A plan to expand Oahu’s sit-lie ordinance is advancing quickly through the Honolulu City Council despite warnings that it may be illegal.
Bill 6 adds portions of McCully, Aala, Punchbowl and Kapalama Canal to the list of areas where the sit-lie ban is applied. It also shores up Bill 48 (2014), the business district sit-lie law that passed last year, by applying the prohibition on both sides of the streets in the 15 commercial-business communities now designated as sit-lie areas.
After advancing Thursday out of the Council Zoning and Planning Committee, the bill now goes to the full Council for a final vote scheduled for Wednesday.
City Managing Director Roy Amemiya told committee members that while Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration supports the intent of the bill, city attorneys have concluded the current draft of it is "not legal" and "has indicated it will not be signing off on it as to legality."
If the law is passed, "you’ll put law enforcement … into a very awkward position of having to enforce a measure that has been ruled by city attorneys as not being legal," Amemiya said.
Corporation Counsel Donna Leong, the city’s chief legal adviser, noted that the bill’s latest draft "does have certain legal challenges" and noted that sit-lie laws are generally placed "in areas generally zoned for commercial and business activities."
Leong said she and her office want to work with the bill’s sponsors to make sure the language is "as legally supportable as possible."
Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who introduced the bill, said she and colleagues are simply trying to address the consequences of Caldwell’s original sit-lie ordinance, which prohibits sitting and lying on sidewalks 24 hours a day in Waikiki. After that law took effect in the fall, homeless campers have migrated to surrounding communities, including the McCully-Moiliili area that she represents, she said.
Councilman Joey Manahan said he wanted the measure to include Aala Park and other parts of Chinatown mauka of Beretania Street because of complaints by area merchants.
"If we’re going to address the area, I think we should address the area in its entirety," Manahan said, noting that most of Chinatown is already under the sit-lie ban from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
The exchange between committee members and Caldwell officials got testy when several Council members took exception to Amemiya when he urged them to support funding for a Strategic Development Office that is supposed to help coordinate initiatives to address homelessness and affordable housing. Kobayashi and Councilman Trevor Ozawa said the "lobbying" was inappropriate. Amemiya said he felt the budgetary issues facing the office are integral to the discussion.
Ozawa said it may have been inappropriate for Amemiya to state definitively that the bill would be illegal, and the discussion should have taken place behind closed doors under the auspices of attorney-client privilege.
