Harris campaign donors agree to pay penalties
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Four Honolulu companies have agreed to pay fines for contributing more than the legal limit to Mayor Jeremy Harris' 2000 re-election campaign, and one of the firms also admitted giving an excess contribution to Gov. Ben Cayetano's 1998 campaign.
The fines are the latest in a string of penalties that companies have paid the state Campaign Spending Commission for excess contributions.
City prosecutors also are investigating whether the Harris campaign intentionally hid the source of contributions by attributing them to people who never gave the money.
Phillips, Brandt, Reddick and Associates Hawai'i Inc. agreed to pay the largest of the new fines, $3,500, for contributing an excess $9,750 to Cayetano and an excess $8,950 to Harris.
Several company officers contributed to the campaigns, and those donations are considered as coming from the same source, commission director Robert Watada said. Company president William Frank Brandt did not return calls yesterday.
State law allows political supporters to give no more than $6,000 to a candidate for governor during the four-year period prior to an election, and to give no more than $4,000 to a candidate for mayor.
Another firm, Marc M. Siah and Associates, agreed to pay a $1,000 fine for donating an excess $3,750 to Harris. Marc Siah said he had not realized that contributions he made separately over several years in the name of his company and himself would be counted together toward the limit.
"I know it was a mistake, otherwise I wouldn't have done it," Siah said. "I had totally forgotten that I had contributed two years back with a personal check, and I didn't know they would be counted as coming from the same place. But ignorance of the law is no excuse, so I want to settle it."
Masa Fujioka and Associates, agreed to pay $1,000 for contributing an excess $2,500 to Harris, and Diversified Energy Services agreed to pay $500 for giving Harris $250 too much.
None of the companies admitted intentional wrongdoing by agreeing to the fines, which the commission's five voting members are to consider Wednesday.
Harris and his campaign have denied intentionally collecting excess contributions, and say they returned any they became aware of.
Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
