Three public agencies have spent about $1 million since 2005 on outside lobbyists to help push their agendas to state and city politicians.

More than one-third — about $381,000 — was spent by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply. Another $355,000 was spent on an outside lobbying firm hired by the Hawaii Tourism Authority. Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, which runs the state's rural hospitals, spent more than $254,000 lobbying the Legislature through 2008, according to state and city lobbying disclosures.

It's not unusual for state and city officials to propose and track legislation and testify during hearings. However, most agencies handle those needs in-house and don't have dedicated lobbying budgets. The hiring of professional lobbyists by agencies such as HTA and the Board of Water Supply, while legal, raises questions about whether taxpayer money should be used to lobby public officials.

"Lobbying has no place for public agencies," said state Sen. Sam Slom, R-8th (Kahala, Hawai'i Kai). "What do they have to lobby for? They're supposed to be taking their marching orders from their board and from the Legislature" or City Council, Slom added.

HTA starting hiring an outside lobbyist in 2002. The Board of Water Supply said it has had a lobbyist since at least 2005. The Board of Water Supply gets its revenues from fees on water users. The HTA gets its funding from a portion of the transient accommodations tax assessed on hotels, vacation rentals and other accommodations.

Both public agencies defended their use of outside lobbyists.

"It's not just lobbying," said Mike McCartney, HTA's president and chief executive. "It's government relations so it covers everything from research to bill drafting to monitoring bills to testifying and analyzing the impacts of policies.

"There's no way that someone like me could do that on my own. I still have to run an agency," McCartney said.

Last year the Board of Water Supply paid lobbyist SPJ Consulting $105,554, or an average of $289 a day. HTA paid lobbyist Okudara & Associates $95,000, or an average of $260 a day. HHSC, which spent $33,436 lobbying in 2008, did not hire any outside lobbyist last year in part because of a budgetary crunch, said spokesman Miles Takaaze.

WATER RATES RISE

At the Board of Water Supply, the expenditures come at a time when water rates are sharply rising. At tourism promotion agency HTA, the lobbying expenditures come during a prolonged period of declining visitor arrivals and spending.

City Ethics Commission Director Chuck Totto said there is nothing that prevents agencies from hiring lobbyists.

"This is an issue that raises questions frequently, especially in tough budget times as to why not use your own people as opposed to hiring out," he said. But, "from an ethics point of view, it's not necessarily unlawful to do that because it may be the management's view that this may be the most effective way to deal with the Legislature.

"The bottom line would be (it's okay) as long as there's a legitimate public purpose to how they're spending government funds."

The Board of Water Supply's lobbying at the state Legislature appears to have paid off. State lawmakers this year provided the Honolulu Board of Water Supply an exemption allowing the agency to issue bonds without City Council approval. Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed the bill. However, lawmakers later voted to override that veto.

City Council member Charles Djou said he's concerned the Board of Water Supply is using its lobbying power to gain added autonomy from council oversight.

"Why they're spending so much money on lobbying troubles me especially doubly so in the context of these rising water rates," he said.

Dean Nakano, Board of Water Supply deputy manager, said the new law provides consistency between state statutes and the city charter with regard to the level of autonomy available to the board.

It does not give the agency added autonomy, he added.

AUDIT PROPOSED

Last week, the City Council's Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee, which is chaired by Djou, passed a resolution calling for an audit of the Board of Water Supply's lobbying activities. Given the amount of money being spent lobbying, it's surprising that no one representing the Board of Water Supply testified at that hearing, Djou said.

"For that kind of money you would think someone would come in and defend you on it," he said.

Nakano said the agency is not opposed to the resolution. "We would welcome the audit," he said. "We have nothing to hide."

Lowell Kalapa, director of the Tax Foundation of Hawai'i, said outside lobbyists are hired out of convenience rather than necessity.

"If they don't want to go down there themselves, then don't run the agency," Kalapa said. "The departments don't hire anybody (to lobby for them) because they've got to be down there to answer their own questions. Why shouldn't these quasi-public agencies be down there to answer their own questions?

"If you're going to be at the Legislature every year, you learn how to do it, and you hire someone within to do it for you."

Each year, the Legislature debates 30 to 60 water-related bills, Nakano said.

"You can see the magnitude of issues that would be flurrying through the Legislature, so this ability to track that really helps us," he said. "It is not an effort to influence anyone but more an effort to track what's going on."