Commission Executive Director Bob Watada said today's action brings to 32 the number of companies fined for excess contributions and it is only a third of the way through the companies that appear to have given too much.

The commission has already turned up well over $100,000 in excess contributions and has already approved fines in excess of $50,000, Watada said.

"We still have a number of other companies we have to go through and we'll use the same process and if they've made excess contributions we'll impose a fine on the company," he said.

None of the companies fined today admitted intentionally exceeding the limits and reached conciliation agreements on the fines with the commissions staff.

The commission's administrative fines come as city prosecutors press a separate criminal investigation into whether city contracts were awarded in exchange for contributions to Harris' campaign or whether donation limits were circumvented by attributing contributions to people who didn't make them.

Several current and past officials in Harris' administration involved in contract awards were subpoenaed Monday to testify before an Oahu grand jury next month.

Phillips, Brandt, Reddick and Associates Hawaii Inc. agreed to pay $3,500 for excessive contributions to Harris' campaign and to Gov. Ben Cayetano's 1998 re-election campaign.

Officers of the company contributed $15,750 to Cayetano's campaign, exceeding the $6,000 limit by $9,750, and contributed $12,950 to the Harris campaign, exceeding the $4,000 limit by $8,950, according to the staff.

Although several company officers contributed to the campaigns, the commission considers those donations as coming from the same source, said Watada.

Marc M. Siah and Associates was fined $1,000 for donating an excess $3,750 to Harris; Masa Fujioka and Associates was fined $1,000 fine for contributing $2,500 too much to Harris; and Diversified Energy Services was fined $500 for giving Harris $250 over the limit.

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.

"The companies, they all tell us very honestly that there are just tremendous pressures on them to give contributions in order to get contracts, so they begin to look for different ways to give contributions to the candidates and in some cases run afoul of the law," Watada said.

There's no direct system of a contract for a contribution, "it's just that the more money you put on the table, the more contracts you are in line for," Watada said.