COM 0102.010 2000-2002 - Laserfiche WebLink

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'ir. James Y. Arakaki July 17, 2000 Page 2 You further informed us that (1) you must personally advance all costs for any defense of an impeachment petition because the corporation counsel is barred by a provision in your County Charter from representing an official in an impeachment proceeding; (2) you have no assurances that you will be reimbursed by the County for these expenses if you successfully defend the impeachment petition; and (3) there may be ethical conflicts in seeking any reimburse:ment for your personal expense because the six council members who would potentially seek reimbursement themselves constitute part of the full Council that must formally approve any reimbursement request. Thus, you wanted the State Attorney General to give you a written opinion concluding, first, that the Council has fully complied with Section 3-16 of the County Charter and, second, the council members are entitled to reimbursement from the Council for all out of pocket legal expense they advance in defense of an impeachment petition, notwithstanding a Charter provision which bars use of County attorneys to defend an impeachment. As a ~eliow public officis_, I can empathize with your frustration in having to defend yourself from what you believe to be frivolous and harassing lawsuits, especially where you must advance the costs of the defense and where reimbursement is n ertain, For the reasons we discussed t the meeting, however, whether your actions as council members over the past four years with respect to the marihuana eradication program meet the requirements of the County Charter involves solely county issues. These issues include: what does Section 3-16 of the County Charter require the Council to do; what, rn fact, has the Council done over the last four years; do these specific actions meet the requirements, intent and purpose of Section 3-16. Our Department is an agency of the State of Hawaii, and we do not have any special expertise or knowledge on these issues that originate solely from provisions of the County Charter and involve solely Council actions. For similar reasons, o give you an opinion that under the specific circumstances of t e impeachment petition at issue, you and other members of the Council are entitled to reimbursement fcr your legal fees, notwithstanding the County Charter provision barring the corporation cou f om defending officials in impeachment proceedings. Again, facers created by a provision in the County Charter barring use