Kalihi company cited for excess Harris donations

By Johnny Brannon and Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Staff Writers

Nine companies and individuals have been fined since November for making excess campaign contributions to Mayor Jeremy Harris, but one firm stands out because of the sheer amount of money involved and the way it was handled.

Mayor Jeremy Harris received $48,000 from Geolabs. Advertiser library photo • Jan. 18, 2002

Geolabs ran afoul of the state Campaign Spending Commission, and was fined $64,000, for three main reasons: the company reimbursed employees for contributions; its officers made donations after the company itself had already given the legal limit; and some contributions were attributed to people other than the direct donors.

Geolabs attorney Phillip Li said the company had not realized it was doing anything wrong when it made the contributions.

"My client's position is they thought they were doing what they were supposed to do under the statute," he said. "It's broadly enough written that the interpretation you want to give to it, you can really give to the statute."

Commission executive director Robert Watada said Geolabs cooperated fully with his investigation but that he found it hard to believe the contributions were a mistake.

"When I give you or an employee money and say 'give it to this candidate,' I think they know that's wrong," he said. "The law says quite clearly that when you give a contribution, it has to be your own money."

By contrast, the other companies and contributors fined by the commission simply had given too much money directly, or had donated in the name of multiple businesses owned in part by the same person. In each case the total contribution was much smaller, as was the fine.

Before the record $64,000 Geolabs fine, the Campaign Spending Commission's largest fine had been $5,500, issued in November to Alan Ho, a Waikiki restaurateur whom Harris appointed in 1999 to the Honolulu Police Commission. He and four restaurants he owns with others gave $13,500 above the limit to Harris's 1996 and 2000 campaigns, the commission ruled, though Ho denied any intentional wrongdoing.

A contributor can legally donate no more than $4,000 to a mayoral candidate or $6,000 to a candidate running for governor during each election cycle. The law states that "an individual and any general partnership in which the individual is a partner," or "an individual and any corporation in which the individual owns a controlling interest" are treated as a single entity and cannot exceed the donation limits.

Li, who served on the Campaign Spending Commission during the mid-1990s, said there are different interpretations of what constitutes a "controlling interest." This, he said, can create confusion for donors.

In the business world, a controlling interest is deemed to be 51 percent or more, Li said, but the state does not recognize that threshold and the law does not specify a different level.

Geolabs-Hawaii and its affiliates, Geolabs Inc. and Geo Services, are each headed by the same president, Clayton Mimura, and have won major city, state and federal engineering contracts in recent years, records show.

The Harris administration has awarded the companies six non-bid contracts worth a total of $660,000 since 1998. They included soil and foundation surveys related to landslide remediation in Palolo Valley and 'Aina Haina, and safety improvements at Hanauma Bay.

Geolabs also was a consultant for upgrades at the state airport on Maui, and worked on the federally financed Trans-Ko'olau Tunnel for the H-3 freeway.

Harris and his campaign have denied any link between campaign contributions and the awarding of contracts, and say the process for awarding contracts is designed to preclude favoritism and patronage.

Based in part on the Geolabs case, the Campaign Spending Commission voted last week to refer its investigation of the Harris campaign to the city prosecutor's office, which has subpoenaed records from campaign officials.

"We intend to cooperate with the investigation, and we will meet the schedule provided by the prosecutor's office," Harris campaign attorney William McCorriston said. "I'm thankful that some professionals without a political axe to grind are looking at this."

Harris has repeatedly charged that Watada is attempting to sabotage Harris' plan to run for governor, while Watada said he is merely carrying out his duty to scrutinize political donations.

Watada said the commission's investigators had identified about 60 companies and individual donors who may have contributed too much to Harris and others, and that additional companies will likely be fined soon for the same kind of violations as Geolabs.

Anyone who is unsure about whether a contribution is legal should consult their attorney and the commission, he said.

"If you're going to give thousands of dollars, don't you want to find out if it's the correct thing to do?" Watada said. "People have got to be held accountable."

Others fined since November for excess contributions to Harris were AES Design Group, Hawaii Design Associates, Community Planning, John Farias Jr., City Bank, and Belt Collins engineering. Gentry Homes also was fined $5,500 for excess contributions totaling $9,000 to the campaigns of Harris, Honolulu City Councilman John DeSoto, and former Councilman Mufi Hannemann.

Reach Johnny Brannon and Kevin Dayton at 525-8070 or at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com and kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.