LIHUE — The Kauai County Council shot down a measure on Wednesday that would have declared no confidence in County Attorney Al Castillo and asked him to resign amid, what some members said, was their ire with his performance. The
LIHUE — The Kauai County Council shot down a measure on Wednesday that would have declared no confidence in County Attorney Al Castillo and asked him to resign amid, what some members said, was their ire with his performance.
The resolution, which was struck down by 5-2 vote, expressed concern “about the significantly higher legal costs that have been incurred for special counsel” and dissatisfaction “with the performance of the County Attorney and the advice provided to the Council,” according to county documents.
At issue, many council members said, was their angst over legal services provided to them behind closed-door meetings on a number of ongoing cases against the County of Kauai.
Councilman Mel Rapozo, who co-introduced the resolution with Gary Hooser and cast a vote in favor of it, said the resolution “is no reflection of the attorneys, including Al, in the county attorney’s office,” but specifically addresses the management of the office.
The amount of taxpayer money spent on special counsel services to solve cases, Rapozo said, has been higher than he and other members anticipated, especially at a time when county officials are looking for ways to cut expenses.
Hooser said he and other council members routinely seek the advice and opinions from the Office of the County Attorney on a wide range of issues, including bills and litigation cases, but must wait, in some cases, for weeks or months to receive a response, or must send several requests before a response is delivered.
“We’re at a disadvantage here because we cannot discuss items — we cannot discuss the problem,” Hooser said. “We can talk about the successes but we cannot discuss the problems, so this is a one-sided conversation that we can only infer or allude to without discussing specifics.”
Hooser and Rapozo said they and other council members have offered suggestions and personally spoke with Castillo and individual members of Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.’s administration but have seen changes implemented only in recent weeks.
“It hurts me to do this, to be honest, because Al and I go back a long way,” Rapozo said. “I enjoy talking to him, but our job here is to protect the county … and we need to have the county attorney’s office run efficiently. That’s the predicament that I’m in. I don’t know where else to turn.”
But not everyone sees it that way.
For more than an hour, over a dozen people, including the mayor and officials from seven county departments, defended Castillo and his office.
Castillo’s leadership within the Office of the County Attorney, some county officials said, helped to move complex county projects forward and tackle difficult issues, such as stewardship efforts at Kaneiolouma Heiau in Poipu and blending federal regulatory laws and native Hawaiian practices to advance the county’s Ke Ala Hele Makalae project.
“I’m very, very concerned about this resolution — it’s something that shouldn’t be discussed like this in this kind of venue as far as I am concerned,” said Carvalho, who testified that he and his administration were not notified about the County Council’s concerns. “I believe we have an outstanding county attorney’s office. Let’s face it, we don’t always agree with the county attorney’s opinion, however, that should not be a cause for termination.”
Other testifiers said his legal prowess and amiable nature were valuable contributions to the Office of the County Attorney.
“Those who are actually managed by the County Attorney, with an intimate knowledge of what his office sees on a daily basis, emphatically state that there is no evidence of poor performance by County Attorney Castillo or mismanagement of his office,” read a joint statement submitted by ten Office of the County employees, including six deputy county attorneys and four support staff.
Councilman Ross Kagawa admitted that he hasn’t always been pleased with the Office of the County Attorney’s performance during his time in office, but said the County Council, perhaps, could have done more to support Castillo’s department.
A proposal by the Office of the County Attorney to create a litigation team within the county department by hiring another deputy county attorney was set back earlier this month, when the Kauai County Council voted to create the position but remove funding for it from the 2014-2015 fiscal budget.
“I think a lot of the times we’re pointing the finger, but maybe we should have took that step before and tried to work with the county attorneys prior, and hopefully, that’s what can come out of this,” Kagawa said. “It’s easy for me to say we should have done this, but I’m not the one handling it — it’s always easy to second guess, but I’m not an attorney. Could I do a better job? No.”
The 10 employees in the Office of the County Attorney agreed.
“Mismanagement and poor performance, in the world of the general population, comes when you are given every tool available to get the job done and the job still cannot get done,” their statement read. “In this instance, however, adequate tools have not been given to the Office of the County Attorney.”
Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura said she was concerned by several decisions made by Castillo, including his costly handling of special counsel services during Councilman Tim Bynum’s lawsuit and the release of the Office of the County Attorney’s opinion on Bill 2491, now Ordinance 960.
She did not, however, support the measure against Castillo but explained that the discussion gleaned from it is important.
“I think it has been very difficult and awkward for all of us to deal with this issue,” Yukimura said. “For me, it is a matter of judgment — how a high-level leader exercises judgment — and it’s not an easy thing to do. I know how hard it is, but it is required of leadership. I’m hoping this experience, as uncomfortable and awkward as it has been, has maybe been helpful to all of us to think about leadership and how each of us exercises it in the public trust.”
