It didn’t take me more than about an hour and a half yesterday to page through expenditure reports filed with the State Ethics Commission by individual lobbyists. I examined two batches–those covering the period of May 1-December 31, 2011, and another batch for January and February 2012. I didn’t count the number of reports–each stack of papers was about five inches thick.

I was trying to account for the fact that the costs of gifts, meals, and other items given to legislators by lobbyists are only occasionally accounted for on expenditure reports filed by the organizations that employ those lobbyists. I’ve been critical of the absence of full reporting, but there was always the chance that those gifts were being reported by the lobbyists themselves rather than the special interests paying the bills.

So there I was, sitting at the table in the small public lobby inside the door of the State Ethics Commission. There’s a plastic shield and a locked door protecting the commission staff from the public, or perhaps from angry officials, and the place is as quiet as a tomb. Staff seem to speak in whispers, although that could be because they now I am listening for any scraps of information.

The results were about what I feared. Almost none of the lobbyists report spending anything. Since the organizations that employ lobbyists also don’t normally report gifts, it means the legally required disclosure just isn’t happening.

For the May-Dec 2011 period, only four lobbyists reported any expenses, and only one–Jon Yoshimura, representing SolarCity–reported giving gifts valued at more than $25 a day to anyone. It was a little better during the period covering the first two months of 2012, where I counted six lobbyists who reported at least some minimal expenses.

John Yoshimura reported gifts valued at $55 were given to Rep. Joe Souki and Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland during that 2011 reporting period. No dates or details were provided.

He was the only lobbyist to report giving anyone gifts worth more than $25 in a day. Credit for that.

One problem–Rep. Cindy Evans also reported receiving the same $55 bottles of wine from SolarCity on December 7, 2011. They aren’t reported either by Yoshimura or SolarCity. I’m guessing they aren’t the only gifts that aren’t accounted for.

But what about all those other gifts, even from public agencies? The Office of Hawaiian Affairs delivers all kinds of little gifts to legislators. Those legislators who list out all gifts received invariably report those cookies, calendars, and other gifts from OHA. But OHA reports no expenditures of this kind, and neither to any of its registered lobbyists.

And there’s the University of Hawaii. Technically, those lobbying for UH, and there are quite a few, are not required to register as lobbyists. But is there any accounting for the gifts they give to legislators? Apparently not.

Or how about the law firm of Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel? Five attorneys in the firm are registered as lobbyists for a slew of corporations and organizations, from McDonald’s USA to the Hawaii Association of Realtors. And legislators regularly report receiving gifts from the Goodsill firm. For example, House Speaker Calvin Say reported a box of cookies. Rep. Evans reported the cookies in January, and bagels in March. Small things, but with 76 legislators, expenses can add up. But they haven’t been reported.

How about Barry Mizuno? He’s a member of the UH Board of Regents, and also a registered lobbyist for Puna Geothermal Ventures. Again, several legislators report receiving small gifts from Mizuno, but neither he nor the company report spending any money on those gifts. Again, things just don’t add up.

It’s at the point where you can just about throw a dart at a list of gifts given by a registered lobbyist to a legislator, and you are very likely to find that the expenditure was never reported either the lobbyist or the client.

I would bet that the lobbying businesses manage to find quite a few expenses to report the IRS as business-related deductions, even if they don’t report them to the ethics commission.

It puts the Ethics Commission in an awkward position, doesn’t it? There are many unreported expenditures being made, and many of them are easy to document from existing records without further investigation, just some plodding back and forth crosschecking these different types of required disclosures. So far, they’ve apparently refrained from pursuing violators and assessing penalties. Can that continue?

If no one really has to report the small stuff, why would we expect anyone to report the big stuff?