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City prosecutor
stepped over line
in awarding contracts

THE ISSUE City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle awarded more than $100,000 in contracts to a company owned by his political campaign chairman.

AS the ultimate accuser in criminal violations of the state's campaign laws, the city prosecutor's office should be exemplary in its exclusion of political favoritism in the conduct of its business. Ethical questions about Prosecutor Peter Carlisle's granting of contracts to a company headed by former Honolulu Police Chief Michael Nakamura, his two-time political campaign chairman, tarnish that ideal. Carlisle should be diligent in avoiding future ethical breaches.

City financial records show that Nakamura and Associates Inc. was paid more than $100,000 for serving subpoenas and other legal documents under no-bid contracts with the prosecutor's office over a four-year period. Nakamura was chairman of Carlisle's 2000 and 2004 campaigns. His company was formed during the first of those campaigns and was dissolved last year.

The Nakamura contracts were recommended by Jean Patterson, Carlisle's executive assistant. Patterson was cited by the city Ethics Commission in February for improperly awarding no-bid document-serving contracts worth more than $343,000 to her sister, sister-in-law and three former campaign workers. Patterson told the commission she was unaware of the city regulation against nepotism and political favoritism.

Carlisle says Patterson told him that Keith Kaneshiro, Carlisle's predecessor, had awarded process-serving contracts to two brothers and another relative. "I still said there was no excuse," he says he told Patterson, who accepted the Ethics Commission's recommendation of a two-week suspension from her job.

As for Nakamura, Carlisle told the Star-Bulletin's Sally Apgar, "You can't reward someone for working on your campaign. That's just dead, damn wrong. But you can give them a job if they are qualified for it and are capable of doing it well." That has been the rationale of numerous company officials who donated large amounts of money to former Mayor Jeremy Harris and then received contracts from the city.

Kenneth D. Lee, a business partner of Nakamura, told Apgar, "It's all politics. If you know someone, you get the job." That is true and proper regarding city and state executive positions; mayors and governors often select people who worked in their campaigns for government jobs. It is not allowed in awarding city or state contracts.

In its report on Patterson's conduct, the Ethics Commission said, "Favoritism resulting from campaign support is not a proper basis upon which to select contractors any more than family membership is."

Carlisle's argument that a former police chief is highly qualified for "working in my office and backing us up" is no justification for Nakamura being awarded a contract. Carlisle would have been within ethical guidelines to put Nakamura on his office's payroll, but not to award a contract to his company.

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