The state Campaign Spending Commission approved a $49,300 fine yesterday against a local engineering firm that made illegal political contributions to several isle Democratic political candidates. Campaign spending
panel penalizes firmsBy Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.comThe state agency also settled a complaint filed by isle Democrats against Gov. Linda Lingle's campaign.
By a 5-0 vote, the commission finalized a conciliation agreement with ECS Inc. and its officers. The fine is the second-largest penalty issued by the commission, following last year's $64,000 fine against the local engineering firm Geolabs Inc.
Bob Watada, the commission's executive director, said that ECS gave about $80,000 to the campaigns of Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, former Gov. Ben Cayetano, ex-Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono and past Maui Mayor James "Kimo" Apana.
Watada said that contributions, which were well over the $4,000 legal limit for countywide races and the $6,000 limit for statewide races, were funneled through friends and relatives of the company's officers.
"A lot of the contributions fit into a pattern where they gave money to a relative or an employee and told them to make a contribution to a political candidate," Watada said.
Meanwhile, the Lingle campaign agreed to pay $200 to settle a complaint filed by the Democratic Party of Hawaii alleging that when Lingle was mayor of Maui, she improperly used her staff to send out campaign material in 1998.
Watada said his staff believes that the Lingle campaign did not intentionally violate state campaign spending laws and that the alleged incident was not part of a larger scheme to circumvent campaign spending laws.
Shelton Jim On, an attorney for the Lingle campaign, said his client settled the complaint without admitting wrongdoing. He said the campaign settled to avoid a costly hearing, and noted that the Maui Ethics Commission dismissed a similar complaint filed in 1998 by isle Democrats.
In a related matter, the commission voted 5-0 to approve a $500 fine against San Diego-based MGD Technologies Inc. and a $3,000 fine against the local architecture firm Oda/McCarty Architects.
The commission said that MGD made $2,000 in excessive contributions to the Harris campaign, while Oda/McCarty's officers made $2,000 in over-the-limit contributions to the Cayetano campaign and $5,000 in excess donations to the Hirono campaign.
Commission also alleged that Oda/McCarty failed to file disclosure reports with the commission as required by law.