I’ve long suspected that lobbyists don’t fully comply with the disclosure requirements of the state’s ethics law, but it’s hard to find concrete examples.
But after looking at the gift disclosures filed by state officials, I realized they offer a small opportunity to double check on lobbyists.
The gifts that public officials report receiving from lobbyists should be reported by the lobbyists as expenditures, according to reporting guidelines. Further, if a gift is worth more than $25, the lobbyist is supposed to report the gift and the name of the public official who received it.
Although public officials aren’t required to disclose all gifts, luckily some do. Lobbyists, on the other hand, are supposed to report all expenditures.
So, for example, take House Speaker Calvin Say’s listing of gifts received over the past year.
There’s AlohaCare, near the top of the list alphabetically, with several gifts in 2009 and 2010. Flip to the company’s expenditure reports, and they report “0″–zero–for gifts.
Aloha Petroleum. A small gift, a coffee mug and candy. Probably given to other legislators as well. Their report for the period–no expenditures for gifts.
Jump to Rep. Roy Takumi’s gift log. Gifts from many of the same lobbyists, and others.
There’s the Hawaii Insurers Council with a gift back in December 2009, but, again, no gifts are listed on the council’s expenditure report.
Senator Hanabusa and Speaker Say both report receiving bottles of wine from Matson, which is registered as a lobbying organization. But Matson doesn’t report spending anything for gifts.
There are other issues.
Capitol Consultants of Hawaii jumps out at me. That’s “Red” Morris and John Radcliffe, and the firm boasts that it is the state’s “premier lobbying and governmental relations firm,” and I believe that’s true. Their client list goes on and on. They know their business, and they distribute their small gift packs to most, probably all, legislative offices.
I don’t see Capitol Consultants on the list of organizations filing lobbyist disclosures.
Note: In an email, John Radcliffe said Capitol Consultants does file reports, but the commission doesn’t post all reports online.
But this could be an area of confusion. Some gifts are reported being received from individual lobbyists, others from the interests they represent. Capitol Consultants is a company that employs lobbyists on behalf of third parties. Who is supposed to disclose its gifts? The interest group being represented? The company? The individual lobbyists, who file their own reports that are not available online? It’s an area of general confusion.
But you get the idea. Gifts reported by public officials should match the expenditures reported by those giving the gifts. When that doesn’t happen, something’s wrong. And if gifts are not reported, what other expenditures also go unreported and unregulated? That’s the real worry.
One more question– what will the Ethics Commission do about it? Rhetorical, of course.
As far as what the Ethics Commission will do, it remains a rhetorical question unless someone files a complaint. No complaint, no action.
What’s your problem? Its the free-market at work. The corporate lobbyists are buying good government (for them). If the citizens don’t like it, they sure don’t show it. We still have the vote, don’t we?
You’ve got to be kidding. Most voters have a day job and they don’t have time to bird-dog these slimmy politicians. Lobbyists’ job is to bribe these slimmy politicians. Most of the bills in the Capitol and Honolulu Hale are done quietly and quickly.
Prioritize. You will reap what you sow. Put ‘junk’ in, you will get ‘junk’ out.
I don’t agree at all with this characterization, but will have to chime in later to explain why. Total cynicism is what allows the other guys to get their way. If we want a chance to enforce good government laws, and there are lots on the books as the result of prior reform victories, we can’t give in to cynicism, in my view.
What’s a “slimmy” politician? A skinny one?
If you mean slimy, why aren’t you giving credit to the politicans cited above who report all their gifts and expose the lobbysists who fail to report the corresponding expenditure as “slimmy”?
Or do you just like to spout stereotypes in lieu of thoughtful analysis and acting accordingly?
Everything is up for auction. Have money will win. You can even lobby the Ethics Commission!
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The easiest way to resolve this would be to require legislators and public officials give numbered receipts (like a standard form available on the Ethics Com website that they can number themselves) for all gifts that appear on their reports and those receipts have to be filed with lobbyists disclosures. Then you know exactly who is giving what and claiming what. But maybe that’s too much transparency?
The only gift I would want is the cute models of the super ferry that were given out selectively…
Mahalo Ian for covering this important topic.
I agree – thank you, Ian, for keeping us informed.