Education lobbyists
report expensesFilings from CARE, established
by Lingle, are one month late
The private organization that Gov. Linda Lingle's office established to push her education initiatives filed a lobbying expense report with the state yesterday, more than a month past the deadline.
Citizens Achieving Reform in Education filed the report with the Ethics Commission after the Star-Bulletin on Sunday reported that the group failed to provide an accounting of its lobbying expenses this year in apparent violation of state law.
Any organization that spends at least $750 on lobbying in a given reporting period is required to report such expenditures to the commission.
In one of two filings with the commission yesterday, Bob Awana, Lingle's chief of staff and president of CARE, said the organization spent $30,559 in media advertising in the March-April reporting period.
CARE also received $75,000 in contributions during that period: $50,000 from builder Castle & Cooke and $25,000 from the labor organization Unity House, according to the report.
In a separate report for the January-February period, Awana indicated that CARE did not incur any lobbying expenses, though it received a $5,000 contribution from Paul and Linda Smith, the latter Lingle's senior policy adviser.
Awana was traveling to the Big Island late yesterday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.
In a letter dated yesterday to Dan Mollway, the commission's executive director, Awana said "it has come to my attention" that CARE was required to file expenditure reports due March 31 and May 31. The two reports were attached, although CARE did not have to file one for the January-February period because its lobbying spending did not meet the $750 threshold.
Any organization that violates the lobbying law can be fined up to $500 per violation by the commission. Mollway would not comment on whether CARE would be fined.
CARE was transformed from an advisory group to a private, nonprofit, fund-raising and lobbying organization at the beginning of the year but continued operating from Lingle's office, in violation of state law.
After the Star-Bulletin disclosed the arrangement, Lingle severed ties to CARE, admitted breaking the ethics law unintentionally, apologized and arranged for the group to reimburse the state nearly $30,000.
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