4 agencies probing services to city official
By Jim Dooley
Advertiser Staff Writer
Four government agencies are investigating allegations that companies doing millions of dollars worth of business with the city donated goods and services to city Managing Director Ben Lee for improvements to his home.
The city prosecutor's office and the state Campaign Spending Commission are looking at whether employees of R.M. Towill Corp., an engineering firm already under investigation for making excess contributions to the political campaign of Mayor Jeremy Harris, helped build a stone wall at Lee's Punchbowl area home.
Both agencies, as well as the state Historic Preservation Division and the Federal Highway Administration, are also examining the donation of curbstones to Lee in late 2001 by Royal Contracting Co. Ltd., a firm that has received millions of dollars in city construction contracts, officials of the agencies said.
The historical division and the federal highways administration want to know if the curbstones are "lava rock curbing" that is protected by state and federal historic preservation laws, according to Holly McEldowney of the state agency and Abe Wong, head of the Federal Highway Administration office here.
Lee said through city spokeswoman Carol Costa that he was told by Royal officials that the rocks had no value but nevertheless he "paid Royal several hundred dollars to unload the stones at my house, and I have the canceled checks to confirm payment." Lee said the irregularly shaped rocks were never used on his property and yesterday, his attorney, Eric Seitz, said the stones have been returned to Royal Contracting.
Regarding the Towill matter, Lee could not be reached for comment, despite repeated attempts. Seitz said he doesn't know anything about Towill's possible involvement with Lee's house.
Randal Lee, deputy city prosecutor who's heading an ongoing investigation into illegal political contributions to Harris' campaign, said his office and Honolulu police were already looking into the issue of the curbstones and whether Royal Contracting helped build a wall at Lee's house. He said he intended to expand that avenue of investigation to include Towill.
Towill executive James Yamamoto was asked by The Advertiser last month if he and other Towill employees helped build a rock wall at Lee's Punchbowl area home.
"They don't want me to talk about it," he said, declining to answer further questions.
Robert Watada, director of the state Campaign Spending Commission, said his agency is looking into any work that may have been done for Lee by Royal Contracting or Towill as a possible violation of state campaign spending laws.
Watada said the Campaign Spending Commission is already investigating more than $90,000 in campaign donations made to the Harris campaign by Towill executives, including Yamamoto, as well as family members and others associated with the firm since 1996.
Towill officials were subpoenaed last year to appear before an O'ahu grand jury investigating possible illegal campaign contributions. The company and its attorney have declined to comment on the matter. The Harris campaign has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said there is no connection between campaign contributions and the award of city contracts.
Royal Contracting's delivery of curbstones to Lee's house came at a time when the company held city contracts to repair and rehabilitate two stretches of downtown Honolulu roadways lined with the historic curbing.
Lava rock or basalt curbstones were quarried and installed on downtown Honolulu streets before 1920 and have considerable historic value, according to McEldowney.
Contractors are required to reinstall the curbing after the completion of road repair. If reinstallation isn't possible, contractors are required to salvage the stones and hand them over to the city for storage and later reuse on other city road projects, McEldowney said.
Leonard Leong, an official of Royal Contracting who also serves as chairman of the city Police Commission, said the curbstones given to Lee had no historic or monetary value. But Leong could not say specifically where or when the company acquired the curbstones.
He said the company has performed numerous other road repair jobs, including a private road project "six or seven years ago" on Alakawa Street near Dillingham Boulevard.
