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The official at the center of the General Services Administration scandal over a lavish Las Vegas conference was reprimanded in 2011 for appearing in a campaign ad for Sen. Daniel Inouye, Roll Call, a Washington, D.C., magazine, reported Thursday.
Footage of Jeff Neely from a June 2010 groundbreaking ceremony for the $212 million renovation of the Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole Federal Building and Courthouse in Honolulu was used in the ad.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel said Neely’s participation in the ad for Inouye’s 2010 re-election campaign violated the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from political campaigns, and said Neely was warned but the OSC did not pursue further disciplinary action.
An Inouye campaign representative asked for Neely’s permission to use footage from the event in a campaign ad, Roll Call reported. The representative told the OSC that Neely replied, “It was a public event. I don’t think I can control what happens at a public event or the use of pictures taken at a public event. So, go ahead,” Roll Call said.
Neely gave a similar response to the OSC but did not admit saying, “go ahead,” the OSC said, according to the article. The OSC said whether he said “go ahead” or not, it found his response unacceptable.
“Prior to the recent press reports, Sen. Inouye and his staff were unaware of the disappointing allegations that Jeff Neely and his staff wasted and misused taxpayer funds,” Inouye spokesman Peter Boylan told Roll Call.