Campaign Spending Commission

Campaign Spending Commission
LeiopapaAKamehamehaBuilding, Room 204
April 10, 2013
10:30 a.m.

Commissioners Present:
Michael Weaver, Tina Pedro Gomes, G. William Snipes, Eldon Ching, Gregory Shoda

Staff Present:
Kristin Izumi-Nitao, Tony Baldomero, Gary Kam, Ellen Kojima
Deputy Attorney General Robyn Chun

Call to Order:
Meeting convened at 10:35 a.m. with Chair Weaver presiding.

Consideration of Minutes on 3/13/13:
Corrections – Page 3 Under “Selection of Commissioner to Attend Annual COGEL Conference,” delete second and that.

Vice Chair Snipes moved to approve the minutes of March 13, 2013 as amended.  Motion seconded by Commissioner Ching.  Motion carried unanimously. 

New Business
None

Old Business
2013 Legislation
General Counsel Kam reported on the following House and Senate bills:

HB 201 the Commission’s omnibus bill, the Senate Judiciary committee deferred the bill;
HB 1147 requires noncandidate committees to identify certain top contributors for advertisements, clarifies that persons who fail to file is subject to monitoring and penalties, amends reporting, and repeals HRS §11-332, the House disagreed with Senate amendments; and
HB 1481 exempts the offices of governor and lieutenant governor from the partial public financing law and changes the law on qualifying contributions, voluntary expenditure limits and maximum amount available public funds for candidates for the office of state senate or state representative, and appropriates funds to the campaign spending commission to prepare for the financing of election in 2014, the House disagreed with Senate amendments.
SB 30 raises the expenditure limit for prosecuting attorney candidates and requires that affidavits to voluntarily limit campaign expenditure limits be file no later than the time of filing nomination papers, bill has been returned to the Senate and it has been deferred until 4/11/13;
SB 31 requires noncandidate committees to report contributions received and made and amends the January deadline for filing of supplemental reports for noncandidate committee, the Senate disagreed with House amendments and appointed Senate conferees; and
SB 381 changes the formula for comprehensive public funding to the average amount of money spent by winning candidates in the last two election cycles for all county district races, the Senate disagreed with House amendments and appointed Senate conferees.

Report from Executive Director:
Executive Director Izumi-Nitao reported on the following items:

Report on Compliance of Filing Timely Disclosure Reports
1/31/13 Supplemental Report – Candidate Committees – 5 non-filiers
Noncandidate Committes – 1 non-filer

Next report due 7/31/13 – Supplemental Report.

Report on New Commission Website
Associate Director Baldomero reported that the website has been revamped.  The website will include updated guidebooks, e-learning videos, and the searchable database will be embedded in the site.  Preview and comments of the revamped website will be done in three phases.  Goal is for a public launch on May 1st once final approval is received.

Phase 1 Staff, Commissioners, and Deputy Attorney General
Phase 2 Good Government organizations, former commissioners, public, and media
Phase 3 Comptroller and Deputy Comptroller

Old Business:
Final Consideration, Discussion, and Decision Making of 2013-2018 Strategic Plan (Goals and Action Items
Executive Director Izumi-Nitao introduced Director Elizabeth Kent from the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution, State of Hawaii, who will be facilitating the discussion with the Commission in updating the Commission’s strategic plan.

Director Kent led the discussion on Draft #3 for the final approval of the Goals and the Action Items.  There were some technical changes to be made and discussion continued on the formatting of the plan.  It was agreed that the plan would be on the website, printed copies would be available, and that a preface would not be needed.

Executive Director Izumi-Nitao was to make the discussed changes to the draft after the meeting and distribute the new draft to Commissioners and staff, and that she and Associate Director Baldomero would draft a strategic plan with graphics for review.

Consideration, Discussion, and Decision Making of Commission’s Mission Statement
Director Elizabeth Kent led the discussion on a mission statement.  Discussion started with what kind of mission statement the Commission would prefer, the current statement or a more specific type of statement, like the New York statement.  After some discussion commissioners agreed that the current statement should be a little more specific.  But discussion continued on whether the words “integrity” and “transparency” should be a part of the mission statement.

Commissioner Shoda questioned whether a mission statement is needed, since the commission has a strategic plan in place.  Chair Weaver stated that in a sense the commission has a mission statement, otherwise they could not have gone through with the strategic plan.  The goals of the commission were developed in light of how they saw their role with the commission.  He continued on to say that in a sense there is a mission statement but that it has not been articulated, and asked whether it needs to be part of the strategic plan.

Consensus of the Commissioners agreed that the strategic plan can go forward without the mission statement, but that they will continue discussion on the mission statement at the May meeting.

Vice-Chair Snipes moved to convene executive session to consult with attorney.  Motion seconded by Commissioner Gomes.  Motion carried unanimously.

Next Meeting:
Scheduled for Wednesday, May 8, 2013, at 10:30 a.m.

Vice Chair Snipes moved to adjourn meeting.  Motion seconded by Commissioner Gomes.  Motion carried unanimously.  Meeting adjourned at 12:30 p.m.