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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCounty Attorney FY2013-2014 DEPARTMENT BUDGET REVIEWS April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 1 The departmental budget review reconvened on April 11, 2013 at 11:22 p.m., and proceeded as follows: County Attorney: Honorable Tim Bynum Honorable Gary L. Hooser Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura Honorable Mel Rapozo Honorable JoAnn A.Yukimura Honorable Jay Furfaro Excused: Honorable Ross Kagawa ALFRED B. CASTILLO, JR., County Attorney: I have a short presentation and then we can open it up for discussion. I wanted to start off by saying that it is a nice day out there, nice beautiful and sunny and aloha to all of you and all of you out there for the people of Kaua`i. I just want to start off by saying that I am in a... some people say hard position, peculiar position but I wear the hat of the County Attorney. Because of that, I bear full responsibility and accountability for the Office that I hold. The Charter says that I am the Chief Legal Advisor and Legal Representative of all Agencies including the Council and all Offices and employees in matters relating to their official powers and duties. The reason why I mention this is because it does put in smack dab in the middle of everybody. The Charter goes on and says that I shall and not may represent the County in all legal proceedings. It also says that I shall represent all other services that are incident to the Office that I hold. I would like to touch a little bit upon what I am talking about which this raises the issue of conflict of interest. I just wanted to take this opportunity to educate some of the people out there that may not know the Charter, may not know the conflict of interest. I am at Council almost every Wednesday and I do observe the people that come up here and testify. There is a broad spectrum of testimony that talks about conflict of interest, where it concerns the Office of the County Attorney. There are people who come up here and say that if there is any sign of any conflict, we should conflict out. The other end of the spectrum is, we should not have conflicted out because... but the decision to conflict or declare a conflict, it is not a random subjective decision. It is rather a legal one and based on a case by case basis, we look at Charter; we look at the rules of professional conduct. That is what we look at in declaring conflict. When we ask for Special Counsel, the Charter basically says that the Council may by vote of 5 members authorize the employment of Special Counsel for any special matter necessitating such employment however... what that means is, we present our case or our request to the Council and based on our presentation, the Council decides whether or not to grant such a request. If you look historically at our data, we do not always go out and ask for Special Counsel and let me give you an example. We recently went through our Federal case for the Shearwaters—the Endangered Species Act case. A couple of years ago we were indicted and that in itself raised complex issues that the County of Kaua`i never encountered. However based on the litigation experience that I had both with the Prosecutor's Office and both as defending cases and the people that worked in our Office, we decided to handle that case in our own. In our recent case against the County of Kaua`i and the Police Department, 3 of our Deputy County Attorney's represented Police Officers in their official and personal capacity. We asked for 1 Special Counsel in that case. To me, that was a success because we ended up with a minimum amount at the end of the day with Special Counsel at that time costing us only $10,000 and we concluded that alleged police brutality case. Even yesterday at the regular Council Meeting, I was not present and the reason why April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 2 I was not present is because I always involved with litigation with the Circuit Court again defending the Kaua`i Police Department and the County of Kaua`i. 2 of our Deputy's represented the Police Officers and I represented the County of Kaua`i. If we had a litigation team, we definitely would be able to curb or alleviate going out for Special Counsel because according to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel there is a method of separating our Office in creating a litigation team that can legally function within the County of Kauai. Again, there are times when Special Counsel is not for the County Attorney's Office and I will give you an example, the Planning Commission needs a hearing officer, the Ethics Commission needs investigation, the County Council needs Special Counsel, the Police Commission needs Special Counsel and the Kaua`i Police Department has matters outside of litigation or other Departments. I bring these to all of your attention and the people out there because there are concerns out there about why this and why that regarding the County Attorney's Office. In terms of settlement, we assess the case and we present the any settlement proposition to the Council for authorization. However, if you look back historically in the past budgets and we have saved the County money in resisting to go out with Special Counsel and it is a two edged sword. Normally when you budget and to me it is a good criticism of the County Attorney's Office when at the end of the day we are told that we did not spend "x" amount of dollars for Special Counsel but then the complaint or the concern is why am I not budgeting appropriately. We have taken on a lot of cases and that is pretty much taken us away from all of the other County business that we do. Let us talk about legal opinions. Ever since I have started here I have made an effort to encourage release of County Attorney opinions, it is not a fear of us. I see it as an opportunity for our Office to demonstrate to the people out there that we are making decisions based on the law. When we write our opinions we do not write it for someone or against someone. You may disagree with the opinion or you may agree with the opinion. The legal opinion is done as legal advice that we feel... we determine that it is legal and that it is defensible. The successes that the County Attorney's Office has had over the past 4 years and yes, I have been here for 4 years and it is pretty fast,we have been able to keep everyone on board—Amy Esaki, Jennifer Winn, Mona Clark, Marc Guyot, Ian Jung, Mauna Kea Trask, Jodi Higuchi Sayegusa, and Andrea Suzuki. Shortly, we will be adding another Deputy County Attorney to replace Justin Kollar and he may be coming onboard at the end of this month or the beginning of next month. But he is coming onboard shortly. I would anticipate within the next week, he should be onboard. Who departed from the County Attorney's Office? 2 Deputy County Attorney's — Michael Dahilig, Justin Kollar and to me that shows the... and they left for one as a Planning Director and one that is now a Prosecuting Attorney. That to me shows the high level of caliber of Attorney's that we have in the Office. The major projects that we have been able to accomplish are the... we are going like heck in the acquisition of the land in Hanalei adjacent to the Black Pot Beach. We are doing the best that we can to tackle the legal concerns for the landfill. The landfill is a rather large project not only here on this side of the island but on the Westside from where I am from. We are working really hard in developing a Human Resources Department. One of the things that is an accomplishment is the Kaneiolouma Project in Po`ipu and if you have had the chance to go down there it is really amazing and you can feel the land. As Deputy County Attorney's enjoy going out in community outreach projects that we attend with the Mayor because it gives the people an opportunity to see us, meet us, and talk to us and voice their concerns about the island. I specifically wore this purple tie because it is Kaua`i's color, because I am from Camp 7 McBride and I know you have heard this before... I look at the numbers - the budget and what it brings me to think about are these things. One, I am thankful for the Mayor for appointing me. Two, I am thankful for the Councilmembers who confirmed me. Three, I am so thankful for the Attorney's and Staff that I work with. Four, I am very thankful of the April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 3 relationships that I built here with the Council Services and the Staff. The numbers before you in the budget are the numbers and the numbers that we have been dealt with. I told my Staff, we have jobs and we can continue to make this place a happy place that it is and that is what I endeavor to do at the County Attorney's Office. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to say a speech that I do not normally get a chance to do, thank you. Mr. Rapozo: Thank you, Mr. Castillo. Any specific parts of the budget you wanted to address? I notice that the training, the investigator, Special Counsel has been drastically reduced. I basically heard you say that you told your Staff, you guys will continue to work with these numbers. One of the numbers that actually concerned me is the training. Year to date showing you spent almost $21,000 in training. Mr. Castillo: Thank you for asking that question, Councilmember Rapozo, because the demands on us sometimes can be really overwhelming. The more training that we do helps us. We are looking into other methods are acquiring money so that we will be able to do more training. There is a real big difference between the County Attorney's Office and the Prosecutor's Office as you know. There are more grants available to law enforcement as compared and contrasted to grants for County Attorney's. I have recently attended a National Conference and the reason why I did that was, I wanted to reach out to other County Attorney's, other municipal Attorney's and find out how they are able to survive in this economic times. Those are the types of things that we have been looking at. I do not know if that answers your question but I realize that we have been cut drastically. Mr. Rapozo: I guess my question really was, how do you get through a year with a dollar in training that is the real question? That basically tells us that you are not going to be training your people. Mr. Castillo: Like I said I... Mr. Rapozo: I understand the parameter, I understand the restrictions that we have because of the fiscal times but I think training especially for Attorney's, Police Officers — as laws change... I do not know why we get it but we get the flyers all the time from that one company in Honolulu that does the training litigation and it is like $400 for the session. I went to 1 of them for land use and this was years ago but I was up there for HSAC, I was able to attend the session and it is all high powered Attorneys. In fact the one I went to was land use SMA types of litigation and it was quite impressive the lineup of Attorney's that they bring down. It is quite expensive but the discussion and information - $400 plus their airfare $600, I guess, and you get an attorney that gets up-to-speed on different types of law. You have a dollar. Mr. Castillo: Yes... Mr. Rapozo: You can buy a soda. Mr. Castillo: I agree. Mr. Rapozo: Not even a soda. Mr. Castillo: What can I say? I realize the importance of training and the reason why I do... you know I spent 15 years at the Prosecutor's Office, 10 years as the First Deputy. April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 4 Mr. Rapozo: I remember. Mr. Castillo: And I did a lot of training with detectives and after my 10 years at the Prosecutor's Office when I did... I went out and had my own private practice. I had hoped that the training that I had done with the detectives that they would do the things that I trained them to do because there were cases where... the training really makes a really big difference. In fact, in the many litigation cases that I have participated in especially with outside Counsel, the County Attorney's Office is really an important component of defending the County so I understand where you are coming from and I certainly agree. I guess it is a year to year basis, if something comes up that is really important than we would be asking or moving moneys but with the budget that we have moving moneys, you cannot move $1 to another $1, I understand that too. Mr. Rapozo: I am assuming that when we retain Special Counsel, that we are getting some training from... and it may not be direct or formal training but I would assume that your Deputy's or yourself is able to get some as an added benefit. Mr. Castillo: Councilmember Rapozo, your comment is spot on. The reason why I say that is because there other methods in getting trained and one of the negotiations that I get into with Special Counsel is, we just do not want someone to represent the County and that is it. We need to have a good relationship and there needs to be some sort of mentoring. So, it does happen and it is a focus on what we do. Mr. Rapozo: Okay, that makes me feel a lot better. Ms. Nakamura: Thank you, Al, for your presentation. I wanted to go back to the Special Counsel line item and it was interesting to see the actual expenditures for Special Counsel from 2010 from $525,000 then it went down to $27,000 in 2011, then up to $115,000 in 2012. Last year we budget $750,000 do we know what the actual expenditure is as of March? Mr. Castillo: Yes we do. I believe it is approximately... I am not going to give you exact numbers. It is $1,200,000. Ms. Nakamura: Okay. So, that is being absorbed by other items in your budget? Mr. Castillo: I believe so. Ms. Nakamura: When you project out what is happening over the next year, is that $534,000 in this next year's budget adequate? Mr. Castillo: Let me answer that by informing you that I believe we have about $60,000 left in our fiscal year budget now. AMY I. ESAKI, First Deputy County Attorney: To date, we anticipate having left $39,000. Mr. Rapozo: At the end of the fiscal year? April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 5 Ms. Esaki: At this point. Mr. Rapozo: • Today? Ms. Esaki: Today. Mr. Rapozo: $39,000. Ms. Nakamura: Currently, you are under... okay, I see. Mr. Castillo: Yes, she is correct because I remember the other number which I saw their which $59,000 was but it has been corrected to. Ms. Nakamura: When you project out, what do you see? Is $534,000 adequate? Mr. Castillo: I got to thank the budget team for giving me at least that $539,000. I really appreciative of that. What I know is historically before me the former County Attorney's used to come in for money bills on Special Counsel. We are going to do the best that we can to cover what we can but there may be a time and I do not want to predict the future because I do not want to say yes we are going to come in and ask for more money but in these times of heavy litigation, all we can do is have our clients do the best that they can. Ms. Nakamura: Is it more cost efficient to hire an another lawyer and reduce your Special Counsel or we need the Special Counsel line item because of conflicts that come so we have to keep g p it that high? Mr. Castillo: See that is the balance and for the past 4 years I have been tackling this issue. When I look at certain departments, it is natural that when you have a lawsuit then you have at least 2 or 3 or 4 defendants so it makes sense to me in terms of what I know and how our Office is run and that is the reason why in my budget I did mention a litigation team. That would alleviate some of the other pressures that we have and it does make financial sense because the Deputy County Attorney, the total expense for that Deputy County Attorney is a $143,000 a year —someone that is making $94,000. If you do the math and plug in one of the other cases that we have multiple defendants then you will quickly realize that there is an argument for a litigation team that will be able to save the County money. In addition to that it does not necessarily mean that the litigators will just do litigation that comes up. There lots of litigation and a lot of research that needs to be done. Ms. Nakamura: That is why I wanted to find out could you reduce the Special Counsel by the $143,000 in order to make that additional body in litigation happen or do you have to maintain the level of Special Counsel? Would you feel comfortable doing that in this upcoming budget? Mr. Castillo: The way that I look at it is this, if a Deputy County Attorney comes in that does litigation than that would help alleviate the need for 1 Special Counsel. It does make a difference. It makes a big difference to me. Ms. Nakamura: I think you wrote a compelling argument in your write up the fact that doing litigation takes away from servicing departments and Council April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 6 and I see that because I am trying to schedule meetings with the County Attorney assigned to Planning but he is doing a lot of litigation and have very little time to do the work that my Committee needs. Mr. Castillo: Ian Jung is extremely successful. Ms. Nakamura: And it sounds like it is a time consuming thing to have to do litigation and so I just want to throw that out, is that something that you would consider in this budget? Reducing Special Counsel to increase a line item. The other question I had dealt with the Deputy County Attorney line item E87 funded by Water Department and it is dollar funded. Can you explain that one? Mr. Castillo: It is a statutory thing where the Water Department and Deputy comes from us whether it is funded by the Water Department. Ms. Nakamura: Oh okay, I remember that. Going back to my original question. Mr. Castillo: It does in a way. Your original question to me, it does but in my effort not to predict the future, I think it does help but all depending on how many actual other cases come in? Going back to Ian Jung, we have depositions scheduled on the mainland quite a lot coming up and his availability — we are really concerned about him having to be on the mainland for an extended period of time. Ms. Nakamura: I guess I want you to think about that and respond to that. Mr. Castillo: Basically you are asking me if the five hundred some thousand if you minus that money, how would that... it would be, right now, a logistical question for me in terms of who is assigned and why. The reason why I hesitate a little bit is because to replace Justin Kollar, it has taken me a whole lot of time to advertise and look at all the applicants that came in to find somebody who is willing to come over to Kaua`i and be a litigator. Litigation was an important component of the advertisement. I was not going to hire just anyone that... you had to be qualified and you had to be... to me in my determination fit to be a Deputy County Attorney because of the rigorous demands. I would do my best. I am asking for a litigation team so I will do my best to create one. I do have people who wanted to come in and not litigate and that would fill our Deputy County Attorney spot who are not a litigator. Ms. Nakamura: I think that is a strategic direction and that is a good one. That is why if there is a way to move in that direction, I think we should try to do that. Mr. Castillo: Thank Y ou. Chair Furfaro: I just want to put something's into prospective on workload at the present time. You did get my correspondence about the urgency to fill Justin's position and I heard your answer. It is a good one, Al, you want to make sure you got the right skill set to fill that Office that supports the Police Department but in the meantime you divided up the work amongst 3 Attorney's including Mr. Jung, am I correct? Mr. Castillo: Yes. April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 7 Chair Furfaro: He is going to get some relief there and then the other piece that he is doing with Planning and doing these depositions, are they related to the current challenges we are having and will hopefully will resolve as it relates to the transient vacation rentals? Mr. Castillo: No. Chair Furfaro: No, it is not related to that. Mr. Castillo: Okay. It is an addition to that. Chair Furfaro: But there it is, you just said that it is an addition to that. Mr. Castillo: Yes. Chair Furfaro: He is doing some of that work now? Mr. Castillo: Yes, absolutely. Chair Furfaro: And the whole goal, the phases was that we are trying to get to a point where 393 applicants that they have been inspected, all the verifications, applications, receipts existed on those applications and then at some point we would hope through attrition, it is not requiring that kind of attention because we put everything in order. Is that not the case? Mr. Castillo: Yes, Council Chair, it is a big project and originally we had 2 deputy's. Chair Furfaro: I do not disagree with that. But, do you see the light at the end of the tunnel is my question? Mr. Castillo: When I hear encouraging remarks regarding for training and encouraging remarks that we may someday have a litigation section, those are encouraging remarks that I kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel but it is almost when I hike at... Chair Furfaro: Okay, the train I am talking about is the transient vacation train. Do you see the light at the end of the tunnel? Mr. Castillo: Yes. Chair Furfaro: I have been a proponent before many of the members that are at the table right now about your training budget and so far but I specifically want to know about transient vacation rentals? Mr. Castillo: Yes. Chair Furfaro: Are we a year out? Mr. Castillo: I do not think a year. April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 8 Chair Furfaro: You have answered my question. Mr. Bynum: Thank you for the presentation, Al. One dollar training, one dollar travel? I know we cut training 4 years ago when we moved into this for a couple of years, that is the kind of thing that you look at when we... but a sustained reduction of training ends not nurturing employees and then costing you in a long run. I had hoped that this year we were back to... like the Mayor said in his last budget message, it is time to get back to normal. Some of those kinds of reductions, it is not big bucks. You had $10,000 last year and you went to a dollar. Even if it was five — it would give some latitude. I am concerned about that but we will see what happens. My questions are more about the Special Counsel stuff because I have really been impressed that in cases where some of our Deputies handled some of them and there was a Special Counsel because it allows that kind of mentoring, you talked about that before, specifically, tried to find those opportunities. Basically, sometimes you have to go to Special Counsel because of conflicts? Mr. Castillo: Yes. Mr. Bynum: Just like the Public Defender's Office, right? They are going to have a certain amount, no matter what and then there are other times you have to get specific expertise, right? Those are the two reasons and those really cannot be predicted. Mr. Castillo: Yes. Mr. Bynum: That is the nature of the legal stuff. We go into an Executive Session and find out there was this whole issue happen in the County and you can see that it will be complicated and cost a lot of money. You cannot predict those things. Mr. Castillo: That is true but as time goes by I am glad to say that we are developing expertise in areas that the County Attorney's Office has not in the past. Mr. Bynum: I have been here long enough to see that in action. I agree with that and I think that is something that we do not want to lose momentum on. Training around the County—cut the training budget, you are going to have more Special Counsel. That is my opinion because it is well trained and nurtured employees that are more attentive and do not get us in trouble in the first place, do you agree with that? Mr. Castillo: Yes, I agree. As an example, we had maybe a year or so ago an Endangered Species Act Training in the State of Washington in Seattle. It enabled us to not only go to the training but it enable us to meet with the Federal Government where we had a really big meeting with all of the people involved with the Shearwater concern. To me during the training and being able to be there and meeting with the Federal Government a big step in defending the County of Kaua`i. It was material to us. Mr. Bynum: We all followed that closely and it was in my opinion it was proactive outreach from the Office that saved our butts big time. I think one of your huge successes is the management of that over the last few years starting with the outreach which having much more consequences. April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 9 Mr. Castillo: Yes. Mr. Bynum: But I like that link to training and even if Councilmember Nakamura's idea take 143 from the 5 and get that person to help boaster this and keep the momentum going, right, is a good one but realistically my guess is given what is pending, before the end of the year you would have to come back because the 543 would not be enough. On the other hand, you may save a $100,000 this year but 3 years down the road save several hundred thousand. Mr. Castillo: Yes and if you study the budget that Councilmember Nakamura talked about the ears where we were low, hopefully that can Y � p Y happen again. Mr. Bynum: I think it can. Some of that is just the even flow of this litigation. Some of that is unpredictable because litigation costs can get quickly expensive. Ms. Yukimura: About the litigation team, this is a long-term goal. You are not trying to accomplish that in this budget, right? Mr. Castillo: I had that on my mind for a long time. It is a long-term goal. Ms. Yukimura: Are the positions in this budget? Mr. Castillo: No. Ms. Yukimura: For example you have litigation costs - those are not in the budget for a litigation team. Mr. Castillo: That is right, it is not. Ms. Yukimura: Okay, so if it is the long-term goal have you actually created the end in mind in terms of the costs of the litigation team? How much would it costs? How much bodies you would have in it? How many people and what types of people? Mr. Castillo: To me the appropriate section would be 2 attorneys and at least 1 clerk. Ms. Yukimura: I do not think we need to hear that right now especially if it is not in the budget but I would like to see a sheet of paper that says what the litigation,who would be involved, and how much it would costs, and what would it do? In terms of what kinds of litigation you are looking at, would it build a certain expertise around certain kinds of cases or would it just be your general litigation team to meet whatever needs you need in litigation? Mr. Rapozo: (inaudible) got it, Al? Mr. Castillo: I got it. April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 10 Ms. Yukimura: I have a question regarding your investigators but if there other follow-up on the litigation. Mr. Rapozo: Councilmember Nakamura. Ms. Nakamura: I have a question regarding the services you provide to the Liquor Commission, can you explain what your attorney's... do they do anything with the Liquor Commission? Mr. Castillo: Yes. Ms. Esaki: They attend the Liquor Commission meetings and provide advice and counsel. Ms. Nakamura: How often are those meetings? Ms. Esaki: Generally, once a month. Ms. Nakamura: Do you charge the Liquor Commission for those services? Ms. Esaki: It might be part of the Administrative costs that Finance charges to Liquor. Mr. Rapozo: The direct services — the hundred and twenty- five thousand. Ms. Nakamura: Is it? Is that reimbursed? That is charged to the Liquor Commission, so it is part of their line item? Okay, thank you. Mr. Castillo: One of the ideas that we had previously and I think maybe some of you may remember was that we had tried to... when Eric Homna was here making his presentation, have the Liquor Commission pay for half of the County Attorney and the County pays for half. It would help us. I do not know if it was last year or the year before. Mr. Rapozo: It was the year before. Ms. Nakamura: Could you justify the... Mr. Castillo: Yes, we did. Ms. Nakamura: Then why did it not have... Mr. Rapozo: Because the Council said no. You had to have been here. It was just the 50% that I had a problem with and I think others did that you have 1 meeting a month and how do you justify the... it was a matter of trying to be in compliance with the State law. It was very difficult to justify 50% for 20 hours a week dedicated to the Liquor Department. That was some of the concerns. Ms. Nakamura: And your Office does not get involved with fines and follow-up and so forth? April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 11 Mr. Castillo: No. Ms. Esaki: We did get involved with litigation, there was a Court case that our Deputy had to represent the Liquor Commissioners in a denial of a liquor permit. Ms. Nakamura: Did those fees get charged back to the Department? Ms. Esaki: I am not sure. Ms. Nakamura: Only because that is a source of revenue for the County that we have the opportunity to use if there is a legitimate need. So, if we could charge back for those services then you could have training moneys for your Staff. I just wanted to make you aware of that. Mr. Castillo: Okay. For me, we support the Liquor Department in many various ways. Ms. Nakamura: I think the more you can... I would like to see a justification of a typical year what you provide and are we charging them for those services? Mr. Castillo: Thank you and we will look into that. Ms. Nakamura: I think that would be a great source of training funds for your Office. Mr. Castillo: Thank you. Mr. Rapozo: Do we have the ability, Al, to track your services to a specific Department. Say your Staff go and staff a Commission meeting, is there some kind of billing, well I would not say billing but is there... what do you call it? Mr. Castillo: We have a tracking number but I got to go ask if we can do that. Mr. Rapozo: What do you call it in the private sector the Attorneys? It is a standard program the Attorney's use in the field... time something... whatever it is. So, you log in the case number and then it tracks your phone calls and all of that, but maybe that is something you can consider in the next FY keeping track of that so you can hit that 50% mark. If you can hit the 40% mark then we can actually fund that percentage of time from that fund. Mr. Castillo: Okay. Ms. Nakamura: I will be sending that over as a question because if we are able to incorporate it into this year's budget, I would like to. Mr. Castillo: Okay. April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 12 Ms. Yukimura: The Court case that you mentioned where the County Attorney's represented the Liquor Commission, that was not a sexual harassment case or was it? Ms. Esaki: No, it was not. It was a liquor permit case. Ms. Yukimura: In one way of charging is, if the regular services are small still the big cases could be charged back one would think on this billable hour system that... and right now there are charged for indirect cost but your services are not reimbursed to your office, right? So, that is the link that you have to work with Finance? Okay, thank you. Mr. Rapozo: And there is still that question on those funds — the usability of those funds for none-collection or inspection. It goes back to the same question we had earlier that we need to interpret the actual availability of those funds for stuff like that. I can see General Fund reimbursement if it is a none approved use based on State law and that is the question and Amy, you were here this morning when Liquor was here... we will send it over in writing but the State law is somewhat broad and how far do you stretch that activity in the Department to allow for the use of those funds? That would have to be the first thing and then at that point it is just a simple reimbursement, like you said, if you spent "X" amount of hours on a case representing if it qualifies then we just transfer the money. That would be the first step trying to figure out what is the allowable Y p Y g g authorize use of that fund. Mr. Bynum: When you started out you assigned 2 Attorney's to Planning. Mr. Castillo: Yes. Mr. Bynum: And now we are down to 1 and he is covering other things and I think it is clear from the experience of the last few months that there is still some very serious issues regarding TVR's and permitting that we are going to have to follow up on. Do you have a plan for back stopping the planning? Mr. Castillo: Luckily we do have a lot of crossover and it is not all on 1 attorney's shoulder. Mr. Bynum: Who would backup Ian if he was... do you have that kind of thing? Mr. Castillo: The primary person right now would be Mauna Kea. Mr. Bynum: Who is also the lead on the Solid Waste issues, right? Mr. Castillo: Yes. Mr. Bynum: That is almost a full time job right there. Thank you for that answer. April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 13 Chair Furfaro: Can you give us some of these unusual pieces that have taken so much of your allocated time and kind of... the length of future... for example, you got public condemnation going on, environmental compliance with the feds, we have the landfill and to me these are pieces that you are addressing but they are not typical of the scope of issues that are typically are on. Could you give us something that helps us understand the process that you see in a way of a timeline for future? Mr. Castillo: Yes. Chair Furfaro: But you know what kind of cases that I am talking about, they do have some end in sight but it is a while out there. Mr. Castillo: Yes, based on what you have stated that we could give you some sort of timeline on what we experienced as far as the County Attorney's Office. Chair Furfaro: Unusual legal and court requirements. The next one that I am also going to ask you as the discussion came up, I believe it started with Nadine about available hours and so forth. Please piggyback with IT on there is a module that you could use for your Office and Steve, if you do not mind following up on this because you could get a time in attendance mode that records billable hours. You might want to piggyback on to what IT is doing for us right now with the actual attendance model. You could actually convert it where you are keeping time and attendance of electron records on billable time. Can do? Mr. Castillo: Can do Chair. I used to do that on Quick Books Pro. Chair Furfaro: But, it is just a module and it is something that IT is looking at right now. Ms. Yukimura: I neglected to really acknowledge you folks on your achievements, I do believe those listed there and others like the Black Pot Beach Park acquisition, the support for Human Resources, and for TVR enforcement... all of that are very significant accomplishments. Mr. Castillo: Thank you. Ms. Yukimura: I just want to commend you for that. The other thing I was noticing this morning as I looked at... I had to make a call to Jennifer, of the positions you have now apparently 5 out of 11 of your Attorney's are women which is almost 50%. I hear you are going to be filling your vacancy with a man so that goes down a little bit but still among County Offices, it is a very significant equity achievement, so congratulations on that. My question is about your Investigators to investigate personnel claims. That is not in your budget right now that is part of your long-term wish list? Mr. Castillo: Yes. Ms. Yukimura: I do not understand exactly what this is about. Mr. Castillo: Basically the Investigator can come from any Department, not exclusive to us and it is because in personnel matters... April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 14 Ms. Yukimura: Yes, that is what I want to know, how it is related to p ersonnel. Mr. Castillo: Especially in personnel matters, when the Deputy or Deputies get involved in investigating what happened then they potentially become witnesses also. It then presents a conflict situation where it becomes concerning to us where how can we investigate and also defend? That has come up in cases that we have litigated in the past in personnel cases. To me Investigators helps us in our litigation also would help us in personnel matters which happen every day. Ms. Yukimura: And it would be more cost effective to hire 2 Investigators than to contract investigations? Mr. Castillo: I believe so because it is almost like going out and getting Special Counsel each time. Ms. Yukimura: Okay. I do not understand fully of the need or how it all works but I do have a better idea of what you are looking at. Ms. Nakamura: On page 4 of your report where you talk about some of the challenges. Your Office is always responding to issues but the need to educate the public about the Endangered Species Act and you anticipate the growing need for contract management and oversight training, I think that is the proactive things that you folks can do to reduce all of these problems in the first place. I think that is a good strategic direction to move. I know it takes resources to do that but I think it is so important for your Office to recognize that and act on it. And I would add to that is sort of the personnel management piece because that is what we are seeing here on the backend. Mr. Castillo: And notes to myself, I put there, I know I stated anticipate a growing need. I put down a note to myself that anticipate may be not being a correct word... there is a need. It is here and now and we are experiencing that every day. Ms. Nakamura: So, anything you folks can use your resources to train our mid-level management and higher management is so critical. Mr. Castillo: Yes, Amy and Janine just came back from an employment seminar and it did stress needs that we have already identified throughout our County. Mr. Bynum: It is not really a question but I will be really quick, for anybody in the public that might be watching this in your report you talk about the number of documents and I do not have it in front of me at the moment but 144 opinions last year, thousands of documents, 500 contracts, that is the stuff that we do not see over here that you guys are doing every day. I think that is what you were talking about earlier, it is like we got all of this, we see the litigation and those issues because they come to us and sometimes we see the consequences of not having a good contract review or good contract management. So, I just wanted to make that point that there is a huge volume of work happening that we do not see every day and I want to say from the Department's, the people on the ground here, I heard nothing but increasing support and feeling like their needs are being met really well. That is a pretty big contrast from a few years ago. April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 15 Mr. Castillo: Thank you. We really appreciate that. Mr. Rapozo: Anymore questions? If not, I will turn it back over to the Chair, Mr. Furfaro. Mr.Rapozo, the presiding officer, relinquished Chairmanship to Chair Furfaro. Chair Furfaro: Thank you, Al, and I would also like to add the Staff in your Office has always been top notch and every cooperative in calls that I have sent over and it is much appreciated. Mr. Castillo: Thank you. Chair Furfaro: I have a couple housekeeping items before we break. One is that is going to crossover with Finance and it is going to crossover with the County Attorney and this has to do with the fact that when we were talking to the Human Society, and Steve, you said something like you do not know why this assignment is yours. Well, looking back over the financials, maybe Amy can help us all understand this, in 2001 the Humane Society just became a line item. Prior to 2001 it looks like there was an interpretation and this fits both with Nakamura and Bynum's piece, they must have been some legal interpretation because up till 2001 that grant and other grants prior to that was managed by the Council. For example, if you go back to 1998, you will see what Mr. Bynum was referring to as an itemized staffing level for the Humane Society and at that time it looks like the Council managed a lot of grants. There must have been something that occurred that just turned it into a line item and it took it out of the Council's hands. If I could ask the County Attorney's Office to also be involved with your discussion when you come back on the 19th. Mr. Bynum: What is our amount? Chair Furfaro: Let me just finish up the rest of the point here... we are at a point that at one time it showed up as $192 as a line item, the first time it did. In the last budget shown up as $660,000 and now they are telling us that they have that $308,000 nine month deficit. It would be good to have some research on what happened there and I would also like to make note before we adjourned, Mr. Bynum is going to be excused from the afternoon session, am I correct Mr. Bynum? I have your excuse letter for departure at 2:00. Mr. Bynum: Unfortunately, that is correct. Chair Furfaro: No problem. Mr. Kagawa, I failed to make notice this morning of his excused absence for today. I also want to go on record that there is no one in the audience that is here for any testimony but when we start up at 1:30, I failed to do that this morning so I will ask the question "is there anyone in the afternoon subjects that wishes to give testimony?" On that note, I will see you all back at 1:30. Mr. Bynum: One more thing, I just want to point out that Mr. Furfaro just gave us a sheet that says in 1997 the County's contribution to the Humane Society was $500,000. Here we are, how many years later, and it is only 660,000? I mean in 15 or 16 years, if you look at the salary line items here, $20,000 salaries. In any job by this... anyway... to me this just makes the point that I believe the Humane Society has April 11, 2013 County Attorney (dmc) Page 16 ICI been subsidizing substantially the services that they provide us. You just expect on the face this could almost doubled in 18 years... Chair Furfaro: Thank you for that but I want to make sure, you need to research it because there is not a line in there for even what percentage of these salaries. These 14 years ago, this might be a hundred percent of the receptionist who is in the line item and we also do not know if they included PT&E, taxes, and benefits. But to answer your question, it looks like the change occurred about 2001 and it was allocated to Finance and that the Council no longer managed that grant. Just some history. Mr. Rapozo: One more thing... it also includes $19,000 and this goes to Mr. Hooser's concern, it also included $19,700 for a performance audit of the Humane Society, so that was included in the line item as a separate item in the budget. Chair Furfaro: We did ask them when they come back on the 19th if they can share with us their most current audit. On that note, it is good to look back on some of those things and do some research. We are adjourned for lunch. There being no objections, the Council recessed at 12:27 p.m.