LIHUE — A civil rights lawsuit filed nearly two years ago against the County of Kauai by current Councilman Tim Bynum may be coming to a close soon. The County Council agreed Friday by a 4-2 vote to accept a
LIHUE — A civil rights lawsuit filed nearly two years ago against the County of Kauai by current Councilman Tim Bynum may be coming to a close soon.
The County Council agreed Friday by a 4-2 vote to accept a $290,000 settlement for Bynum that was reached by Everest National Insurance Company, the county’s insurance carrier.
Councilmen Ross Kagawa and Mel Rapozo cast the dissenting votes. Bynum was recused from the meeting and did not vote.
“This, for me, has been very, very difficult,” Council Chair Jay Furfaro said before casting his vote. “I’m very sad about these issues.”
Should the settlement be finalized, some say it would close a tumultuous chapter in the county that at times set off acrimonious disputes among county officials.
“There is so much hewa (wrong), on this body and on this island with this thing that came up,” Vice Chair Mason Chock said during a special council meeting Friday that dealt solely with the case. “This thing should have ended even before I got here, but it didn’t and I’m tired of it. I mean, we need to move forward and I know everybody here can agree on that.”
The ‘political feud’
The case dates back to September 2012, when Bynum filed the lawsuit in federal court against the County of Kauai, including Supervising Planning Inspector Sheila Miyake and former Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho in their individual and professional capacities.
According to court documents, Bynum claimed Miyake and Iseri-Carvalho violated his civil rights when they investigated and prosecuted him for zoning law violations on his home.
Those actions, Bynum alleged in court documents, were taken against him “in an alleged attempt to chill his advocacy on the County Council and harm (his) chances of re-election.”
But the case took a turn, when the Office of the County Attorney gave the case to the county’s insurance company, which secured a settlement the day before interviews with Bynum and county employees were supposed to be submitted to the court.
Iseri-Carvalho, according to court documents, was not involved in the settlement, which dismissed the charges in her official capacity as a county employee.
She refused, however, to sign the settlement in her personal capacity, saying she wanted to take the case to court and clear her name. A federal judge in February later granted Bynum’s request to dismiss those charges.
“The court will not be drawn into this continuing political feud,” U.S. District Court Judge J. Michael Seabright wrote in his ruling.
A divided council
While a majority of council members said they would rather put the case behind them than spend more taxpayer money on it, others said a pay out would set a chilling precedent and usher in more lawsuits.
The case, Kagawa said, is a waste of taxpayer money and “needs to go to court to prevent future lawsuits like this from happening.”
“It’s just awkward that it has come to this where we have to vote on a fellow colleague,” Kagawa said before casting his vote. “I don’t think it has happened in the history that I know of where a council member has to sue the county he serves, the taxpayers he serves, and relies on the votes by his fellow members, so forgive me if I sound a little strong in opposition of this, but I hope this never happens again.”
Having the case moved to court, Rapozo added, “would remove the appearance that this body is basically trying to take care of our colleague — the perception that exists out there whether we want to believe that or not.”
“No court on this Earth would allow six colleagues of a plaintiff to make a decision for that plaintiff — nowhere — but we’re making that decision today,” Rapozo said. “You’ll hear everybody’s justification for it, whatever it is, and I respect everybody’s opinion, but I cannot, for the life of me, understand how we can do it regardless of how you frame it.”
Councilman Gary Hooser disagreed and said that not agreeing to the settlement would breach the county’s contract with its insurance company and “expose the county to tremendous additional costs and potential future liabilities.”
“Looking at the same set of facts, I come to a completely different conclusion,” Hooser said. “What encourages more lawsuits is not this case. What encourages more lawsuits is the conduct of the County of Kauai and employees in the Planning Department, the Prosecutor’s Office and other offices. I think the County of Kauai should learn from these lawsuits and conduct themselves in manners that would not encourage them to keep occurring.”
Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura said it would cost county taxpayers about $500,000 in attorney’s fees, on top of the $750,000 spent so far, to bring the case to court.
“This $1 to $1.5 million that we would spend and possibly lose the case means that we would be giving away, throwing away, if you will, money that we could use for more frequent bus service, bus shelters, fixing our parks and roads and police,” Yukimura said.
