However, a state law curbs that authority and must be changed to make the charter amendment really effective. Senate Bill 2937 attempts to make that change.

The law now requires counties enforcing any violation first to issue an order to stop and 30 days to correct it.

This requirement seems intended for infractions of the building code or other flaws that need fixing but would needlessly impede ethics enforcement. Once ethics are breached, public trust in government is damaged, and a penalty should be paid.

SB 2937 in the first case may be dead for the session, but the City Council still should act on resolution 07-384, now lingering in the City Council Executive Matters Committee. It deserves to proceed to the full council, where it should pass.

The ongoing push should be to empower the commission with broad oversight and enforcement powers, just as the State Ethics Commission already has.

The Hawaii Government Employees Association has opposed fining union members, arguing that they should not be subject to both civil fines and discipline from their supervisor. When the issue came before the state in 2006, the attorney general found the argument without legal merit.

And it makes no more sense for the city, especially now that Honolulu is embarking on a major transit project in which billions of dollars will change hands.

This is not the time to deny the commission the power to hold city employees accountable to a uniform ethics code.