Kawahara: County harassment includes council

LIHU‘E — In light of legal settlements regarding workplace violence and sexual harassment involving the County of Kaua‘i, County Councilwoman Lani Kawahara made a surprising statement Wednesday at the council meeting.

“I’ve experienced (harassment) here, on the level of the County Council,” she said.

Calling it a “difficult decision,” and on the brink of tears, Kawahara said she had a choice to remain silent and accept the status quo of the county or to make a statement hoping for a change.

“We have a policy that is a promise to our employees that they will have a safe work place, free from any kind of harassment,” she said. “It’s a promise we haven’t kept.”

Kawahara mentioned two recently settled cases involving harassment, sexual harassment and creation of a hostile workplace, in which the county ended up paying a total of $700,000 in settlements.

But the real shocker was when Kawahara said she had been victimized.

“If you have any wonder about whether these things exist or these things happen … I can say it does,” she said, holding back tears, to right after disclose that she has even filed a police report last year.

Kawahara said she was making a presentation to the council on July 22, 2009, when a recess was called. During the recess a certain council member requested to talk to her.

“That’s when he did it. If you look at the minutes, it took an hour and a half to come back to the floor,” she said.

Kawahara refused to disclose the alleged harasser. The police report obtained at the Kaua‘i Police Department, however, shows that the other party involved was Council Chair Kaipo Asing, who denies harassing Kawahara.

Harassment report

The July 22, 2009 meeting lasted from 9 a.m. until past 1 a.m., and carried on a heated debate about public documents, polarizing Asing on one side and Councilmembers Tim Bynum and Kawahara on the other.

The KPD report states that during recess Bynum told Kawahara that Asing wanted to talk to her.

When Kawahara met with Asing, he reportedly told her: “You crossed the line.” As Asing spoke, he allegedly ran his index finger across his neck. Kawahara questioned what had she done, and Asing’s answer was: “You know what you did, you crossed the line.” He allegedly repeated the gesture as he said that.

Kawahara said there was another council member present at the scene. She refused to name him, but said he asked Asing to “leave her alone.”

The police report states that Kawahara indicated that Councilman Derek Kawakami was nearby when the alleged harassment occurred.

Responding KPD officer Karen Kapua wrote in the report that “based on the information obtained the element of harassment was not met.” She told Kawahara and advised her that it would be documented as requested.

After filing the report, Kawahara, under advice from County Attorney Al Castillo, requested an executive session to address the issue.

The minutes of that meeting show that Castillo explained to other councilmembers that Kawahara had requested an executive session with the county attorney to discuss the council’s powers, duties, privileges, immunities and liabilities.

At that time, Kawakami had left the meeting to go on an official trip. With six council members left on the floor, a 3-3 vote denied her an executive session.

Kawahara said after that she went into Asing’s office, in the company of Castillo, to talk to him.

“I got screamed out of his office,” said Kawahara, adding that at that time she was scared and worried about losing her job.

Castillo confirmed Kawahara consulted with her that night. But because it was 1:30 a.m., Castillo said that despite vaguely remembering being in Asing’s office with Kawahara, he does not remember being screamed at.

On Sept. 9, 2009, KPD assigned investigator James Kurasaki to the case. In the police report he said he attempted to contact Kawahara by telephone. Two months later she contacted Kurasaki, said Asing had not bothered her since the incident, and then withdrew the complaint, according to the report.

Attorney Michael Soong, representing Asing, said the chair denies ever harassing Kawahara.

“While Mr. Asing is known for being a passionate advocate on issues that are important to  Kaua‘i, he has never harassed her nor would he tolerate harassment in his presence,” Soong said in a written statement.

Soong said the complaint was immediately investigated by KPD officers and determined to be unfounded. The harassment did not occur, he said.

Timing

Many have questioned the reason why Kawahara waited well over a year to disclose the incident.

She said she understands that it’s been a while, but she didn’t want it to be a case about herself.

“Regarding the timing of this statement, I brought it up because it was completely germane to our discussion at the time,” Kawahara said in a written statement, adding that Wednesday’s meeting was the first time the council could officially discuss concerns about issues raised by recent sexual harassment and workplace violence settlements that had been publicized in The Garden Island.

“To be clear, my focus at council was the recent settlement amounts of $700,000 in county funds for sexual-harassment and hostile-workplace cases. The $450,000 sexual-harassment settlement of the Kristan C. Hirakawa vs. Kaua‘i County case, and the $250,000 hostile-environment case of Jane Doe vs County of Kaua‘i, EEOC Charge No. 486-2009-00268, indicate that our policies are not working,” she said in the statement.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Bynum read into the record a statement he co-authored with Kawahara, criticizing the county’s response to complaints.

“The Hirakawa case and several others in the last few years lead to the inevitable conclusion that the county of Kaua‘i has repeatedly failed to respond appropriately to allegations of sexual harassment and hostile-workplace environment,” Bynum said.

Despite the criticism, Bynum said the “administration has recognized this problem and the mayor and county attorney are in the process of revamping the county policies and issues of accountability.”

Asing said in the written statement that he is disappointed that the incident with Kawahara, which happened 15 months ago, is being brought up two weeks before the general election.

Soong said Kawahara is trying to “piggyback her false complaint” on another unrelated, legitimate complaint of a county worker who settled a claim against the county.

“We trust the good people of Kaua‘i to see this for what it truly is, an attempt to discredit Mr. Asing, and bolster the political aspirations of others on the eve of the general election,” Soong said.

Training

The county has a policy on sexual harassment, plus a workplace-violence plan. Kawahara said each department head, however, handles the policies differently. “This opens to all kinds of mistakes,” Kawahara said.

On Sept. 28 the Cost Control Commission requested information regarding employee training conducted at the Finance/Risk Management Department, KPD, County Attorney Office, Liquor Control, Kaua‘i Fire Department and Housing Agency.

Those agencies reported back that they had conducted 109 types of training the previous year, none of them involving sexual harassment or workplace violence.

The department that came the closest to offering workplace-violence training was KFD. The county policy was distributed to their employees, but no training was offered.

The majority of the departments, however, prioritized sexual-harassment and workplace-violence training as a type of training that would be beneficial.

County Engineer Donald Fujimoto, head of the Department of Public Works, the county’s largest department in terms of number of employees, appeared before the Cost Control Commission on July 12 to answer questions about consolidating all personnel departments into a county Human Resources department.

Fujimoto said he has seen the merit of having both. “It’s a give-and-take situation,” he said.

Fujimoto said his department, which has some 320 employees, has not had any sexual-harassment cases recently, but has experienced some workplace-violence issues. He said the department does not provide any kind of training relating to sexual harassment and workplace violence.

On July 20 the Civil Service Commission acknowledged receiving a letter from Council Vice Chair Jay Furfaro requesting discussions regarding the human-resources capacity of the Department of Personnel Services.

Kawahara said no large organization lacks a human resources department. The county employs over 1,000 people, but there’s no uniform policy applied equally among the departments, she said.

“What we have is a personnel division that deals mostly with hiring,” she said. “It’s people’s lives we’re talking about.”

Castillo said two weeks ago that he saw flaws in the system shortly after being named county attorney by Mayor Bernard P. Carvalho Jr. two years ago. Those flaws were shortcomings in policies and procedures regarding workplace violence in different county departments, he said.

“We do have policies and procedures that are outdated, we do have a county charter that is many years old, promulgated in 1968,” he said.

The county is currently revising policies, and once workplace-violence and sexual-harassment policies are completed, training will be implemented, said Castillo, adding that the county does go through a lot of training, and for the administration it is important.

County spokeswoman Beth Tokioka said the final draft of the county’s new policy against harassment and discrimination has been completed, and is awaiting approval from Carvalho and the Department of Personnel Services.

“Once approved, the new policy will go out to the unions for their review and comment,” Tokioka said in an e-mail.

The county plans to conduct harassment, discrimination and retaliation training in November and December, said Tokioka. In the meantime, the County Attorney’s office is working closely with all county departments to advise and monitor potentially problematic workplace issues.

The last time the county held sexual-harassment training for its employees was in 2008, and prior to that it was in 2000, said Tokioka.

• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@kauaipubco.com.