Council trumps mayor’s veto of expanded ‘sit-lie’ legislation

For the second time in recent months, the Honolulu City Council voted Wednesday to override Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s veto of a bill that expands Oahu’s “sit-lie” ban — this time to two Chinatown pedestrian malls.

Bill 44, introduced by Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga, extends sit-lie enforcement to College Walk Mall and Kila Kalikimaka Mall, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The bill also extends the hours the sit-lie ban would be enforced at downtown’s Fort Street Mall, to 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, and Union Mall, to 24 hours a day seven days a week.

Council members said the additional ban is necessary to protect businesses in the malls where homeless campers have retrenched after the city outlawed sitting and lying along the sidewalks in downtown Honolulu, Chinatown and elsewhere during the past year.

Judy Lind, executive director of the Kukui Children’s Foundation at Kukui and Aala streets, testified Wednesday that building occupants are being hindered by people who sit and lie in the two malls.

“We really need the same safeguards … that you have given other businesses,” she said. “Since sit-lie, we’ve had terrible things happen on our property and we have offices on our property that serve children seven days a week and in the evening.”

Caldwell cited constitutional concerns when he vetoed Bill 44 last month. City attorneys have said repeatedly that sit-lie bills are best able to fend off constitutional challenges when access to businesses is being hindered by people sitting or lying on sidewalks.

City Managing Director Roy Amemiya reiterated those concerns Wednesday.

The veto and override were replays of the actions taken by Caldwell and the Council, respectively, on Bill 6 earlier this year. That bill also expanded the sit-lie ban to new areas, particularly areas across the street from the borders of existing zones, as well as several new areas including Kapalama Canal, Aala and McCully.

Council members Brandon Elefante and Kymberly Pine voted against the override. The two have consistently opposed sit-lie legislation, arguing that it serves only to criminalize homelessness and push the homeless into other neighborhoods.

Despite Wednesday’s predictable outcome, Council members seized the chance to press Amemiya on whether the administration intends to enforce the two bills, and why the city has not been able to provide more shelter for the homeless despite being given $140 million by the Council the last two years to do that.

Late Wednesday, the Honolulu Police Department issued a statement saying its leaders are meeting with city attorneys “for legal guidance on enforcement in the expanded areas defined in Bill 6, and will do the same for the new bill passed today.”

HPD said that for the week of Aug. 23, officers issued 246 sit-lie warnings and 10 citations.