Minutes for September 13, 2006

Campaign Spending Commission Meeting
Leiopapa A Kamehameha Building, Room 204
September 13, 2006
10:00 a.m.

Members Present:
Paul Kuramoto, Gino Gabrio, Michael Weaver
Excused – Steven Olbrich and Dean Robb

Staff Present:
Barbara Wong, Grant Tanimoto, Ellen Kojima

Call to Order:
Meeting convened at 10:03 am with Chairperson Kuramoto presiding.

Consideration of Minutes:
Typo – Draft AO 06-07 Kevin’s Election should be Kevin’s Electric.

Mr. Gabrio moved to approve the minutes of August 9, 2006 as amended. Motion sectioned by Mr. Weaver.  Motion carried.

Old Business:
Draft Advisory Opinion 06-07
Original draft as presented at the 8/9/06 meeting has been redrafted.  Issue is whether the contribution limits applicable to a sole proprietor making contributions from the proprietor’s account to a political party.

Mr. Weaver moved to approve draft advisory opinion.  No second.

Commissioners Gabrio and Kuramoto still not in agreement with draft and asked that the matter be deferred until the next meeting when all members should be present.

Mr. Gabrio moved to defer until the next meeting for further discussion.  Motion seconded by Mr. Weaver.  Motion carried.

New Business:
Draft Advisory Opinion 06-08
Draft advisory opinion states that employees are the “donors” to a noncandidate committee when signatory employers to a collective bargaining agreement make payments directly to the noncandidate committee pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement.

Mr. Weaver moved to accept draft advisory opinion 06-08 with changes. Motion seconded by Mr. Gabrio.  Motion carried.

Rescind Advisory Opinions 96-04, 98-01, 98-03, 98-10, 99-03, 02-06 02-09 and 02-10
AO 96-04
Discusses interpretation of disposition of campaign funds during and after an election, as amended by the 1995 Legislation.  Section was further amended by the 2005 Legislature in Act 203 and supersedes the guidance in this opinion.

AO 98-01
Hawaii Administrative Rule 2-14.1-16(e) was adopted after the facts of this opinion.  Rule supersedes the guidance in this opinion.

AO 98-03
Hawaii Administrative Rules 2-14.1-15 was amended to delete allowable gifts to relatives and friends.  Issue addressed in rule 2-14.1-16(a)(4), which permits gifts to campaign employees, volunteers, or office employees subject to caps.

AO 98-10
Interpretation of the calculation of the maximum amount of public funds available for office was superseded by the 1999 Legislature and further clarified by the 2000 Legislature.

AO 99-03
Interpretation of the calculation of the maximum amount of public funds available for office was clarified by the 2000 Legislature.

AO 02-06
Splitting of contributions for purposes of obtaining a minimum amount of qualifying contributions for public funding is no longer relevant.  Act 203 amended HRS, section 11-219.

AO 02-09
State contractor reporting requirements repealed by Act 203 of the 2005 Legislature.

AO 02-10
Advisory opinion applied the Furgatch “express advocacy” test to determine whether a communication is an electioneering communication.  Act 203 of the 2005 Legislature amended, HRS section 11-207.6 that the definition of electioneering communication no longer involves the express advocacy test.

Mr. Gabrio moved to rescind all Advisory Opinions as presented.  Motion seconded by Mr. Weaver.  Motion carried.

Communication to Commission:

• Contract investigator has completed review of 500 reports for the 2004 election period for 100 candidates
• To date $33,721 in public funding has been distributed to 6 candidates
• ICSD is on track with the implementation of the candidate web-based filing system.  Training to start in November for use for the filing of the January report.  Have had some technical problems with the noncandidate system.  Hope to have the system in place about the same time as the candidate system.
• Candidate and Noncandidate Disclosure reports due September 13.  Noncandidate reports will be available on our website shortly.

Next Meeting
Scheduled for Wednesday, October 11, 2006 at 10:00 a.m.

Mr. Weaver moved to adjourn meeting.  Motion seconded by Mr. Gabrio.  Motion carried.
Meeting adjourned at 10:55 a.m.