Posted on: Sunday, March 6, 2005

Architects, engineers cut donations

By Jim Dooley and Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writers

Architectural and engineering firms made far fewer political donations in the 2002-2004 election cycle after the state Campaign Spending Commission began fining individual companies more than $1.3 million for excessive and illegal political contributions.

"They have stopped making contributions in the way they used to," said Robert Watada, executive director of the Campaign Spending Commission. "More than several of them have told me they will never make another contribution again."

In the past three years, dozens of engineers, architects and other contributors have been fined and prosecuted on charges of giving illegal campaign donations to state and county politicians, many of them Democrats.

Defense lawyers have said their clients donated the money as part of a long-standing practice of contributing to politicians to ensure they could compete with Mainland companies for local government contracts.

The commission's ongoing campaign spending investigation has had a chilling effect on contributions by architectural and engineering firms, an Advertiser analysis of corporate donations shows.

The engineering firm of Wilson Okamoto & Associates Inc. gave the most among architectural and engineering firms in the 2002-2004 election cycle, with the company reporting $26,200 in political donations.

But the amount is about half the $51,550 in contributions the company reported in the 2000-2002 election cycle.

Wilson Okamoto was fined $44,500 in October 2003 for making excessive campaign donations to former Mayor Jeremy Harris and other Democrats, none of whom have been charged in the ongoing investigation.

In January, police raided the South Beretania Street offices of Wilson Okamoto, arresting com-

pany head Gary Okamoto and seizing records. No charges have been filed in the aftermath of the raid.

Okamoto, the company's chief executive officer, did not return calls for comment on this story.

Another engineering firm, SSFM International Inc., agreed to pay a record $303,000 fine for making $425,000 in illegal donations from 1996 to 2001. In 2001, the Campaign Spending Commission notified SSFM that it had to disclose all its contributions on "noncandidate committee" reports filed with the commission.

According to reports filed since then, SSFM said it donated just $3,825 in 2001-2002 and made no donations at all in 2002-2004.

The SSFM noncandidate committee was terminated the first of this month, meaning the company intends to make no further political contributions.

Michael Matsumoto, president and chief executive officer, did not return calls for comment.

"I think people have been scared into not doing illegal contributions anymore," said Horst Brandes, past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers Hawai'i Section and an engineering professor at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. "And I'd also like to think that people have come to realize that that's just not a good way of doing business."

Daniel Chun of the architectural firm Kauahikaua & Chun also likes to think there's a new awareness of what is and isn't an appropriate contribution.

But Chun said he is "somewhat disturbed" by legislative bills that would ban political donations from architects and engineers while other professional trades have escaped similar scrutiny.

"To focus on a particular industry is outrageous," he said.

"Hey, lots of people benefit from the government largesse. Utility companies, transportation companies. I could go on and on. Nobody's ever looked into the subject and that's what I consider the unfairness of the whole situation."

Reach Jim Dooley at 535-2447 or jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com. Reach Gordon Pang at 525-8070 or gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.