Campaign Spending Commission

Campaign Spending Commission
Leiopapa A Kamehameha Building, Room 204
January 11, 2012
10:00 a.m.

Commissioners Present:
Chair Michael Weaver, Tina Pedro Gomes, G. William Snipes, Mara Miller
Dean Robb-Excused

Staff Present:
Kristin Izumi-Nitao, Tony Baldomero, Gary Kam, Ellen Kojima
Deputy Attorney General Robyn Chun (11:00 a.m.)

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

Consideration of Minutes:
Commissioner Snipes moved to approve the minutes of December 14, 2011.  Motion seconded by Commissioner Gomes.  Motion carried.

Old Business:
Legislation Update
As reported at the December meeting, carryover bill H.B. 257 is currently in conference committee, and we will not be recommending that it be rescheduled for a committee hearing.  Staff has submitted a new bill, which was provided at the December meeting, for introduction this legislative session.

Proposed 2012 legislation – Provisions from H.B. 257 have been extracted and inserted into a new bill.  The new bill includes definition for “matching payment period”, changes filing deadlines, requires the identification of the candidate supported or opposed by an independent expenditure, and increases the amount of allowable expenditure by a publicly funded candidate for prosecuting attorney.

Executive Director Izumi-Nitao reported that she and General Counsel Kam have met with House Finance Chair Marcus Oshiro, House Speaker Calvin Say, and an aide for Senate President Shan Tsutsui.  A scheduled meeting with Senate Ways and Means Chair David Ige had to be rescheduled, and will be meeting with Senate Judiciary and Labor Chair Clayton Hee and House Judiciary Chair Gil Keith-Agaran.

Also, reported that she attended a joint House and Senate budget briefing on 1/6/12 for Department of Accounting and General Services to which we are administratively attached.

Associate Director Baldomero reported on his meeting with ICSD. They are working on modifying the Noncandidate Committee Filing System to allow independent expenditure committees to file and identify the candidates that expenditures are supporting or opposing.  There is no specific timeline, but shooting for March or April completion if the bill passes.

New Business: None

Report from Executive Director:
New Commission Members
Executive Director Izumi-Nitao welcomed new member Mara Miller.

Commissioner Miller is an independent scholar and consultant.  She delivers lectures, gives workshops, and consults internationally on East Asia, environmental philosophy, gender studies, and social studies education.

She received training from Commission staff on 1/9/12 that covered an overview of the commissioner’s position, operations, legal/administrative proceedings, legislation, litigation, familiarity with the mandatory disclosure reports and electronic filing systems, partial and comprehensive public funding programs, and external/internal communications applications employed.

Report on Procurement of Updating Treasurer’s Guidebook
Six potential vendors were approached and letters of Request for Services were sent for the procurement to update or create a Treasurer’s Guidebook.  Staff in the process of reviewing proposals to determine which proposal is in the best interest of the State.

Report on January 2012 CSC Bulletin
Newsletter to include a notice that this will be the last year that the bulletin will mailed out, use of email for the bulletin, use of twitter to notice posting of bulletin on the website, reminder Supplemental Report due 1/31/12, notice of fund sufficiency for the comprehensive public funding program, reminder to check the $3 tax off, social media, and corporate reporting system.  This will be the last of two newsletters which we will mail to interested persons to help reduce costs in postage.  We will tweet and use our email system to inform the public that our newsletter is out and post it for viewing on our website.

Report on Upcoming Training in Preparation of 2012 Elections and Legislative Training
Training sessions have been scheduled and posted on our website as follows:

Honolulu – February 29 at the Honolulu Community College, Pacific Center for Advanced Technology Training (PCATT)
Kauai – February 16 at Kauai Community College
Maui – February 21 at Maui Community College
Hilo – February 24 at Univ. of Hawaii at Hilo

Locations have been confirmed.  Registration is required and will be done on-line via our website.  Informed registrants that we reserve the right to cancel if insufficient number of attendees.  Will also be meeting with county clerks on the neighbor islands after the training sessions.

Invited to speak on campaign financing before the House Majority Caucus on 1/9/12 and the Senate Majority Caucus on 1/17/12.

Discussion on whether it should be mandatory for candidates to attend at least one CSC training session.  Executive Director Izumi-Nitao reported staff is currently working on e-learning videos on how to file reports using the filing system.

Discussion on Employment of MiMedia for Commission Materials
Discussion on the use of Mimedia to have meeting material available for commissioners.  Material will be available by noon the Friday before the meeting and will be archived by month.  Consensus of commissioners agreed to try Mimedia as a method of receiving meeting material.

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

Public session reconvened at 12:30 p.m.

Next Meeting:
Scheduled for Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 10:00 a.m.

Commissioner Miller moved to adjourn meeting.  Motion seconded by Commissioner Gomes.  Motion carried unanimously.  Meeting adjourned at 12:35 p.m.