Councilwoman: HART Should Cover Legal Costs For Subpoenas, Not City
Heidi Tsuneyoshi has recently brought fresh scrutiny to HART. Now, she’s urging the city to reverse plans to cover the rail agency’s legal costs.
Honolulu City Councilwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi is pushing back against plans to hire outside legal counsel with city money to help rail officials address the federal subpoenas that landed about six months ago.
Tsuneyoshi, who represents the North Shore, Wahiawa and parts of the Windward coast, has introduced a resolution that urges the to cover all of its legal costs, including those related to the subpoenas.
Having the city cover that $50,000 cost, her resolution asserts, violates the . Furthermore, HART should devote its efforts toward fully complying with those federal orders — not complicating matters with additional legal review, Tusneyoshi said Monday.
鈥淭hose minutes can be turned over to (the) federal government and should be turned over without the need for outside counsel,鈥 she told reporters gathered outside Honolulu Hale.
is a response to Mayor Kirk Caldwell鈥檚 plans to pay for outside counsel to help navigate the subpoenas, beyond the city鈥檚 Corporation Counsel, which normally advises HART and its board.
The local rail agency鈥檚 leaders have questioned whether they can fully comply with the third subpoena in particular, which requires the board to hand over all of its 鈥渃omplete and unredacted鈥 closed-door meeting minutes through 2018.
The order lists no exemptions for issues that fall under attorney-client privilege.
HART officials have said they鈥檝e been approved to hand thousands of pages to federal authorities on a rolling basis. They鈥檝e also indicated that they鈥檙e being very careful about what, exactly, they deliver.
鈥淚t鈥檚 understood that there are going to be efforts made to do the production in a responsible manner in light of the respect needed to be accorded to the attorney-client privilege material,鈥 deputy corporation counsel Randall Ishikawa told the HART board March 29.
Ishikawa referenced 鈥減ersonnel-privacy interests, the strategy and confidential information with regard to the eminent domain proceedings鈥 as well.
Caldwell spokesman Andrew Pereira said the outside counsel鈥檚 help on the subpoenas would be 鈥渁ll-encompassing鈥 — it would not just focus on the minutes.
Pereira added that the city is covering the $50,000 for more specialized legal expertise in order to comply with , the state’s 2017 bailout package, which bars rail dollars from going toward anything that鈥檚 not construction-related.
Tsuneyoshi鈥檚 resolution notes, however, that HART already has more than $3.75 million budgeted in its 2020 capital budget for outside legal costs — costs that would be paid with rail dollars.
City officials believe the distinction there is that those legal costs would directly apply to construction issues, not the federal criminal investigation, but they鈥檙e still researching the matter, Pereira said.
HART’s volunteer board has said it will follow the advice of corporation counsel.
The group, comprised of nine voting members and five non-voting ones, was slated to discuss the matter at its Feb. 27 meeting in executive session. However, board member John Henry Felix voted not to proceed with the discussion behind closed doors, and under the board’s current convoluted voting laws it was enough to stop it.
Local advocates for improved open government have asserted much of that board discussion could easily take place in the open.
The board’s Government Affairs/Audit/Legal Matters Committee did manage to discuss the subpoenas in closed session . HART spokesman Bill Brennan said the board is considering taking up the matter later this month.
He didn’t specify whether it would be a closed-session item.
It’s not clear yet whether Tsuneyoshi’s resolution will advance. To get a聽 hearing, it would need the approval of council leadership, and Tsuneyoshi is part of the minority bloc. On Monday, she expressed optimism that it would get a hearing in the Budget Committee for the sake of transparency.
The freshman councilwoman has scrutinized the 20-mile, 21-station project, estimated now to cost more than $9 billion, ever since joining the council this year. She introduced a resolution earlier this year requesting a forensic audit, with a $2 million budget earmark, to probe for any malfeasance on the project — an idea that had been debated for the previous several years without getting much traction.
Tsuneyoshi has also suggested she’s open to stopping the project at Middle Street — a move supported by some of rail’s longtime opponents.
