Kawamoto donors
part of bidding
investigationSeveral contractors are accused
in a five-year bid-rigging scheme
Contractors embroiled in the Honolulu Airport bid-rigging scandal made nearly a dozen contributions to state Sen. Cal Kawamoto's campaign, a Star-Bulletin investigation found.
Since 1997, Waipahu residents Michael and Frances Furukawa, their company MF Masonry, and Pearl City construction company B & U Inc. gave a total of $2,000 to Kawamoto's campaign.
Two other airport contractors -- Site Engineering and Herbert Hirota, of Hirota Painting Co. -- gave a total of $1,500 to former Gov. Ben Cayetano's re-election campaign in 1998.
Political contributions are a focus of state and federal criminal investigations into what some law enforcement officials consider the state's costliest political corruption scandal.
So far, five contractors and airport workers have pleaded guilty to theft charges stemming from the state attorney general's two-year investigation into the alleged kickback scheme. The contractors said they provided more than $55,000 in payments in the guise of "political contributions" to several former airport officials.
Kawamoto (D, Waipahu) is chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, which oversees the construction projects of the Department of Transportation and its Airports Division.
Kawamoto said he has no influence on how the Airports Division awards contracts and said the donations are unrelated to the awarding of state airport contracts.
Kawamoto -- whose wife, Carolyn, works as a clerk in the Airports Division's procurement office -- also said the Furukawas and B & U are from his district and have worked with him on community matters.
Cayetano said in an e-mail that he never got involved in political fund raising and could not recall any of the airport contractors' names.
Cayetano, who collected about $5 million from 4,000 political donations during the 1998 campaign, also noted that his administration initiated the investigation to "clear up corruption at the airport."
The state's kickback investigation involves the awarding of small airport repair and maintenance contracts of $25,000 or less.
According to a lawsuit filed by the attorney general's office in state Circuit Court in December, nine contracting companies -- including four controlled by the Furukawas -- conspired with Richard Okada, a former head of the airport's Visitor Information Program, and Dennis Hirokawa, a former airport maintenance supervisor.
The five-year bid-rigging scheme allegedly involved more than 170 small contracts. The state alleged that the construction companies inflated the costs of the contracts by at least $1.2 million.
In plea agreements, several contractors indicated that Okada, Furukawa or Hirokawa directed them to make political contributions in cash to obtain airport contracts.
Arthur Inada, president of Blueprint Builders Inc. in Kalihi, said Okada asked for two $20,000 political donations in 1998 and 1999, forcing him to pad his contracts.
Roy Yoshida, owner of Yoshida's Auto Paint Shop in Waipahu, told state investigators that Okada and Michael Furukawa urged him to double the value of his billings to give "kickbacks in the form of political contributions to Okada."
Yoshida said he was asked to paint Okada's home and to canvas the Manoa and Pacific Heights areas during the 2000 elections.
The contractors and the attorney general's office did not say whether any political candidates received money that originated from the kickback scheme.
Okada, who could not be reached for comment, retired in 2002 after he was arrested by state investigators. He has not been charged. Michael Furukawa, who is Okada's cousin, also was arrested but has not been charged.
In court documents, the attorney general's office described Okada as the "person who would lobby the Legislature for the Department of Transportation to obtain state funds for the Airport Division's operational budget."
Kawamoto said he met Okada through his father, Hideo "Major" Okada. Major Okada, a former union organizer and Democratic Party official, is a founder of the Waipahu Cultural Garden Park, Kawamoto said.
Kawamoto said he was "flabbergasted" when he heard that Richard Okada might be connected to the airport scandal.
With a campaign war chest of more than $300,000, Kawamoto is one of the state Legislature's most prolific fund-raisers and has opposed campaign finance reform.
Last year, the state Campaign Spending Commission opened an investigation into Kawamoto's campaign after local consumer advocate George Fox questioned several of the campaign's expenditures.
The commission later expanded that investigation after a Star-Bulletin study found that Kawamoto's campaign failed to report more than $20,000 in political donations.
Laure Dillon, executive di- rector of the Hawaii Clean Elections Coalition, said Kawamoto's contributions from airport contractors underscore an "unsavory" problem of lawmakers raising money from companies that stand to benefit from their legislation.