By NANCY COOK LAUER
By NANCY COOK LAUER
Stephens Media
A Honolulu attorney has not been paid more than $9,000 owed him after being retained in January by Council Chairman Dominic Yagong, an apparent pawn in a political dispute between the County Council and Mayor Billy Kenoi’s administration.
James Kawachika, an attorney with O’Connor Playdon & Guben, was one of three attorneys retained by Yagong and County Clerk Jamae Kawauchi to advise on employee grievances surrounding the firing of four Elections Division employees after evidence surfaced of alcohol and a private business at the county elections warehouse.
Kawachika did not return a telephone call for comment Tuesday.
Two of the employees have since been reinstated, one is still going through the grievance process and the fourth died before his October arbitration hearing. Two of the employees, Elections Administrator Pat Nakamoto and Senior Elections Clerk Shyla Ayau, last week sued the county for defamation.
The other two attorneys did not submit invoices after being informed that the purchase order authorizing their work had been canceled, said Finance Director Nancy Crawford.
Crawford, with the concurrence of Corporation Counsel Lincoln Ashida, had canceled the purchase orders and is now refusing to pay for work already completed, on the grounds that the county charter requires a vote of six council members before outside attorneys are hired. Ashida, citing a potential conflict of interest, had requested outside counsel in March, but his request was rejected on a 4-3 vote, with Yagong and two other council members voting no.
The county has in the past hired and paid attorneys without the six-vote majority. In 2009, a different County Council and a different clerk, at Ashida’s request approved a $25,000 contract for special counsel to do work relating to the 1250 Oceanside Partners performance bonds. The work was approved by five votes.
An amended contract in 2010, with the requisite six votes, increased the cap to $75,000. That, according to Ashida and Crawford, served to “ratify” the previous faulty vote, making the contract legal.
“Let’s face it. We lucked out,” Ashida said Monday about the 2009 vote. “It worked out for us. If we had not gone back to expand the contract, well, the stars lined up.”
Yagong disagrees that the most recent legal work needed to go through council, citing his powers under state procurement law that allows him, as chief procurement officer for the legislative branch, to select from a list of professionals, including attorneys, as long as the purchase order is $25,000 or less. The attorneys, Yagong said earlier this year, were not retained for litigation.
“We went through the legal process of procurement,” Yagong said at the time. “It’s a little questionable as to why the rules are changing in this case.”
Kenoi disputes the contention that there’s anything political going on.
“Absolutely not. It’s a financial and legal question,” Kenoi said. “Always, first and foremost is to follow the law and protect the interests of Hawaii County taxpayers.”
Crawford agrees.
“We aren’t trying to do anything but comply with the law,” Crawford said. “There is no other agenda.”
Yagong said the council needed its own legal advisers after Corporation Counsel said it was going to withdraw from the grievance process, and the council didn’t have anyone to read over the documents and give a legal opinion. Yagong did not return telephone calls Monday or Tuesday.
The March 1 invoice from Kawachika totals $9,174.53, and notes that finance charges of 1 percent per month will be assessed after 30 days. His work included telephone conferences with Yagong, Kawauchi and Kona attorney Michael Matsukawa, legal research and a flight to Hilo, according to his invoice. Matsukawa, one of the three attorneys who had purchase orders, declined comment, citing attorney-client privilege.
Crawford, in a May 22 letter to Kawachika, again denied payment, but attached a “non-tort claim form” for the attorney to fill out and submit to the county. He apparently has not yet done so.
However, should the claim arrive, under county law it would take just a majority of five council members to approve the payment, even if it would have taken six to hire him in the first place.
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.