LIHUE — The Kauai County Council unanimously approved a $75,000 allocation request from the county attorney’s office Wednesday to start searching for special counsel services to defend Ordinance 960 in federal court. The approval will allow the Office of the
LIHUE — The Kauai County Council unanimously approved a $75,000 allocation request from the county attorney’s office Wednesday to start searching for special counsel services to defend Ordinance 960 in federal court.
The approval will allow the Office of the County Attorney to acquire outside legal services charged with answering a lawsuit filed last month by Syngenta Seeds, Inc., according to county documents.
At issue for some council members, however, is a more general issue: the amount of money that special counsel providers may charge over time and a need to control it.
“Is $75,000 sufficient for the Syngenta v. County of Kauai case?” Councilman Mel Rapozo asked First Deputy Attorney Jennifer Winn during the County Council’s discussion about special legal services. “I can tell you, just looking at what we went through last week, that is going to be used up in a week or a month.”
The goal, he said, should be defining certain cost parameters to create a budget and prevent outside attorneys from extending the county’s costs.
“When the case comes to us, it needs to have definitions,” Rapozo said. “Then we don’t have attorneys running off and spending money that wasn’t approved because there comes a point where the council may say, ‘You know what, let’s not go down that road.’”
But what’s difficult, County Attorney Al Castillo Jr. said, is determining unforeseen bumps or detours along that road.
“When we have special counsel, we really have no control over the court system or the activities of the case,” Castillo said. “It’s really hard for us to say, ‘Pull back,’ as a case progresses. Our special counsel are engaged in the litigation and we cannot say, ‘Stop. We need to go back to the County Council.’”
Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura and Councilman Tim Bynum were absent from the meeting and did not vote on the funding request.
The allocation comes a day after the county announced a review committee rejected the only offer submitted to the county’s solicitation for pro-bono legal services, citing a lack of “requisite qualifications and experience for the job.”
The request for the allocation was forwarded to the council last week as a contingency in the event that the pro-bono solicitation was unsuccessful. The county attorney’s office also said in letter last week it had a conflict of interest in representing the county. The lawsuit is challenging the county’s law to regulate pesticide use and other activities by three of the island’s largest agricultural companies.
The deadline for the county attorney’s office to notify the court of its legal representation is Friday.
“Executing a contract with special counsel in time for the Feb. 14 answer date is critical to the substantial interests of the county,” a Feb. 6 interoffice memo between Finance Director Steve Hunt and First Deputy County Attorney Jennifer Winn. “The risk of harm to the county should special counsel not be in place by the scheduled answer date could be substantial and irreparable.”
• Darin Moriki, county government reporter, can be reached at 245-0428.
