Senator checking
firm hired for
Bishop investigation
Marshall Ige wants to see
By Rick Daysog
Bronster's bill as his own
estate ties are studied
Star-BulletinA state senator named by Attorney General Margery Bronster as a recipient of alleged illegal campaign contributions is looking into a $480,000 contract with a private investigative firm hired by Bronster.
Sen. Marshall Ige (D, Kaneohe) said he recently sent letters to Bronster seeking information on the attorney general's contract with Goodenow Associates Inc., which was hired to assist the state in its yearlong investigation of the Bishop Estate.
Ige, vice-chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which oversees state budgetary issues, said he wants to know how the money is being spent. He said he has asked for a copy of Goodenow's employment contract and a detailed listing of expenditures.
Senate President Norman Mizuguchi recently sent Bronster a letter asking her to respond to Ige's request, Ige said.
"It's a matter worth looking at to see how much this is costing the taxpayers," said Ige, who has raised questions about the state's contract with the Goodenow firm during the legislative session earlier this year.
The attorney general's office said it will comply with Ige's request but raised concerns that he may have a conflict of interest.
Ige -- a friend of Bishop Estate trustee Henry Peters -- is under investigation by the Campaign Spending Commission, which earlier this month sent him a letter informing that he may have broken campaign spending laws.
The commission, echoing findings in Bronster's Sept. 10 petition seeking the removal of several Bishop Estate trustees, said Ige's 1994 campaign debts were improperly paid for by several local architecture and engineering firms that received nonbid work from the estate.
Ige denied wrongdoing, saying he was not aware that the debts were paid for improperly.
Ige also defended against the commission's charges that he misrepresented how he received some $20,000 in campaign funds. He mistakenly told the commission that he received the money from several relatives when the money was actually a loan from his now-deceased grandmother.
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