Yoshimura settlement on agenda

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer

State officials have come up with a proposed settlement of City Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura's dispute with the Campaign Spending Commission.

The state commission will discuss the proposed "conciliation agreement" Tuesday at its regular meeting.

Commission executive director Bob Watada was out of town yesterday and unavailable to comment on details of the agreement. Yoshimura did not respond to a request for comment.

The commission has been examining Yoshimura's campaign finances for the past two years. The commission recently sent Yoshi-

mura a letter telling him that it had completed its inquiry and determined he must pay about $3,500. That is much less than the $16,000 in disputed expenditures that the commission raised with Yoshimura earlier.

Last year, the commission required him to hire a certified public accountant to straighten out his reports after questions arose about missing information as well as numbers that didn't jibe.

Among the issues questioned earlier were more than $4,000 worth of reimbursements made to Yoshimura without a breakdown of why he was paid the money. Yoshimura said he has provided the paperwork to detail those expenses.

Some of the disputed expenses included his decision to use campaign funds for tuxedo rentals to attend formal political and community functions and his travel expenses related to his unsuccessful effort to bring a Smithsonian Institution exhibit to Honolulu.

Yoshimura is running for lieutenant governor. He is among the seven of nine council members prohibited by term limits from running for re-election. In January, his council campaign committee showed a balance of just under $3,000 and less than $100 last month.

But in his bid to have the state's No. 2 job, Yoshimura has raised $60,968 so far this year and had $46,762 at the end of June.

It's not clear what funds Yoshimura would tap to pay the settlement. Commission members could recommend increasing or trimming the amount at the meeting.

When Councilwoman Rene Mansho recently admitted violations of campaign spending laws, she agreed to pay $40,000 — $30,000 from her campaign coffers and $10,000 of her own money.