Minutes for January 25, 2005

Campaign Spending Commission Meeting
Leiopapa A Kamehameha Building, Room 204
January 25, 2005
10:00 a.m.

Members Present:
A. Duane Black, Steven Olbrich, Gino Gabrio, Paul Kuramoto, Dean Robb

Staff Present:
Robert Watada, Tony Baldomero, Grant Tanimoto, Ellen Kojima

Call to Order:
Meeting convened at 10:00 a.m. with Chairman Black presiding.

Consideration of Minutes:
Deferred until next meeting.

New Business:
Conciliation Agreement 04-17 Lester H. Inouye & Associates and Lester H. Inouye
Investigation found that Lester Inouye & Associates, a subcontractor of RM Towill, made a number of contributions through family members and employees. Most of the contributions were for $500. Staff recommends a fine of $24,000.

Mr. Olbrich moved to accept the conciliation agreement, Mr. Robb seconded. Motion carried.

Draft Advisory Opinion 04-01 Rescission of Advisory Opinion 99-07 and Reporting by Political Parties
Draft advisory opinion rescinds AO 99-07, which allowed for county committees of the two major political parties to file separate reports from the parties. With the onset of a web-based filing system, subcommittees will be able to simultaneously report, thus there will be no need for separate filings.

Commissioner Olbrich asked that the wording be changed to include any entity of a political party.

Deferred until the next meeting for further revisions.

Communication to Commission:
Late Filing Procedures
Mr. Baldomero reviewed for commissioners the process of timely reporting and the consequences for not filing on time. Explained that reports should be filed by 4:30 pm on the date a report is due. Any report that is not filed or filed after this date is assessed a penalty of $50. After all reports have been received from the county offices, it is then determined which candidate and noncandidate committees have not filed a report and a notice is sent giving them 5 days to file the report. If a report is still not filed a notice is sent informing the committees that a notice of failure to file is going to be published and once the list is published the penalty becomes a daily $50 penalty until the report is filed.

Next Meeting:
Scheduled for Wednesday, February 9, 2005.

Mr. Robb moved to convene executive session to discuss personnel matters, Mr. Gabrio seconded. Motion carried.

Public session reconvened -
Mr. Olbrich moved that a Vice-Chair position be created, Mr. Gabrio seconded. Motion carried.

Mr. Olbrich moved to nominate Paul Kuramoto for the position of Vice-Chair, Mr. Robb seconded. Motion carried.

No further business to discuss. Chairman Black adjourned meeting.