Development Lobbyist Failed To Register With Honolulu Ethics Commission
David Arakawa hadn’t registered to lobby at Honolulu Hale for at least five years. And then a reporter asked him about it.
David Arakawa is a major voice for developers in Hawaii. It鈥檚 common to see him in City Hall, against land-use restrictions or criticizing proposed development fees.
Mostly recently, he’s been advocating against Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s suggested mandate that all large developments include some affordable housing.
But public records at the city Ethics Commission show that until recently Arakawa hadn’t registered to lobby at the city since at least 2013.
When reached by phone last week, Arakawa said he wasn鈥檛 sure why he didn鈥檛 register at the city but said that he would do so right away.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know the deadline was January 10 so we鈥檒l be registering,鈥 he said.
The city Ethics Commission confirmed Arakawa submitted a form Monday.
Arakawa is the longtime executive director of the , an advocacy group made up of major landowners and developers. According to its website, the nonprofit was 鈥渆stablished in 1979 to promote and advance the interests of the development community.鈥
The former city corporation counsel to the Hawaii State Ethics Commission in 2015 after an investigation concluded he and LURF likely violated ethics law by failing to register to lobby from 2008 to 2014.
Unlike its state counterpart, the city Ethics Commission doesn鈥檛 have the power to fine lobbyists who don鈥檛 register, according to the agency鈥檚 director, Jan Yamane. But she does have the power to investigate complaints and ask lobbyists to file expense reports for previous years.
The Land Use Research Foundation reported spending more than $21,000 at the Legislature on lobbying from 2013 to 2017. Arakawa made $118,132 in 2016 leading the organization, according to the organization鈥檚 tax filing.
Yamane has been working to overhaul the lobbyist reporting requirements as part of broader strategic planning for the Ethics Commission. Making sure that every lobbyist is registered is tough, so the agency relies on public complaints.
“We don鈥檛 monitor the council meetings in terms of who is testifying. It鈥檚 not one of those things where we鈥檙e sitting and checking off names,” she said. “We鈥檙e too short staffed to be able to do something like that.”
