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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0406.000 1996-1998 / a`"~'V OOJN(V Oi ~4w AARON S.Y. CHUNG Phone: SOS 961-8396 . ~~i~u l ) Gnmrilrurm6er r (808) 969-3291 ~ ~7 , Ili Of ~N~~ 1I~r~ 1111 nn, ~ ~_I~ c,, Pal 1 r5 COUNTY COUNC[L ' _ County of Haeunii CnU; ~ l I ? i, ;;l Hazaafi County 6uilriinq 25 Aupvrli Street Hilo, Haevuii 96720 July 22, 1997 The Honorable James Y. Arakaki, Chair and Members of the Council Hawaii County Council 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Re: File Closure of Resolution No. 402-96 The attached Resolution No. 402-96, relating to special counsel, will be agendized for the August 5, 1997 Committee on Finance meeting. This resolution was improperly withdrawn at the committee level on November 12, 1996. The relevant minutes are attached for further clazification. Pursuant to Rule 5(4)(c) of the Council Rules of Procedure, a recommendation or determination by the committee shall be dispensed with by a formal motion and vote, I will be requesting that this measure be officially filed. Should you have any questions, please feel free to call myself or my Legislative Assistant Liana Cox at 961-8491. Sincerely, ~ - Imo, ` ~ i ( Aaron S.Y. Chung, C~`lr Committee on Financ J ASYC/lkc Attach. /2ts.~{o.2-q~ CCornm. /~f3y~/99`) Coerrn. DTa ~0 =,:~a ~a. CDR, !Ls rr:~:__. FG &7xf. Ihnte 2„ Finance Committee-49 November 12, 1996 MR. ARAKAKI: Like that. So, I will follow through with this upon your recommendation, Mr. Chairman. CHR. OSORIO: Thank you very much, Mr. Arakaki. The motion to defer Comm. 1433 was carried by the following vote: In Favor: Committee Members Arakaki, Domingo, Easley, Ray, Ex-Officio Member De Lima, and Chair Osorio Opposed: None Absent fi Excused: Committee Member Smith CHR. OSORIO: Carried. Comm. 1434: RESOLUTION RELATING TO SPECIAL COUNSEL (Res. 402) From Council Chairman Brian J. De Lima, dated October 15, 1996, transmitting the above resolution. MR. DE LIMA: I move for the approval. MR. ARAKAKI: Second. MR. DE LIMA: Mr. Chairman, I move to further amend this resolution by deleting the last "Whereas" on Page 1. 'Cause, the regards to the usage of the term "special counsel", i don't agree with this "Whereas" because--- CHR. OSORIO: Is there a second to the motion? MR. ARAKAKI: Second. The motion on the amendment was carried by the following vote: In Favor: Committee Members Arakaki, Domingo, Easley, Ray, Ex-Officio Member De Lima, and Chair Osorio Opposed: None Absent & Excused: Committee Member Smith CHR. OSORIO: Carried. MR. DE LIMA: And, Mr. Chairman, essentially the purpose of this resolution is that we have to follow the procurement code, they ask for bids. We don't have any discretion in terms of providing counsel. I Page 9 Finance Committee-49 November 12, 1996 did have a discussion with the Corporation Counsel, though. I pointed out to them that the bottom line is, the money for this special counsel has to come from somewhere and if it's within their budget, they don't have to come for approval. But, if they want additional monies, they're gonna have to come to the Council for approval. So, for those of you who are going to be around during the neat budgetary session, I would suggest that you pay close attention to the amount of money that you provide for special counsel in the Council's budget. That's the only other matter I have. CHR. OSORIO: Thank you, Mr. De Lima. Mr. Childs. MR. CHILDS: A flip side of this issue just occurred to me. If this body is saying that that provision of the Charter doesn't apply, I'm just wondering how this would impact in the future, if the Council decided that it wanted to retain special counsel to defend, let's say, the Chairman of this body, this County Council, was sued for something that he or she did or said in public, it was alleged, it was in the capacity of a Councilmember. Does this resolution mean that we believe that that's out of our hands to decide or not? I guess I'm not clear in that interpretation as to whether we're making a judgment call on whether that section of the charter that's cited. Are we interpreting that it would or would not allow us to hire a special counsel to defend ourselves or we would have to leave it up to the Mayor to decide whether or not to do that. MR. DE LIMA: This is a, the way I read, Mr. Chairman, if I may. The way I read this is specifically only to authorize retention of special counsel for the limited specific authorization of those police officers who have been deemed to have been acting within the scope of their duties by the Planning Commission, Police Commission. And Under state law, if the Police Commission makes the determination that the police officer was acting in the scope of his duties, then the Council has not discretion but to provide counsel for that police officer. And, since the state procurement law governs the acquisition of professional services, it, when they come to us with a name, that's the name that we gotta take. Page 10 Finance Committee-49 November 12, 1996 MR. CHILDS: So, in other words, this acknowledges that it's an automatic funding process that comes out of the legislative body's funds and doesn't have to go through--- MR. DE LIMA: No, no, no that's--- MR. CHILDS• No? MR. DE LIMA: The point I made earlier, in my earlier comments . CHR. OSORIO: Each has to come up separately. MR. DE LIMA: They, if they have the money within the Corporation Counsel's budget for special counsel, then no council action is necessary because the money's available and the amount that has been already budgeted and appropriated. So, particular attention should be paid as to how much money is being appropriated. The power of the purse strings, still lies with the Council. So, if there is not sufficient monies in the respective account, the Council has to appropriate monies from whatever particular account the Administration deems appropriate for dealing with the retention--- MR. CHILDS: So, this is just saying that the hiring of special counsel at the decision of the Police Commission, per its authority by state law, has nothing to do with the section of the Charter that allows this body to hire special counsel? MR. DE LIMA: What we're saying is, yeah, indirectly, we're saying if you do that, you don't have to come to us to get permission to, for us to the name that you've already--- MR. CHILDS: Because that section of the Charter doesn't need this? MR, DE LIMA: Right. That's what we're saying. MR. CHILDS: Okay, all right, thank you, Mr. Chairman. CHR. OSORIO: Mr. De Lima, who controls the amount that is awarded to the attorneys? We've had some discussion on this where we're not very happy with the amounts being recommended by the attorneys themselves. Page 11 Finance Committee-49 November 12, 1996 MR. DE LIMA: Well, quite frankly, quite frankly, it'll be the appointing authority. So, would be the Corporation Counsel would be, actually, negotiating with the respective attorneys within the scope of the procurement law. I tell you right now, if this Council wants to continue the system that we have employed, I don't think anybody would have any objections to that. This was initiated by the Corporation Counsel. So, the Department of Finance, as I understand it, Department of Finance has to understand that, is insisting that the Council be in the loop. The Corporation Counsel, quite frankly, wanted to take the Council out of the loop but the Finance Department refused to sign off on any matter that the Council was not involved with. So, this would take us out of the loop for police appointees and I can see the logic of it, but, quite frankly, you can require them to come in with a particular resolution. I'm more, and i could live with that. So, I don't have any problem with withdrawing this petition if that's the desire of some Councilmembers, particularly the ones that are gonna be coming back. So, Mr. Arakaki, Mr. Ray, I look towards your leadership on this matter. MR: CHILDS: Mr. Chairman, would not an alternate strategy be to approve this resolution acknowledging, perhaps, sound reasoning of the law, but to keep, in fact, the funding in the Corporation Counsel's account for this purpose relatively low, so that Corporation Counsel would, in effect, need to come to us for transfer of funds but not for hire of the Council and that would not result in the same check and balance. CHR. OSORIO: Any comments? MR. ARAKAKI: I don't know, I think--- CHR. OSORIO: Mr. Arakaki. MR. ARAKAKI: I'd like to leave it the way it is, they come to us. MR. DE LIMA: Mr. Chairman, I withdraw my motion. CHR. OSORIO: Second, withdraw on the second? Page 12 Finance Committee-49 November 12, 1996 MR. ARAKAKI: Withdraw. MR. DE LIMA: And then, I withdraw this resolution. CHR. OSORIO: Now, we had a withdrawal, when was that, this morning? And, how did we treat a withdrawal? MR. ARAKAKI: Withdraw, it's just withdrawn, nothing happens. MR. CHILDS: We voted to acknowledge the withdrawal by the applicant to close file on the intended communications. CHR. OSORIO: So noted. File is closed and we have withdrawn this resolution. All right, moving on. Comm. 1435: REQUEST FOR A VIDEO PRODUCTION BOOTH From Dr. Keola G. A. Downing, representing Light Post Production Company, requesting for the construction of a Video Production Booth to be located at the back of the Council Chambers for storage of his production equipment between meetings. MR. DE LIMA: I move that we defer this matter to the new Council. MR. ARAKAKI: Second. CHR. OSORIO: Any discussion? Mr. Ray. MR. RAY: Well, i think that's fine. I've discussed this with Keola. I think it's a very reasonable request, I think we could probably do this and for a minimal amount of money. So, I think, actually, I'd rather we referred it or look at his design, see what kind. of a budget we could come up with. MR. DE LIMA: The reason I suggested we defer it is because I think what you should do is you should take a look at your overall finances, once you guys organize, but more importantly, something like this can be done by the Carpentry Shop, if you put in the request. CHR. OSORIO: Yes, that was what he was alluding to, yeah, okay. Page 13 ' 40,~,+ Os Y~~1~~ BRIAN J. DE LIIvIA 1a''s,. \I Phone: (808) 961-5261 CJiuvmun H Prtsidinq Officn .i .Y'' or ~ COUI~j`rY COUI~jCIL County of Hawaii Hawaii County Building - ZS Aupuni Stseet - Hilu, Hawaii 96720 - ` October 15, 1996 TO: ELROY T. L. OSORIO, CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON FINANCE ~,/f FROM: BRIAN J. DE LIMA, CHAIRMAN~4~~IJ HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL U ~ RE: RESOLUTION RELATING TO SPECIAL COUNSEL Per request of the Corporation Counsel, please refer the attached Resolution No. 402 regarding the above, to the Finance Committee for discussion. Thank you. BDL/jw iomna. jio. ~ - ~~~e wo. SPA- tt~r. ~ro: ~+7FG_ RC[. Ddrz 1w~ 1 199