Companies agree to pay fines for exceeding donation limit

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Capitol Bureau Chief

The Campaign Spending Commission formally approved fines yesterday for a landscape architectural firm and an engineering firm for donating too much money to Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris and other elected officials.

The commission approved an agreement that imposes a fine of $1,000 on the engineering company Sato & Associates Inc. for donating more than the legal limit to Harris and Maui Mayor James "Kimo" Apana.

Sato & Associates contributed $6,000 to Harris' 2000 re-election campaign and $5,400 to Apana for his 2002 campaign, when the legal limit to each campaign was $4,000, according to the agreement.

The excess contributions were not "knowing, intentional or reckless," according to the agreement. Richard Sato, president of Sato & Associates, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

The commission also approved an agreement covering Brownlie & Lee landscape architects and its related company Benlee Inc., which contributed $7,500 to Gov. Ben Cayetano before his 1998 campaign. The maximum allowable contribution for that race was $6,000.

The Brownlie firm also contributed $4,450 to Harris' 2000 re-election campaign, when $4,000 was the maximum allowable donation.

Richard Brownlie, principal in Brownlie & Lee, said the excess donations stemmed from bookkeeping errors. The firm made a number of contributions over several years and did not realize the legal limits had been exceeded, he said.

"By the time we caught it, we were already over the ceiling, so now of course we're watching it closely to make sure we don't go over," Brownlie said.

The agreement requires that Brownlie pay a fine of $1,000.

More than 60 companies have been investigated by Campaign Spending Commission executive director Robert Watada for allegedly making excess contributions to Harris and other candidates. Some investigations are ongoing.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.