A nearly five-year, unsuccessful battle by Molokai veterans to build a veterans center in Kaunakakai has ended in a federal lawsuit with accusations that Maui Mayor Charmaine Tavares has "betrayed" the 600 veterans living on Molokai.

Larry Helm, a Vietnam War veteran and executive director of Molokai Veterans Caring for Veterans, told the Star-Advertiser that the litigation "is a really, really tough thing for us to do."

But Helm said the veterans seem to have been singled out and have encountered lengthy and unjustifiable delays.

"That’s not pono," Helm added. "This is not justice."

The suit maintains that while the veterans waited for approval of their building permit, other permits were granted in the same area without the applicants having to upgrade their waterlines. Among the approvals was a 3,500-square-foot home built within the past year.

Helm, in the lawsuit, said Tavares not only threatened to withhold the building permit during a phone call in June, but warned him not to come to Maui to protest.

In response, Mahina Martin, Tavares’ spokeswoman, said, "We have not been served with the lawsuit. However, based on a copy we have seen, we believe this lawsuit makes sensationalized claims. It is unfortunate that the organization has chosen to pursue litigation, and we find it curious that this appears the day before the primary election."

The 41-page lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Honolulu by Wailuku attorney James Fosbinder, who represents Molokai Veterans Caring for Veterans. Fosbinder said his 24 plaintiffs "just want to get their permits."

So far, the veterans have spent $30,000 on materials and services for the proposed vet center.

Since 2007 the Molokai veterans have had an at times confusing battle with different Maui County planning and permitting agencies. The fight culminated in October with a dispute with the Maui Department of Water Supply.

The water department rejected the veterans’ request for a building permit because, it said, the existing 4-inch waterline was inadequate.

Helm, 68, said that 359 veterans of Molokai Veterans now operate out of a small rented storefront that can hold only six people. In 2005 the veterans organization, which was formed as a nonprofit in 2001, was given a 16,182-square-foot parcel on Wharf Road by Molokai Ranch.

Two years later the Legislature gave the veterans a $250,000 grant to build a 1,890-square-foot prefabricated building with a covered lanai. The center was to house a meeting area, small kitchen, space for a benefits counselor and a museum.

In 2007 the veterans applied for a special management area permit from the Molokai Planning Commission and were told that they had to pay for a $1,000 survey and a rezoning application. They did, only to find out that the rezoning was unnecessary after county ordinances were amended this year. Following the approval of its special management area permit, the veterans applied in October for a building permit.

But in April Jeffrey Eng, director of Maui Department of Water Supply, told the veterans that they had to pay $6,700 for a water meter it installed in 2006. The department said later that the veterans would have to build a 463-foot extension to an existing 8-inch waterline which cost another $38,000.

This was after the Fire Department determined that there is enough water for fire protection, Helm said. The lawsuit said that fire Lt. Scott English determined in May that there was "more than ample water" for fire protection for the property, using the existing hydrants.