AN examination of Mayor Harris' campaign chest provides good reason for the need to ban contributions from companies doing business with the city. The evidence becomes more stark with the realization that what appears to be corrupt is allowed by state law. Harris cannot be blamed for taking advantage of a practice that has become integral to politics in Hawaii, a practice that should be brought to an end. Prohibit contributions
from city contractorsThe issue: Companies doing
business with the city and their
employees and family members
have given nearly $750,000 to
Mayor Harris' campaign fund.The Harris campaign raised nearly $750,000 in contributions from 1996 through last year from companies that have had city contracts during that period or from their family members and employees. Individuals and companies are allowed by state law to give up to $4,000 to a candidate for a county-wide office.
Those same companies, whose contributions amounted to more than a quarter of the nearly $3 million raised by Harris, received more than $200 million worth of city contracts. The contributions to Harris appear to have been either perfectly legal or on the fringe of what is allowed; contributions in excess of the limit were returned by the mayor's campaign after being discovered.
Of course, everyone involved in either giving or receiving the contributions denies impropriety, which would consist of making contributions in return for favoritism in city contracts. The city's largest construction contracts are subject to competitive bidding, which should eliminate favoritism. However, many consulting contracts for engineering, architecture, landscaping and legal services are awarded without bidding.
Bids or no bids, the system allowed under state law breeds an unseemly relationship between contractors and the city. After Group 70 International architects noticed recently during construction of a visitor's center above Hanauma Day that it would have to be changed to comply with agreements, Harris proclaimed, "It's not an error at all."
Group 70 received $2.9 million in contracts from the city under the Harris administration. Group 70, its employees and its family members contributed $19,500 to the Harris campaign.
"This has been going on forever and ever," Lowell Kalapa, executive director of the independent Tax Foundation of Hawaii, told the Star-Bulletin's Rick Daysog. "It's quite obvious by the pattern of campaign contributions that if you want work from the state or city government, you have to be a major contributor."
Contractors complain that ending the system would infringe on their First Amendment rights to freedom of expression. However, while the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that political expenditures by candidates are constitutionally protected, limiting contributions to political campaigns "does not in any way infringe the contributor's freedom to discuss candidates and issues." The same logically holds true for banning such contributions altogether.
The state Senate this year defeated a proposed ban on political contributions from contractors, unions and corporations. Robert Watada, executive director of the state Campaign Spending Commission, noted that contractors already are banned from contributing money to federal races except during certain time periods. Hawaii should join the many other states that have adopted similar prohibitions.
If Paul LeMahieu's contract as schools superintendent is extended this year as he has requested, the election year debates about public education in Hawaii may more properly focus on problems than on personality. Not doing so will further destabilize the already shaky school system and give politicians an easy scapegoat in their quests for public office in 2002 when virtually all elective positions will be up for grabs. Public school chief
sees politics in his futureThe issue: The superintendent has
asked that his contract be renewed
early to avoid clashing with next
year's election campaigns.Public education was already in big trouble before LeMahieu began work here in 1998. He has had to confront the vast bureaucracy of the Department of Education that has become so cumbersome over the decades that sorting out who does what and why makes reform a laborious task.
Coming from outside the state, he has had to muscle through an entrenched employee system that has resisted change with the all-too-familiar refrain of "that's not how we do things here."
A three-week-long strike that shut down public education statewide was a long time in coming as the union for teachers saw its members' value dwindle against pay raises for other public employees.
The most demanding of LeMahieu's challenges has been complying with federal standards for educating special-needs children, a program that lacked attention for decades before a lawsuit forced the state and the DOE to get moving.
Many of LeMahieu's difficulties are beyond his control. The fluctuating funding for the school system sends him to the Legislature every year to justify spending and makes program planning uncertain. LeMahieu serves at the pleasure of the state Board of Education, which has given his job performance a "more than satisfactory" evaluation for two years running. However, the makeup of the board has changed since then with half its members newly elected.
LeMahieu contends that he is on the verge of crucial achievements. The board should give him the benefit of the doubt, allow him more time to get the job done and take him out of the political bull's eye.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, President
John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.com The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (USPS 249460) is published daily by
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