City agrees to pay $48,500 to settle sidewalk-clearing lawsuit

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JAMM AQUINO / SEPT. 21

Ross Sasamura, director and chief engineer of the City and County’s Department of Facility Maintenance, looked at a large homeless encampment during a sweep of Ilalo Street in Kakaako.

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The Honolulu City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to pay a total of $48,500 to 21 homeless individuals to settle a lawsuit challenging the way the city applied its sidewalk-clearing laws.

The city and the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai‘i Foundation announced last month that under an amended stipulation filed in U.S. District Court, the city will continue enforcing the Stored Property Ordinance and Sidewalk Nuisance Ordinance but must be more careful about what items it disposes of and when.

Also, it is tasked with improving its impounding and storage procedures and making it easier for people to retrieve their property.

The settlement money does not include attorney’s fees, which are to be addressed separately, according to Daniel Gluck, ACLU of Hawai‘i’s legal director.

Gluck said the lawsuit’s goal was not to stop the enforcement actions, but to make sure the city conducts them in a way that passes constitutional muster. The lawsuit accused city employees of failing, on multiple occasions, to give a required 24 hours notice before seizing property belonging to the homeless. It also said city employees violated the Fourth and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution by seizing and immediately destroying the property.

Under the amended stipulation, the city will refrain from disposing of personal property including tents, bicycles, clothing and household goods. In exchange, the ACLU agreed to allow the city to immediately dispose of combustible or hazardous items, weapons, illicit drugs, items that contain urine or feces or are infested with rodents and insects, and items “that cannot reasonably be construed as anything other than trash.”

Councilman Trevor Ozawa, who heads the Council’s Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee, said the settlement offers a minimal amount of money to those bringing the lawsuit while allowing the city to continue enforcing its sidewalk-clearing laws.

“It resulted in clearer policies for the city administration going forward, which is the most important thing out of this whole result,” Ozawa said. “So in the end, it’s a good settlement between the city and ACLU.”

Separately, the Council voted to approve an additional $50,000 to the law firm of McCorriston Miller Mukai MacKinnon for representing the city in the matter. The Council has now approved a total of $150,000 for the city’s defense in the case.

Also Wednesday, the Council agreed to pay three law firms additional attorney’s fees related to an ongoing lawsuit in which three Honolulu police officers allege racial discrimination and, in one case, sexual discrimination, by HPD colleagues and leadership officers.

The Council will pay Chung &Ikehara an additional $100,000, for a total of $325,000; Ayabe Chong Nishimoto Sia &Nakamura an additional $100,000, for a total of $250,000; Cary T. Tanaka an additional $50,000, for a total of $200,000.