Group is fined $3,100 for failing to report campaign expenditures

The Hawaii Carpenters Market Recovery Program Fund, a partnership of the Hawaii Carpenters Union and trade contractors also known as the Pacific Resource Partnership, has been fined $3,100 over campaign activities supporting a ballot initiative and two county council races in the last election.

Campaign Spending commissioners voted 4-0 on Wednesday to accept the fines rather than send the complaint to the city prosecutor.

Last month, the spending commission sent to the prosecutor two complaints related to the 2012 mayoral campaign activities of the Pacific Resource Partnership Political Action Committee, which opposed former Gov. Ben Cayetano and his bid to stop the city’s rail transit project. Those cases are pending.

The new complaint filed last month by the commission staff and its executive director, Kristin Izumi-Nitao, alleges that the Recovery Program Fund failed to register with the commission and file reports upon donating $5,000 to the Good Beginnings Alliance, a group that supported a ballot measure allowing the use of public money for private preschool programs. The initiative failed.

The complaint also alleges that Forward Progress, a super PAC set up by the Recovery Program Fund, failed to identify a candidate on Maui supported by an independent expenditure and also failed to identify expenditures spent for mailers to oppose Hawaii County Council candidate Margaret Wille.

Leroy Colombe, an attorney for the Recovery Program Fund, said the first count stemmed from a misinterpretation of the law that required the reporting of the contribution. He said the other two counts were simple mistakes in record keeping.

For all counts, Colombe said there was no attempt to hide the donations, noting that the entities supported by the carpenters were well known to the public. He added that the fund amended its reports as soon as the mistakes came to light and that the organization has been cooperative with the commission in addressing the matter.

"You cannot interpret it as some particular plot to get around the law," Colombe told commissioners.

Commissioner Gregory Shoda agreed, adding that he saw nothing reckless or malicious in the actions of the Recovery Program Fund.

As in the past, commissioner Adrienne Yoshihara recused herself from matters involving the Recovery Program Fund. She and Colombe are partners in the law firm Chun Kerr LLP.

The Hawaii Carpenters Market Recovery Program Fund goes by the trade name of Pacific Resource Partnership. Funding comes from the contractors who contribute based on the number of hours worked by unionized employees.