LIHUE — The Maui-based attorney who filed a protest against Kauai County’s search for pro-bono legal services to defend Ordinance 960 is taking his case to a state agency after a county official rejected his complaint. That protest, filed
LIHUE — The Maui-based attorney who filed a protest against Kauai County’s search for pro-bono legal services to defend Ordinance 960 is taking his case to a state agency after a county official rejected his complaint.
That protest, filed by Lance D. Collins of Wailuku last week, claimed legal cost requirements outlined in a solicitation to defend the county’s law on genetically modified organisms and pesticides use were unethical and violated state law.
Although county officials sought to have a law firm pay for legal expenses, including court costs and travel expenses, Collins alleged that state ethics laws bar lawyers from doing so except under specific circumstances.
It also alleged officials violated the County Charter by not receiving County Council approval for the solicitation.
Finance Director Steve Hunt denied the protest in a Jan. 30 letter to Collins on technical grounds, claiming Collins did not follow prescribed procedures to file a bid protest.
These oversights included not marking the word “Protest” on the envelope of his sealed complaint and not serving the letter personally or sending it by registered or certified mail with a return receipt requested to the chief procurement officer.
“The content of the (solicitation) did not change the procedure in which a bid protest should be filed,” Hunt wrote.
Collins then filed a request for a hearing Monday with the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs’ Office of Administrative Hearings stating that Hunt’s denial did not address the legal claims outlined in his complaint.
“I respect Mr. Hunt’s decision to punt these issues to the state hearings office,” Collins wrote in an email on Tuesday. “That office has the neutrality and expertise to ensure that county officials will act ethically and within the law.”
His appeal, according to Office of Administrative Hearings documents, also disputes the technical reasons cited in Hunt’s denial.
A hearing on the complaint is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Feb. 21 at the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs office in Honolulu.
The date for interested firms to submit bids ended on Friday.
“Because this is a pending protest, we are unable to comment,” County spokeswoman Mary Daubert wrote in an email to TGI.
