section 10-4. Prohibitions. 1. No officer or employee of the county shall: a. Solicit, accept or receive any gift; directly or indirectly, whether in the form of money, service, loan, travel, entertainment, hospitality, thing or promise, or in any other form, under circumstances in which it can reasonably be inferred that the gift is intended to influence the officer or employee in the performance of the officer's or employee's official duties or is intended as a reward for any official action on the officer's or employee's part.
b. Disclose information which, by law or practice, is not available to the public and which the officer or employee acquires in the course of the officer's or employee's official duties or use such information for the officer's or employee's personal gain or for the benefit of anyone.
c. Engage in any business transaction or activity or have a financial interest, direct or indirect, which is incompatible with the proper discharge of the officer's or employee's official duties or which may tend to impair the officer's or employee's independence of judgment in the performance of the officer's or employee's official duties, or take any official action in which the officer or employee has a direct or indirect financial interest, including participating in deliberations.
d. Use county property or personnel for other than public activity or purpose.
e. Fail to disclose a financial interest in any matter which may be affected by an action of a county agency or vote on any matter affected by such interest.
f. Receive compensation for any service rendered in behalf of any private interest after termination of service to or employment with the county in relation to any case, proceeding or application with respect to which the officer or employee was directly concerned, or which was under his or her active consideration, or with respect to which knowledge or information not generally available to the public was made available to him or her during the period of service to or employment with the county.
g. Use or attempt to use the officer’s or employee’s official position to secure or grant unwarranted consideration, privileges, exemptions, advantages, contracts, or treatment, for oneself or others.

2.a. No former mayor or council member shall appear for compensation before any agency of the county within
a period of one (1) year after leaving the county elective office.
b. No former non-elected salaried employee or officer of the county shall appear for compensation before any department or other agency of the county by which such employee or officer was last employed within a period of one (1) year after termination of service to or employment with the county. 3. The county shall not enter into any contract of a value in excess of $500.00 with an officer or employee or with a firm in which an officer or employee has a substantial interest involving services or property unless the contract is made after competitive bidding. 4. Officers and full time employees of the county shall not appear on behalf of or represent private interests before any county agency, provided that no officer or employee shall be denied the right to appear before any agency to petition for redress or grievances caused by any official county action affecting such person's personal rights, privileges or property, including real property, provided that members of boards and commissions may appear on behalf of private interests before county agencies other than the one on which such person serves and other than those agencies that have the power to review the actions of the agency on which such person serves, or to act on the same subject matter as the agency on which such person serves; provided, further, that without changing the prohibitions and rights stated above, the council by ordinance may prescribe further standards, conditions, and guidelines concerning the representation of private interests before county agencies. (Amended 2002, 1992) Page 2/4 Submission ID: b80ae567-9d11-4708-ac86-17cb39aa7560I further provide the following concise statement of facts constituting the alleged violation: This is a complaint regarding a previous decision by Board of Ethics.

Johann Lallam filing this against Council Member Tom Cook with the categories that most closely match the POTENTIAL violations of the ethics code allowed by the BOE's previous ruling. On January 17th, 2023, Council Member Tom Cook wrote to the Board of Ethics requesting an advisory opinion regarding his outside work as a consultant. The board took up his request on August 29th, 2023. CM Cook’s work as a consultant is exclusively for a company called LC Hauling LLC and he asked if it was incompatible with his work as a Council Member. The nature of the work seems to be highly integrated into the planning and construction processes. CM Cook is paid a flat fee of $8,000 every month for this work. The board debated whether his outside consultancy should be disallowed but ultimately decided that he should recuse himself from votes affecting LC Hauling. I believe the Board failed to consider the full financial conflict inherent in CM Cook’s consulting work. The $8,000 per month amounts to $96,000 per year which I believe is higher than his salary as a council member. The source of that money is the construction companies that have contracts with LC Hauling. Per his description of the consulting work, he is providing services for those construction companies. This is a conflict because a significant part of the Council’s duties involve regulating construction and development. For example the recent vote on the Temporary Debris Site benefited the construction company contracted to do the work, Alpha Construction. If Alpha happened to be one of the clients paying LC Hauling to sub-contract Tom Cook, he should have recused himself. He would have recused if the Board had recognized the financial conflict in such cases. It should be noted that land use, development, and water rights are the most contentious issues in Maui County and CM Cook is the Chair of the Water And Infrastructure Committee. Council also approves changes in zoning, funding for certain types of development, and the Mayor’s budget which includes funding for maintenance and construction. I believe Council Member Cook should be required to disclose the clients of LC Hauling LLC publicly and recuse himself from any votes or deliberating involving those companies.