[§84-13.2] Nepotism; prohibition. (a) No employee shall:
a paid position in the employee's employing agency; provided that this subsection shall not prohibit an employee from performing ministerial acts that may impact the relative or household member if those acts are a part of the normal job functions of the employee.
(b) No employee shall supervise a relative or household member unless the employee:
(c) No employee shall award a contract to or otherwise take official action on a contract with a business if the employee knows or reasonably should know that the employee's relative or household member is an executive officer of or holds a substantial ownership interest in that business.
(d) Notwithstanding the prohibitions in this section, if an employee who is a supervisor or executive director is unable to waive or disengage from completing their official duties or from taking official action and is legally required to take action that directly impacts a relative or household member receiving an award or other official action on a contract described in subsection (c), the employee shall not be in violation of this section if the employee:
(e) Upon application, the state ethics commission may grant an exception to an employee or agency that is unable to comply with this section for good cause, including a demonstrated lack of qualified personnel or applicants.
(f) Any employee who knowingly violates this section shall be subject to the administrative fines set forth in section 84-39. Any favorable action obtained by a relative or household member of an employee in violation of this section shall be voidable in accordance with sections 84-16 and 84-19.
(g) This section shall not affect the applicability of section 84-13 or 84-14.
(h) This section shall not prohibit a state agency from appointing, hiring, promoting, retaining, demoting, discharging, or terminating a relative or household member of an employee employed by the agency.
(i) Notwithstanding sections 84-2 and 84-3, this section shall not apply to employees or agencies of the legislative or judicial branch of the State.
(j) For purposes of this section:
"Household member" means an individual who resides in the same dwelling unit as the employee.
"Relative" means the employee's parent, grandparent, stepparent, child, grandchild, stepchild, foster child, adopted child, sibling, half-sibling, stepsibling, parent's sibling, first cousin, sibling's child, spouse, spouse's parent, child-in-law, or sibling-in-law, or any individual who has become a member of the employee's immediate family through the Hawaiian hanai custom. [L 2023, c 261, §1]