Opponents challenge City Council votes on rail, Ho’opili projects

Separate efforts to halt the city’s $6 billion rail project and the 11,750-unit Ho’opili development project in West Oahu advanced in different forums Tuesday. 

Campbell Estate heiress Abigail Kawananakoa filed a lawsuit in state Circuit Court seeking to invalidate key votes cast by the Honolulu City Council for the rail project. It seeks to have the votes declared void and unenforceable and to stop funding tied to those approvals — at least until the votes on the unspecified number of bills and resolutions are properly ratified. 

Council Chairman Ernie Martin told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Friday that, in view of Kawananakoa’s then-pending litigation, he intends to ask his eight colleagues if they want to take the re-votes. City ethics laws require Council members who have a direct or indirect interest in pending legislation to disclose such interests publicly before voting on them. 

Former Councilman Romy Cachola and Nestor Garcia agreed to pay fines to the city Ethics Commission to settle charges that they failed to disclose receiving free golf and meals from lobbyists and others who benefited from the votes the Council had taken and approved. 

The lawsuit also notes that Garcia failed to disclose that he was an employee of the Kapolei Chamber of Commerce when he voted on proposals that benefited the chamber’s members. 

Meanwhile, the nonprofit Friends of Makakilo filed a complaint with the Ethics Commission seeking to throw out the unanimous rezoning approval the City Council gave to D.R. Horton-Schuler Homes’ contentious Ho’opili project in May. 

Kioni Dudley, the group’s president and founder, said Tuesday that the votes should be invalidated because each of the nine Council members had received large amounts of campaign contributions from Schuler, the chamber, contractors, labor interests and other parties that would benefit from the project. 

Since the Ethics Commission’s executive director and one commission member have said votes by Council members who received gifts from people benefiting from the rail project should be invalidated, so too should the votes of all the Council members who voted on Ho’opili, Dudley said. 

Each of the nine received significant campaign contributions from those interested parties, and six of the nine Council members got a majority of all their contributions the last two years from those parties, Dudley said. None of the Council members disclosed in detail the extent of the interests before voting, he said, and the votes of all nine were tainted, he told reporters at a Honolulu Hale press conference Tuesday. 

An analysis of Campaign Spending Commission reports by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in May showed that during the last election cycle, eight of the nine councilmembers received contributions from Horton-Schuler executives. 

Council Chairman Ernie Martin received $6,500. Ikaika Anderson received $2,000; Brandon Elefante, $200; Carol Fukunaga, $1,750; Joey Manahan, $1,500; Ron Menor, $700; Trevor Ozawa, $1,500 and Kymberly Pine, $1,500. 

Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi was the only Council member not to receive campaign contributions from Horton-Schuler executives. But like several other colleagues, she filed a disclosure statement citing a potential conflict. Kobayashi said she is friends with Horton Vice President Cameron Nekota and his mother. And like other colleagues, Kobayashi received contributions in the last cycle from an attorney and a planner who are working on Ho’opili. 

Mayor Kirk Caldwell, who signed the rezoning bill into law and whose planning director recommended approval of the rezoning, received $8,400 from Horton-Schuler executives during the last election cycle.