Harris official
convicted of theftMike Amii had staff
work on the mayor's
campaign on city time
A top city official and longtime Democratic Party insider pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor theft charge yesterday, making him the first member of Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' Cabinet to be convicted of a crime.
Mike Amii, director of the city Department of Community Services, was ordered by District Judge Clarence Pacarro to pay a $250 fine and $195 in restitution after he pleaded no contest to the third-degree theft charge for ordering a staffer to work on Harris' political campaign.
Amii, 58, made no comment at his arraignment and sentencing yesterday, but later released a statement to the Star-Bulletin apologizing for his actions. Amii said he agreed to resolve the year-long ordeal so that he could move on with his life.
"I have learned a great deal about the fine line that public employees must straddle and the amount of scrutiny we are under," Amii said in the statement.
"While the amount of time I requested from my staff was not significant, I now realize the consequences of my actions."
Miles Furutani, Amii's lawyer, said the amount of work that staffers conducted on the campaign amounted to about 10 hours over a four-year period, or about 30 seconds a day.
Furutani questioned whether it would have been more proper to take the matter up in a administrative hearing rather than in a criminal case.
"For him to be accused of misappropriating city resources is not putting Mike in the proper light," he said. "Ask any government or city employee to name the five hardest-working people in the city, and Mike would be on that list without exception."
Amii, who remains in his city post, becomes the first Harris administration official to be convicted of a crime as a result of city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle's 18-month investigation into the mayor's campaign.
He is also the first city department head to be convicted of a crime since Kenneth Rappolt, former head of the city Wastewater Management Department under then-Mayor Frank Fasi. Rappolt served an eight-month jail term in 1994 for demanding campaign donations for nonbid city contracts.
Amii's conviction also comes more than six months after the chief executive of one of the state's largest engineering firms, Michael Matsumoto, of SSFM International Inc., pleaded no contest to laundering $139,500 to the Harris campaign.
In addition to his work for the city, Amii served as a volunteer coordinator for Harris' derailed 2002 gubernatorial campaign.
Harris praised Amii's work on behalf of the city and the local community yesterday, saying the department head often works more than 10 hours a day, seven days a week.
But the mayor also criticized Amii for violating his administration's prohibition against working on campaign matters during city hours.
"Mike's actions were against my city policy, and I don't condone them," Harris said in a statement.
Yesterday's court proceedings were held outside the view of the local media and the general public.
Amii's arraignment and sentencing, along with about half a dozen other District Court cases, originally were scheduled to be heard by Pacarro, but court staffers placed a handwritten note on the court's agenda saying that all of the cases would be transferred to District Judge Leslie Hayashi's court.
After a closed-door meeting in Hayashi's chambers, Amii's arraignment and sentencing were returned to Pacarro's court, but neither the media nor the public were informed of that change.
Marsha Kitagawa, a spokeswoman for the state Judiciary, said the court should have informed the media and the public about the changes and that the Judiciary will investigate the matter.
Both Furutani and Deputy Prosecutor Randal Lee denied that Amii was granted favoritism.
AMII'S CONVICTION comes nearly a year after Honolulu police arrested him on suspicion of second-degree theft and racketeering. That arrest was partly prompted by a civil investigation last year by the state Campaign Spending Commission, which questioned a number of expenditures by the Harris campaign to Amii.
Those expenditures included $280 in parking tickets that Amii charged to the campaign in 1996, as well as thousands of dollars in payments for mainland trips for meetings with officials of the Democratic National Committee.
A state employee for more than two decades, Amii joined the city in 1995, the year Harris became mayor.
Longtime Democrats said Amii was a key campaign coordinator for former Gov. John Waihee and organized rallies for former Gov. George Ariyoshi's campaigns.
In a related matter, Honolulu police arrested local resident Helen June yesterday on suspicion of money laundering and making contributions under a false name to the Harris campaign. June, who was released pending investigation, is part of the HPD's probe into local city subcontractor NTW Associates Inc.
HPD arrested an NTW employee and his two brothers earlier this week on suspicion of money laundering and making false-name donations to the campaign.
