Posted on: Friday, July 30, 2004
Senator to pay $21,000 fine
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
State Sen. Cal Kawamoto yesterday agreed to pay a $21,000 fine to the state Campaign Spending Commission for not reporting dozens of campaign contributions and for using campaign money for personal expenses.
According to a conciliation agreement signed yesterday, Kawamoto's campaign finance reports from 1995 to 2003 did not include 36 contributions totaling nearly $29,000, although commission executive director Bob Watada said he doesn't believe the omissions were intentional. The agreement also noted Kawamoto's campaign contributed $2,200 to religious organizations, which is prohibited.
Watada said Kawamoto, D-18th (Waipahu, Crestview, Pearl City), also spent about $4,000 in campaign money for personal expenses such as University of Hawai'i football season tickets and golf tournaments. He said Kawamoto also spent about $26,000 in campaign money for expenses towards an automobile for which the campaign was not the registered owner.
Kawamoto has reimbursed his campaign $30,000 and agreed to pay a fine of about $21,000 to the commission, of which $6,450 may be from his campaign funds, Watada said.
Kawamoto yesterday attrib-uted the unreported contributions to errors involved in filing reports electronically rather than manually. He also said he had assumed the automobile was registered to his campaign, and that he had used campaign money to pay for UH games and other functions because attending such events boosted his visibility and helped his campaign.
Regarding Aduja's case, Watada said her campaign wrote about $30,000 worth of checks to her former husband, Lee Will-iams, her treasurer, or to cash, of which at least some have not been justified with receipts. According to a complaint by Watada, Aduja did not provide any receipts for checks totaling about $2,300 to Williams, and that some receipts she did hand over may have been for personal expenses.
Williams was one of 10 people arrested in April in Chinatown and charged with third-degree promotion of dangerous drugs.
Aduja, D-23rd (Kane'ohe, Kahuku), could not be reached for comment.
Other alleged violations in the complaint include approving checks of more than $9,000 to the campaign treasurer, filing incomplete campaign finance reports, and not disclosing a loan.
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
The commission will decide next week how to proceed with an unrelated case involving state Sen. Melodie Aduja and questions about campaign money paid to her former husband, who was arrested during an April Chinatown drug bust.
