PROSECUTE THIS

PROSECUTE THIS: When county furloughs were ended earlier this year in conjunction with their end, the office of Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri Carvalho lobbied the county council to include some money for them to "catch up" on what they called a furlough-caused backlog of cases.

As we wrote on February 8:

For those who missed the circus, when furloughs were first discussed Mayor Bernard Carvalho assured the council the “public safety employees” would not be furloughed.

But, long story short, they were- including non-sworn officers in the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD), which caused all kinds of constipation as the prosecutor’s office, already backed up by the furloughs in the state courts, had to begin letting people loose- people KPD had arrested- because they couldn’t process them as fast as the law required.

After a huge fight over whether money for the prosecutor’s office to “catch up” on the backlog- supposedly created by furloughs- was truly “related to furloughs” (as the bill’s “purpose” stated) the money was included in the bill.

Well although, as we wrote, the lifeguards were denied back pay in the money bill- even though "public safety" related jobs were supposed to be exempt- Iseri got her money.

But we failed to report a little wrinkle in the proceedings.

When the original request was made it was claimed that while the attorneys in the office were working during the furlough period they were unable to get the needed support to be able to go through the cases and now would have to work overtime to clear the backlog.

That, the council was told, was what the money was for.

But after that claim had rolled around in the minds of councilmembers through the public hearing and a couple of committee meetings a light bulb seemed to go off in the mind of Councilmember Tim Bynum who asked a very basic question.

"Wait- aren't the prosecutors on salary?"

This set off some verbal scrambling because salaried people don't get paid for overtime. After some hemming and hawing the council was told that the extra money would be going for overtime pay for the support staff in the prosecutor's office to get the paperwork done and enable the individual prosecutors to catch up.

But even though Iseri had essentially misrepresented the need for the "catch-up" money, the new explanation seemed to hold water and of course it was a matter of the public's safety so the money for the staff overtime was appropriated.

So why do we bring this up now?

Because, after a three month investigation, PNN has learned that shortly after the bill passed Iseri instituted a new cost cutting policy, telling the support staff that the doors to the office would be locked promptly at 5 p.m. every day and no overtime would be paid.

Many sources describe the Kaua`i prosecutor's office as "a mess". They say that virtually all the long-time prosecutors have either been fired or were "quitted"- as in "you can't fire me, I quit"- along with career support staff. The newbies are all inexperienced attorneys, fresh out of law school, imported from the mainland, with no knowledge of the local community much less courtroom experience. There is only one attorney that is a long time Kaua`i resident left in the office.

The same goes for staff where employees with decades of experience have quit in disgust. One precipitating episode was that when Iseri took over in 2008, in order to "keep and eye on" everything, she took the offices of many staff members away and put them all in partitioned cubicles in a main area, and then used the vacated offices for "storage."

Also, according to multiple sources, Iseri fired one attorney when the attorney announced she was pregnant and needed legally mandated maternity leave. That cost the county a cool $30,000 after County Attorney Al Castillo quickly settled the resulting EEOC complaint after the council's equally prompt approval since the unlawful termination case was so outrageously obvious.

But those matters pale in comparison to something we've heard about from multiple sources who are in positions to know.

Apparently Iseri recently sat her "team" down and issued orders that certain local attorney's clients are not to be offered plea bargains.

If this is true- and we have no reason to believe it is not- it would be an outrageous violation of not just the code of professional conduct for attorneys but a severe violation of the public's trust that our prosecutor runs her office in the name of justice, not the petty vendettas and personal power grabs that appear to be Iseri's hallmark.

But all is not lost. We've been hearing all over town that Deputy County Attorney Justin Kohler who works with the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) is telling anyone who will listen that he is going to oppose Iseri in 2012 and, as a result, people say that Iseri will try to return to the county council in next year's election.

Those are just the things we can verify to our satisfaction from sources close to the prosecutor's office who fear retribution if we were to use their names. There are other stories that are single sourced- even though the sources are reliable- and we've been unable to confirm them. Others that would burn your ears off cannot be told due to the privacy concerns of the principles.

We have urged all our sources to come forward and file complaints with the Hawai`i State Bar and/or the Office of the Attorney General, as appropriate.

This reign of terror must end.

THROWN OVERBOARD

THROWN OVERBOARD: Most county employees we’ve heard from are still quietly seething over their politically motivated furloughs last year with their ire about equally split between the mayor, the council and their union.

But after seeing tomorrow’s council agenda one group that must be positively apoplectic is the county’s lifeguards.

For those who missed the circus, when furloughs were first discussed Mayor Bernard Carvalho assured the council the “public safety employees” would not be furloughed.

But, long story short, they were- including non-sworn officers in the Kaua`i Police Department (KPD), which caused all kinds of constipation as the prosecutor’s office, already backed up by the furloughs in the state courts, had to begin letting people loose people KPD had arrested because they couldn’t process them as fast as the law required.

After a huge fight over whether money for the prosecutor’s office to “catch up” on the backlog- supposedly created by furloughs- was truly “related to furloughs” (as the bill’s “purpose” stated) the money was included in the bill.

The lifeguards, however were not so lucky. During the first committee meeting on the bill to end furloughs, lifeguard champion Dr. Monty Downs described how, while lifeguards are part of the fire department for administrative purposes- where they were finally placed a while back after years of being what many called “second class heroes”- for union representation, unlike firemen they are stuck in some obscure backwater bargaining unit in Honolulu.

Somehow that left them out of being considered “public safety” employees and, through a series of screw ups and political maneuverings, they were left, not with furloughs but accepting the 5% pay cuts that the rest of their bargaining unit accepted, even while other counties didn’t screw their lifeguards.

But when Downs asked to do what was fair and promised and give them back the 5% that had been stolen from them in the screw up, the council decided that this was not “related to furloughs” and anyway the bill was “looking forward” even though the prosecutor’s office was getting money to clean up the mess left by furloughs in the past.

But "never fear" councilmembers promised- we can take that up in a new bill, which they promised, would be introduced at the next council meeting.

And guess what doesn’t appear on tomorrow’s council agenda? A money bill to make the lifeguards whole like the rest of the public safety workers.

This wouldn’t be the first time that assurances given during council debate are forgotten when the gavel bangs and the meeting adjourned.

You can reach councilmembers at councilmembers@kauai.gov and ask them why they’ve seemingly forgotten the lifeguards.

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The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a Thursday, February 10, 2011, 2:00 p.m. hearing on HB 343 (Status) which would allow election day voter registration.

Advance registration is an anachronism and more and more states have gone to same day registration without any problems.

If you care about voter turnout this bill is essential.

As always testimony can be emailed to JUDtestimony@capitol.hawaii.gov or submitted via the web at http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/emailtestimony and must include the testifier's name with position/title and organization, the committee the comments are directed to, the date and time of the hearing and the measure number.

HI-HO HI-HO, IT’S OFF FROM WORK WE GO

HI-HO HI-HO, IT’S OFF FROM WORK WE GO: When Kaua`i Police Department (KPD) Chief Darryl Perry has a gripe against Mayor Bernard Carvalho’s administration he doesn’t have to look far for his lap dog Paul Curtis, police beat reporter for the local newspaper.

So following the first Kaua`i county “furlough Friday” Perry made sure Curtis got the message out loud and clear that, despite the fact that police officers and firefighters were spared furloughs supposedly to maintain public safety, because civilian employees were not spared “the vacancies (among KPD civilian personnel) coupled with the furlough days will have a negative impact on service delivery”.

But what was most interesting was not the article itself but the one comment on the article left at the paper’s web site which, unlike the usual bombastic drivel in the paper’s comment section, went right to the point in questioning county furloughs.

Francine1 said:

I was under the impression that Furloughs aren't supposed to be affecting Fire or Police Agencies.... I was informed by a former KPD Officer, who was also a former County Council member that the County of Kaua`i has a Budget Surplus. So I'm wondering why Mayor Carvalho felt the need for the Furloughs. Is it a monkey-see, monkey-do move; to follow the other Counties or is the County of Kaua`i really in that bad shape?You keep hearing how the Economy is rebounding on Kaua`i because Unemployment rates are dropping. With these latest County Furloughs, one would think not. We, the people of Kaua`i are not being told the true story.... Which leads one to believe it's all Politics and another way to screw the people who are supposed to be serving the Public.

Gee, ya think?

As a matter of fact, in a presentation made at one of the non-televised budget hearings and repeated in part in a later, televised meeting, councilperson Tim Bynum revealed that not only is there a surplus but there is a huge surplus and Kaua`i county is virtually awash with cash.

In governmental budgeting the widely accepted rule of thumb is that you need to keep a surplus of 15% above the appropriated budget. In other words if your budget is $150 million you should have $22.5 million in reserve for emergencies and in case other unforeseen contingencies come up.

But Kaua`i is projected to have fully 35% above the amount budgeted for 2010-11.

So why the furloughs?

Back in January Bynum began asking that the administration come before the council to inform them about what was going to happen if, as had been threatened, the legislature decided to “scoop” the usual payment from the transient accommodations tax (TAT) that the county receives in order to mitigate some of the expenses of services for visitors.

He also wanted to see generally what kind of fiscal shape we were in, all to get a head start on the then upcoming budget sessions in April, especially given the predicted “dire economic conditions”.

But he was blocked at every turn by both the administration which kept asking for delays and deferments and by the Chair of the Budget Committee Darryl Kaneshiro who, since it was his committee, kept allowing the deferrals.

This kept going on until April making the attempt to get the head start moot.

At the same time, as many will remember, Carvalho and the other county mayors went to the legislature to lobby for their share of the TAT, an effort that was eventually successful.

But what many may not remember is the public statements by leadership in both the house and senate to the effect that, while the state had been furloughing teachers and expected to start other furloughs for other state employees, the counties had no such plans and therefore didn’t seem to need the TAT.

That was when the mayors met secretly with the legislative leadership coming out of those meetings with their share of the TAT intact. And shortly after Carvalho announced furloughs for county employees.

You’d have to be a complete idiot to think there was no quid pro quo saying that in exchange for the TAT money, Kaua`i would furlough workers whether we needed to or not.

Francine1 ends her comment by saying

We, the people of Kaua`i are not being told the true story... Which leads one to believe it's all Politics and another way to screw the people who are supposed to be serving the Public... So who do you vote for when the election comes along? Because you don't really know who's telling you the truth or who's just telling you what they think you want to hear, just to get their vote. It's just another normal day on Kaua`i. Aloha!

Aloha indeed. Go forth and wonder no more.