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There’s always something interesting going on at Honolulu Hale.

Civil Beat is reporting from the inside.

City Files Rail Lawsuit Response

6:08 p.m.
As expected, the City and County of Honolulu today filed its formal response in the federal lawsuit challenging the validity of the environmental review.

The document, which you can read below, is 36 double-spaced pages of dry legalese. It basically disputes every paragraph in the complaint that was filed two months ago. A common phrase — appearing 15 separate times — is that all allegations within a given graf “are vague, ambiguous, misleading or incomplete” and are therefore denied.

The filing includes 10 different defenses, the last of which is that the plaintiffs’ claims “are barred by the .” In effect, the city covered all bases so as to not preclude any particular defense down the road.

Read the filing:

Tom Berg, Also a Crook

10:51 a.m.
Eric Ryan did indeed follow through on his threat and has posted a wide range of allegations against his former employer, Honolulu City Council member Tom Berg.

For now, just a link back to , with a full story coming shortly.

Martin’s Campaign Treasurer a Convicted Coke Dealer

10:29 a.m.
Here’s an from the Hawaii Free Press today: The man hired by Honolulu City Council Chair Ernie Martin to be treasurer for his campaign committee was once convicted as part of an international cocaine distribution ring and was sentenced to five years in prison.

The Free Press includes links to the state Campaign Spending Commission with Chad Tsuneyoshi‘s name and from the archives of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin about the drug ring’s sentencing. The article also includes remarks from Tsuneyoshi in which he admits to past mistakes but is a changed man.

Martin didn’t comment in the story, but we’ll see if we can find him today. Read the full piece .

City Wants More Time at Landfill

10:18 a.m.
Elsewhere on Civil Beat, Land Reporter-Host Sophie Cocke had a weekend story revealing the city “has asked the state to extend a July 2012 deadline to close the island’s major landfill” at Waimanalo Gulch.

“There is still 92.5 acres that still can be used, the infrastructure is still in place and there would be no new cost to taxpayers,” a spokesman for the Department of Environmental Services told her.

Read the full story here.

Then There Were Two

10:05 a.m.
We still can’t be sure which member of the Honolulu City Council nominated Keslie Hui to be a member of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board, but we can now narrow it down to two names.

Back in April, Nestor Garcia, Stanley Chang and Romy Cachola declined to reveal their nominees. A staffer in Cachola’s office now tells Inside Honolulu that the District 7 councilman had put forward the name of Edmund Aczon.

A for an Edmund Aczon says he is both Community Relations Director/Manpower Specialist at Hawaii Carpenters Union and Field Representative at Office of U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye.

That leaves two possibilities — Garcia and Chang.

Eric Ryan: Tom Berg Is A Crook?

9:31 a.m.
While Councilmember Tom Berg mulls whether he really wants to fire Chief of Staff Eric Ryan and holds out hope Ryan that will back down, the latter has instead upped the ante.

The controversial website that started this mess, , has been amended this morning to include a thinly-veiled threat against Ryan’s erstwhile boss.

The headline “Kym Pine Is A Crook” now continues with “and so is XXX XXXX.” (“Tom Berg” would have the correct number of letters.) The photo is Pine sitting next to a man who looks suspiciously like Berg, with his head blocked by a red box. Underneath is a subhead that says “The tragic story of promising political reformers gone bad.”

The site’s main text box reads:

TODAY AT 10:30AM, MONDAY, JULY 18TH, CHECK BACK FOR A MAJOR NEWS ANNOUNCEMENT AND FOR A SCHEDULE OF FUTURE ANNOUNCMENTS (sic) ABOUT CORRUPTION AT HONOLULU HALE AND THE HAWAII STATE LEGISLATURE . . .

Here’s a screen shot, in case it’s gone soon:

Berg “Pissed” but Ryan “In Play”

9:26 a.m.
Councilmember Tom Berg just arrived at Honolulu and quickly moved toward his office, where he said he had back-to-back-to-back meetings. On his way, he told Inside Honolulu that the situation with (former?) Chief of Staff Eric Ryan was “in play.”

“I want him to stop,” Berg said, adding that Ryan should go to small claims court to settle his dispute with state Rep. Kym Pine, not “hijack” her website. “You just don’t do that to another person.”

Still, Berg wouldn’t rule out Ryan’s continued employment.

Food for Conflict Thoughts

8:14 a.m.
Elsewhere on Civil Beat this morning, we raise a potential conflict of interest for a member of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board, who as his day job works for a company that develops land for the largest landowner near the rail line.

From a 2001 Honolulu Ethics Commission , here are the factors that should be considered:

• The relative size and importance of the financial interest to the officer;
• The link, if any, between the duties of the officer and the impact on the financial interest; and
• The extent of the officer’s discretion in carrying out the responsibilities of the position.

No. 1 is straightforward — a full-time job constitutes a serious financial interest — but the second and third criteria are as of yet unclear.

That’s partially due to HART being a brand new agency (18 days old today) and partially due to the murky connections between landowner Ohana Military Communities and land developer Forest City, which employs HART board member Keslie Hui.

HART Ready to Buy Parcels

7:27 a.m.
The city is ready to move forward with efforts to secure dozens of parcels along the rail route to make way for the train.

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation last Monday sent to Honolulu City Council Chair Ernie Martin with the list of parcels to be acquired.

The largest acquisition, along Waiawa Road, is just over a million square feet — about 25 acres. Nearly all of the acquisitions are less than an acre, with some much smaller than that.

Civil Beat previously covered some of the impacts of the property acquisition process:

• Honolulu Rail Heading Right at Them
• Aiea Businesses Unknowingly in the Path of the Train
• Rail Could Force Out Church, Homes After 50 Years in Pearl City

The memo made clear it it wasn’t a notice of condemnation, and that HART would come back to the council when that was ready — as is required by the City Charter. A few days after he got the letter, that he wanted more information — particularly the expected method of acquisition for each of the parcels (eminent domain or negotiated purchase, for example).

“Without this information, the Council is unable to determine which parcels are subject to the charter provision and, therefore unable to conduct an informed review and take appropriate action,” Martin wrote. “Therefore, I respectfully request that HART re-submit a memo clearly stating the method of acquisition for the properties on the attached list.”

Bike Battle Still Brewing

Biking enthusiasts are still unhappy with the city’s “foot-dragging” on including dedicated bike lanes when it repaves Waialae Avenue in Kaimuki in coming months.

In an email exchange forwarded to Civil Beat, “concerned cyclist” David Nash tells Honolulu Department of Transportation Services’ Wayne Yoshioka that attempts to merely include “sharrows” during the re-pave operation and wait for completion of a more complete study are bogus. Yoshioka invited Nash to a briefing at DTS headquarters.

Read Civil Beat’s earlier coverage of efforts to make Honolulu safer for cyclists.

City Response to Rail Lawsuit Due Today

Today’s the deadline for the city’s response to the federal lawsuit brought by HonoluluTraffic.com and a wide range of big names like former Gov. Ben Cayetano, Judge Walter Heen and state Sen. Sam Slom. They’ve alleged the rail project’s environmental review was inadequate in that it didn’t appropriately consider alternatives. (Read the complaint — it’s 58 pages, double-spaced.)

Honolulu Corporation Counsel Bob Godbey told Inside Honolulu Friday that the city would be filing its response today electronically. We’ll be checking the PACER filings and touching base with city officials throughout the day.

Weekend Shakeup at the Hale

Just in case you missed this weekend’s big news, Honolulu City Council member Tom Berg told Chief of Staff Eric Ryan he was fired just as Ryan was readying to escalate his ongoing cyber war with state Rep. Kym Pine.

Civil Beat also reported today on Berg’s ongoing technical problems.

We’ll be at the Hale this morning to get Berg’s on-the-record reaction.

Where’s Carlisle?

Just one public event today for Mayor Peter Carlisle. At 5:30 p.m., hizzonah is scheduled to deliver remarks at the Korean Artists Association of Hawaii art exhibit opening in the Honolulu Hale Courtyard.

Read Previous Editions of Inside Honolulu

July 15: HART Board to Meet Next Week; ORI Plan Due Today; Kym Pine Website Launch Delayed By “Major” News; Mayor’s Public Sked; Tulsi Pulls In $20K; Where’s Carlisle?

July 14: Zoning Board Appointees On Track; Neighborhood Board Battle Brewing; HPD Not Alone in Lack of Self-Tracking; Where’s Carlisle?

July 13: City’s Staggered Terms Stay Staggered; Pow-Wow Just An Update; Does Military Count: City Edition; Rail Pow-Wow at the Hale; They’re Talking About Us In Dallas; Berg Stands By His Man; Laie Developer Resigns at Gov’s Request; About Those HART Offices…; Rail Opponents Pay for Ink; Where’s Carlisle?; On Tap for Today.

July 12: (Unnamed) City Official Violated Ethics Code; Ethics Questions Up From Last Year; Prosecutor Kaneshiro Target of Ethics Complaint; Elsewhere on Civil Beat; Carlisle Quiet Today.

July 11: Transparency Site Getting Stale; Hoopili Hearing Set for September; Fire Commission Meeting Today; Carlisle’s Early Start.

July 8: Rail Appeals Opened to Public; Carlisle’s Public Sked; Ethics Panel To Decide on Violations Tuesday; Smoke on the (Waste) Water; Three Oahu Projects in Environmental Notice; County Governments Gather in Honolulu; General Plan Process Under Way.

July 7: T-Minus One Hour to General Plan Meeting; Rail Contractor Protest Closed To Public; What to Read This Morning.

July 6: Oh Godbey, New City Lawyer in the House; Derailed: Tom Berg Q&A; Steinberger Slams ‘Anti-Synagro’ Resolution; Ag Land Property Tax Bill Heads Back to Committee; New Chair, New Seats; Council Gathers Early to Fete Honorees; Martin, Anderson Ink Op-Ed.

July 5: New State Law Protects County Firefighters, Lifeguards; Federal Highways Rep: City and State Need to Play Nice; Leeward Politicians Push for Bikeway; State Officials in the Hale for Transportation; Ernie Martin’s First Agenda as Chair; No Crime Stats for HPD.

July 1: City Parade to Cost $20K; Furloughs Are Over, Pay Is Up; No Laie Decision At Next Council Meeting; Housing Office Open For Business; HART Kicks Off New Era for Honolulu Rail; Happy New Year!; Martin Tabs Kobayashi as Budget Chair.