Former councilwoman Kym Pine in financial dispute with former employee

Former District 1 City Councilwoman Kym Pine went to small claims court in Pearl City on Thursday to face her former employee who alleges she was not paid for agreed services for Pine’s unsuccessful 2020 mayoral campaign.

Pine is locked in a financial dispute with her former Council and campaign digital director Daniela Stolfi over $5,000. Stolfi claims that Pine refused to pay her for the digital work that she conducted for the mayoral campaign.

Although both parties were in mediation in early July, they were unable to come to an agreement.

Stolfi alleges that she had a contract with Pine that would scale back her hours at the city, to focus on campaign work, which would be paid for with Pine’s 2020 mayoral campaign fund. After the pandemic hit, Stolfi said that she deferred payment for her services because Pine told her that funds were low. However, she expected to be paid, which she never was.

During the 1-1/2-hour small claims court proceeding, Pine said that she already had paid Stolfi and that Stolfi broke her contract when she billed extra hours to the city in April 2020, and was collecting funds from both the campaign and the city.

Pine also asserted that Stolfi was attempting to extort her by holding her website and social media accounts hostage until she was paid the funds, as well as threatening to file an ethics complaint.

However, Stolfi said that she worked with Pine for months, even after her contract was terminated, to help her migrate over her websites, including sharing the passwords. Pine said she still has not been able to control the content of her websites that Stolfi was managing.

Pine is part of a yearlong city ethics investigation, initiated by her 2020 mayoral opponent Choon James, regarding Pine’s use of city resources for campaign purposes. Stolfi is a witness in the investigation.

Judge Tracy Fukui, who is presiding over the small claims court case that Stolfi filed against Pine, was particularly interested in deciphering fact from hearsay.

Pine brought several witnesses to the hearing, which is irregular in most small claims court cases. Many of them were meant to be character witnesses, which Fukui said would not be admissible because of irrelevance to the case.

Pine sent emails to people the day before the hearing inquiring about whether they would be testifying on Stolfi’s behalf, according to documents obtained by the ­Honolulu Star-Advertiser. While in the emails Pine said there would be no retaliation against the parties, she urged them not to testify.

Additionally, the City and County of Honolulu is facing charges of employment discrimination by the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after Pine disclosed Stolfi’s mental health history to a Star-­Advertiser reporter when asked about the small claims court ­proceeding.

Due to time constraints, Fukui was unable to reach a verdict on the case, and both parties will need to return to court Sept. 16.