Honolulu City Councilman Tom Berg won’t have to pay back the city $28,000 thanks to a ruling today by the Hawaii Campaign Spending Commission.

The commission cleared him of a complaint filed last month by his former chief of staff, Eric Ryan, who said Berg abused his council position by making his employees do campaign work on city time.

The Honolulu Ethics Commission is doing its own investigation into the allegations, but doesn’t expect to complete it for months.

The commission did fine Berg $250 for more minor campaign finance violations, including failing to report four contributions and disclose a voter email list. That fine came on top of another one for $250 that the three-member group imposed last month for a violation related to donated T-shirts.

— Nathan Eagle