The Honolulu-based Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii was cleared of wrongdoing by the Hawaii County Board of Ethics on Wednesday after the executive director apologized for what she called an oversight when she and two other employees failed to register as lobbyists.
The Honolulu-based Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii was cleared of wrongdoing by the Hawaii County Board of Ethics on Wednesday after the executive director apologized for what she called an oversight when she and two other employees failed to register as lobbyists.
Executive Director Jessica Yamauchi said the coalition is registered at the state level, and lobbyists didn’t think they would reach the threshold to register in Hawaii County until they upped their lobbying efforts after an electronic cigarette bill proved especially controversial.
“We apologize for not registering as lobbyists. That was an oversight on our part,” Yamauchi said. “When opposition started growing … we knew we had to step up our efforts.”
Hawaii County code requires lobbyists to register within five days of becoming a lobbyist, defined as any individual engaged for pay or other consideration who spends more than five hours in any month or $275 in any six-month period for the purpose of “attempting to influence legislative or administrative action by communicating or urging others to communicate with public officials.”
“You’re agreeing that you should register as lobbyists based on the fact that you had paid employees who were attempting to influence members of the County Council?” asked board member Douglass Adams.
Coalition members appeared numerous times to testify in favor of two bills regulating electronic cigarettes and tobacco products over the past two years, despite not registering as lobbyists.
One of the bills passed the council Nov. 20, 2013, after being introduced Oct. 15 of that year. The other was introduced Oct. 14 of last year and passed Dec. 17.
Three members of the coalition didn’t register as lobbyists until Dec. 3, 10 and 11 of last year.
“It was brought to our attention in 2014,” Yamauchi said. “We’d always been registered at the state level. … It was an oversight not registering at the local level.”
It’s a petty misdemeanor to willfully fail to register as a lobbyist, under the county ethics code. The board agreed that the coalition’s actions weren’t willful, and therefore weren’t subject to the penalty.
Mariner Revell, owner of Irie Hawaii Smoke Shops, had filed the original complaint against Council Chairman Dru Kanuha. Revell charged in his complaint that Kanuha violated the “fair treatment” provisions of the county ethics code when he conferred with unregistered lobbyists on his bills but wouldn’t meet with him.
The Ethics Board had previously cleared Kanuha of wrongdoing.
At issue were two bills Kanuha sponsored that the coalition strongly advocated. One raised the age to purchase cigarettes, tobacco products and e-cigarettes, even those containing no nicotine, from 18 to 21. The other bans e-cigarettes anywhere conventional tobacco cigarettes are banned.
Revell, who didn’t attend the Ethics Board meeting, said afterward he wasn’t surprised by the outcome.
“This is just a prime example why people don’t vote, because nothing ever happens,” Revell said. “It’s so frustrating that there’s a Board of Ethics … They’re a paper tiger.”