HomeMy WebLinkAboutProsecuting Attorney FY2013-2014 DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET REVIEWS 04-12-2013
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The departmental budget review reconvened on April 12, 2013 at 9:06 a.m., and proceeded
as follows:
Office of the Prosecuting Attorney
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Gary L. Hooser
Honorable Ross Kagawa
Honorable Nadine Nakamura
Honorable Mel Rapozo
Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura
Honorable Jay Furfaro, Council Chair
Chair Furfaro: Aloha, good morning. I would like to call back
from recess the Budget Review for the County of Kaua`i for today. The Budget Reviews as
scheduled for today, we will be starting with the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney (OPA),
Transportation, and the County Auditor. As been true to my practice, I will allow
testimony on any of the above scheduled items in today's session in advance of actually
going into the session. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to give testimony
today on any of the three (3) areas scheduled for today? I see Lonnie, your hand is up.
Please come right up. A reminder, you will be given a total of six (6) minutes. I will give
you a head's up at three (3) minutes.
There being no objections,the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
LONNIE SYKOS: Good morning Council Chair, Councilmembers,
and the audience, both here and watching this live or later. Thank you very much for the
opportunity to speak today. I' am here primarily to speak about the Auditor's Office.
However, I would like to start by stating that I am quite happy to see the Prosecuting
Attorney's Office in here today and I look forward to watching later on the computer, their
testimony before you. I do not know what they are going to ask budget-wise. But I do think
they are doing a good job and I am particularly impressed that they have been out the
prosecutor himself, kicking something and I will say this politely. I think that the
Prosecutor has done a good job and I hope that you look favorably upon their funding
requests.
I came in today primarily though to address the Office of the Auditor and my friend
Glenn Mickens and I have been talking about this. Some of the fears that the public has
have to do with the possibility or the appearance of retribution against the Auditor's Office
because of their successes. Some of the people that I talk to assumed in the beginning that
the Auditor was chosen as a result of politics, of political decisions. But over time and the
facts that have occurred, have demonstrated that our Auditor is apparently free of political
influence and has, in fact, done an excellent job for the people and for the County itself. I
am here on behalf of myself, Mr. Mickens, and whoever else in the public that agrees with
us, that we actually would like to see the budget for the Auditor's Office increased, not stay
the same or be decreased and our rationale is quite simple. Of the enterprise operations
that the County runs, I would argue that possibly the Auditor's Office generates us the best
profit. The moneys that the Auditor has saved us in wages, materials, and all the rest of
the things that are public information provides a pool of money and savings that could be
used to expand the Auditor's function.
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Chair Furfaro: That is your first three (3) minutes.
Mr. Sykos: I do not believe it is appropriate to say that if the
Auditor saves (x) amount of dollars that he should get some percentage of that. That is not
what their function is for us. But I think as the Auditor saves us money, we should look at
the wisdom of putting more money into the Auditor's Office in order to save more money
faster. In that context of looking at our County operations through the eyes of business, in
businesses, it is quite common that sometime in your annual cycle you look at the ten
percent (10%) of your operation that has performed the least and you get rid of it and you
focus your attention on the ten percent (10%) or so of your business that is exhibiting the
best growth and the best profitability. In that context, I think, that our Auditor is doing a
fantastic job actually generating resources for the island through saving. I am here today
not to provide a dollar figure, but just to say a matter of policy, please continue to fund the
Auditor at their current level. If in your wisdom, you can find moneys to take from
somewhere else to expand this budget. If I was going to take moneys from somewhere else,
I would go to the Office of Economic Development and I would take the money from the
marathon, which I realize the Council is committed to the fourth year of funding for it. But
I would simply look in the budget at what does not have a cost-benefit analysis and take the
money out of those. Another one is the money that we spend attracting Hollywood to come
here and do films. The only cost-benefit ratio I hear is what is in the newspaper and it
makes statements, like during the production Hollywood dropped so many millions of
dollars on Kaua`i. But the fact that the teamsters that are over here get paid over one
hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) a year to do sets, does not have the fact that they get
paid while they are here does not impact our economy. So, for films, I am wondering what
actual impact there is on our economy that is measurable in a cost-benefit analysis? When
I get stuck in traffic, that is a negative. That is a loss of earnings power. It is a waste of
my vehicle time, compounded by all of the people that get stuck in traffic. I would simply
say as your people come to you with their presentations and requests for budgets, where is
the cost-benefit ratio? If there is not one, that would appear to be money that could be put
to somebody who is better prepared to spend our tax money. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Any questions for Lonnie? No? Lonnie, let me
ask you, do you know how much the Auditor's budget is?
Mr. Sykos: Pardon me?
Chair Furfaro: Do you know how much the Auditor's budget is,
you as a citizen?
Mr. Sykos: No, I do not. As a citizen, I do not. I would
assume it is probably a couple hundred thousand dollars.
Chair Furfaro: Your assumption is about five (5) times off.
Mr. Sykos: One million dollars ($1,000,000).
Chair Furfaro: One million one hundred thousand dollars
($1,100,000).
Mr. Sykos: While, there are five (5) highly skilled
professionals, if I understand. We have got five (5) highly skilled professionals.
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Chair Furfaro: Let us leave it at that for right now.
Mr. Sykos: It is a big chunk of money.
Chair Furfaro: I just wondered if you knew how much the
Council approved for that Office.
Mr. Sykos: A tip of the hat to the Council for helping create
the Auditor, your funding, and your support to them through the years. I am certainly very
grateful to the Council.
Chair Furfaro: Then with the exception of the Liquor Control
Commission, pretty much the rest of the County is —they are all cost centers. They are not
profit centers. In government, we approve a balanced budget and we are not required to
find ourselves with any Department being a profit center.
Mr. Sykos: Correct.
Chair Furfaro: Okay.
Mr. Sykos: As an observation.
Chair Furfaro: I just chanted wanted to share that. Thank you
Lonnie.
Mr. Sykos: Thank you very much.
Chair Furfaro: Is there anyone else in the audience that chooses
to testify today on any of the Departments we are reviewing?
There being no one else to testify the meeting was called back to order, and
proceeded as follows:
Chair Furfaro: If not, Mr. Kollar, would you like to come up? On
behalf of the Council, we hope your healing process is going well.
There being no objections, the rules were suspended.
JUSTIN F. KOLLAR, County Prosecuting Attorney: Thank you. Good morning
Council Chair Furfaro, Vice Chair Nakamura, and members of the Council. I want to
thank you all for your promises that you are going to go easy on me since it is my first time
here. I really appreciate that. Before we get started I want to make sure that you have the
budget narrative in this format because I know it was a little bit late coming over, some
questions as to the formatting so that came over a little bit late. But hopefully, you have all
that. It is what we are going to work off of. I have brought a number of staff with me this
morning to assist either on as-needed basis or just because I wanted them to have a chance
to be introduced to the Council. So, that we do not have our Deputy sitting here all
morning, I am just going to — right now kind of bring them up two at time and maybe
introduce them to you so you can put names to the faces. Their names are the in paper
sometime. You probably wonder who is this person or that person. I just wanted to briefly
bring them up, introduce them, and get them back on their way for the day.
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Chair Furfaro: Why do we not put the lights back on for you and
we have three (3) chairs there if you want to bring them up three (3) at a time.
Mr. Kollar: Three (3) at a time works. Kevin, Becky, and
Melinda. I am not going to ask them to do any talking this morning. I promised them that
much. If you need to — so directly to my right is our First Deputy Attorney Kevin
K. Takata. Kevin is somebody that we are very fortunate to have on board in our Office. It
is kind of weird me being mister fourteen thousand (14,000) votes, having an employee who
got a hundred some thousand votes in Honolulu, something like that. But Honolulu's loss
is our gain and we are very happy to have Kevin on board. Kevin has been a Prosecutor his
entire career. He is a born and bred career Prosecutor and trains Homicide Prosecutors in
Mexico. We are very, very fortunate and I am very happy to have him on board. He will do
a little bit of speaking later on today about the Cold Case Unit and some of the things that
we are doing to address the unsolved homicide backlog that exists on Kaua`i. To his right is
our Second Deputy Rebecca Vogt. Becky has been with the Office for several years now and
handles felony property crimes for the Office. In addition to that, she has supervisory
responsibilities over the District Court and the Family Court Attorneys. Basically, four (4)
or five (5) Attorneys that she has kuleana over, tends to be the younger Attorneys that
maybe could benefit from some more mentoring or training while they are learn the ropes
in District Court and Family Court. We identified that those two (2) Courts have been sort
of underserved historically, not just the past four (4) years, but historically. We got the
sense from the judiciary that it would benefit everyone if we put a little more resources into
supervising and developing those Attorneys before we bump them into Circuit Court. She
has been doing an excellent job providing that leadership with that group of Attorneys. We
are fortunate to have her on board as well. To her right is Deputy Prosecuting Attorney
(DPA) Melinda Mendes. Melinda is another career Prosecutor. She has been the job for
more than twenty (20) years, former Deputy County Prosecutor in several Counties, as well
as Former Assistant United States Attorney. She handles homicide cases, serious crimes,
firearms crimes, and basically other crimes where we know we need someone who is really
on top of their game, and including the recent Hilario case, she handled that. I think
between Kevin and Melinda, we can say that Kaua`i has the benefit of Homicide
Prosecution Unit that is par excellence for the State of Hawai`i and really anywhere else as
well. We are very proud of these three (3) as well. So, thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Welcome.
Mr. Kollar: Lisa, Tracy and Shauna. We have got a few
Attorneys in court had morning, including Ginger Grinpas who you folks all know. She has
been over here for a while. She has a Juvenile Court Calendar this morning. So, that is
where she is. Then Ramsey Ross had a return on a bench warrant up in Circuit Court. So,
that is where he is right now as well.
Chair Furfaro: Aloha. I want you to know that we sent Ginger
to you with very high marks.
Mr. Kollar: We received her with very high mark and we also
give her very high marks. We are very happy to have her. To my right is Lisa Arin. Lisa
has been an Attorney for a long time. A little unusual in that she was on defense side
before coming over to the prosecution side. We are very happy to bring her mane-1'o and her
skills to the realm of prosecution. She handles sexual assault cases for our Office, very
serious crimes, crimes that require a lot of sensitivity and passion. It is an area of
prosecution where burnout happens, tremendous emotional stress happens, and she
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handles it all with skill and with a plum. We are very happy to have her working in our
Office right now. To her right is Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tracy Murakami. Tracy has
been a Deputy Prosecutor for ten (10) years. She works on appeals, asset forfeiture, real
forty petitions, extraditions, and other miscellaneous missions as we assign. But that area
of a practice is actually growing pretty considerably in recent years. We will talk about
that later on. But Tracy, what she brings to our Office is a wealth of institutional
knowledge. Finding a good Appellate Attorney is not an easy thing to do. Especially in a
small community like ours. It is a highly specialized practice, it has nothing to do with trial
practice or Traffic Court, or felony cases, in Circuit Court. It is an animal really unto itself.
When you have somebody with that kind of experience we really try to foster that.
Chair Furfaro: You know she was the first one you stole from us.
Mr. Kollar: I do not think I can be held accountable for that
one. To her right is Shauna Cahill. She is a Deputy Prosecutor in our Office. She handles
crimes against persons. She was a Deputy Prosecutor for a few years, left for a while, was
very successful in private practice, and we are now very happy to have her back in our
Office. She went to law school in Boston just like I did, so we have a little connection there.
Very happy to have her skills with us. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, welcome.
Mr. Kollar: Gary, Tim, Jenelle.
Chair Furfaro: Welcome.
Mr. Kollar: To my right is Deputy Prosecutor Gary Nelson.
Gary has been in our Office for about a year and a half (1%), two (2) years, something like
that. Gary handles domestic violence cases both at the misdemeanor level and at a felony
level in the Family Court, as well as upstairs in the Circuit Court. He is very passionate
about his work, very invested in his work, and really brings a high level of,attention to his
work. Excellent marks in law school, which especially in criminal procedure, which made
him a very attractive candidate for our Office. Judge Perkins was it?
GARY NELSON: Justice.
Mr. Kollar: Justice Pollack. We take that kind of experience
very seriously when looking at candidates. Happy to have him on board. Deputy
Prosecutor Tim Tobin. Tim is another Boston expat like myself and Shauna. Family of
Boston Police Officers, numerous generations. So, he has a good law enforcement mindset.
He works on felony drug cases in our Office. To his right, Jenelle Hughes. Jenelle is the
former Law Clerk for Judge Kathleen Watanabe and handles Traffic Court in the District
Court here. So, Driving Under the Influence (DUI) cases. Real tough stuff. It is a very
demanding calendar. We put a lot on her shoulders and we know she can handle it. Thank
you.
Chair Furfaro: Welcome.
Mr. Kollar: I think we have Teresa and John. I think that is
it.
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Chair Furfaro: You had a Mock Trial Coach in there for one (1)
of our Councilmembers.
Mr. Kollar: Yes. Jenelle, I want to applaud her work with
the Mock Trial Team and also applaud Councilmember Nakamura's daughter for her work
on the Mock Trial Team. Excellent. To my right John Murphy, who many of you probably
know. John has been an Attorney here on Kaua`i for a long time on the defense side,
general practice, and he worked with the Attorney General's Office in Honolulu for several
year before coming back to join us on Kaua`i. John works on career criminal cases so it
tends to be repeat offenders, offenders that might also have cases in Federal Court. It is a
demanding caseload because in many instances, defenders are facing mandatory
minimums. They fight a little bit harder. Also a lot of time we have defends that might be
in Federal custody and we have to jump through extra hoops to kind of get them over here
and so far John handles that with skill, with experience, and knows his way around the
inside of the a courtroom. We know we can give my any case and say you are going to trial
on Monday and he will step up to the plate and handle it. So, very appreciative of that. To
his right, Teresa Tumbaga, who is in District Court handling the Criminal Calendar. We
have two (2) Attorneys in District Court. One (1) handles the Criminal Calendar which is
your harassments, disorderly conducts, leash law violations, things like that. Then Jenelle
handles the traffic side of the calendar. It is the entry level kind of spot in our Office. High
volume operation, great learning opportunity, and we are very. Very happy to have her
with us. I will release you to go back to the Office now. Thank you for coming over. Except
for you Kevin, and Becky. We just wanted to then get a sense for who you folks are and
also have you get a sense of who they are because we are all part of the County team here.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you for that.
Mr. Kollar: Sure.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you everyone.
Mr. Kollar: We will get a little bit in our narrative now,
assuming that I can figure out how this work.
Chair Furfaro: Justin, what I am going to do. I am going to turn
this part of the meeting over to Mr. Rapozo so I can sit and watch this.
There being no objections, Chair Furfaro, the presiding officer relinquished
Chairmanship to Mr. Rapozo.
Mr. Kollar: We will start with our mission statement. It is
fairly simple. We wanted to be very clear about what our operation was about when we
came in December 3rd. It is our mission to promote the fair, impartial, and expeditious
pursuit of justice in every case to ensure safer communities and to promote integrity in our
profession. It is our mission to temper justice with compassion and to do our work in an
open, transparent, and accountable way. That sums up our mission. The Prosecutor's
mission is essentially a very simple one, and it is to seek justice. That mission, we believe,
only gets complicated if we make it complicated. We try to instill those very simple values
in our staff, in our Attorneys, in our support staff, in our victim-witness staff, investigators,
and just keep everyone pointed straight ahead with these simple principles in mind. You
can find this on our website, too as well. If you go to the County's website, the Prosecuting
Attorney's Office does have a couple of pages there and this is up there.
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We will talk a little bit about the structure of the Office and how we approach that.
The Office of the Prosecuting Attorney is Kaua`i largest law firm. We manage it like a
business. We look at it like a business. We are not here to make money, but we are here to
seek justice. But aside from that, we are basically a law firm. We have fourteen (14)
Attorneys, fourteen (14) Clerical Support Staff, four(4) Victim-Witness Program staff, four
(4) staff in what we call Administrative Support, and then three (3) on Investigative
Support for a total of thirty-nine (39). Then we have one (1) additional Victim-Witness
position that will be coming online shortly, which is a State funded position and we will also
talk about that a little bit later on. But that is essentially what our structure is, one (1) to
one (1) support between the Attorney and Clerical Staff, as well as the Victim-Witness
Administrative and Investigative Units. The District and Family Court Unit, as I
mentioned earlier, supervised by the Second Deputy. Consists of DPAs Tumbaga, Hughes,
Nelson, and Grinpas. This unit encompasses District Court Traffic, District Court
Criminal, Adult Family Court, and the Juvenile Family Court prosecution units.
The Circuit Court Unit, supervised by First Deputy Kevin Takata and consisting of
DPAs Arin, Mendes, Cahill, Murphy, Tobin,and Ramsey Ross. That consists of felonies,
misdemeanor jury demand cases, grand jury proceedings, as well as felony case screening
and charging. So when we get the reports in from the Kaua`iPolice Department (KPD) or
from the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) or from whatever Agency
they come into us with, the screening happens, charges are filed or the case is taken to the
grand jury, and the case is instituted and moves forward.
Appeals and what we call Administrative Services. Again, supervised by Kevin and,
consisting of Tracy Murakami, Ginger Grinpas who helps out with some of the overflow,
assets forfeitures, as well as our Program Assistant, Ihilani Laureta. These folks work on
appeals, Asset Forfeiture Proceedings, Rule 40 Petitions, helping with legislative testimony,
and tracking of diversionary program. When we talk about Administrative Services we are
not talking about Administrative like management of the Office type of things. But
Administrative practice areas, practice that our Office would conduct before an
Administrative Agency. For example, Asset Furniture Forfeiture is adjudicated within the
Office of the Attorney General. So, those are considered an Administrative practice area.
Rule 40 Petitions are petitions that are usually filed by incarcerated persons who are
arguing for reduced or vacated sentence. Legislative testimony, we will get into a little bit
more later on. But we are trying to be more active and more proactive in the legislative
arena, working with legislators at both the County, the State, as well as the Federal level,
to try to make our life a little bit easier in terms of the laws that we go out enforce and
work with. Then Diversionary Programs, we do have several Diversionary Programs
within our circuit that are administered within the judiciary and by other Agencies like
Drug Court, Teen Court, and the Juvenile Diversion Program.
Goals and objectives for Fiscal Year 2014. Involving Case Management and our
Office Workflow. In a lot ways the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney is still in a
transitional time right now. Law offices, historically, were very paper intensive
environments. A lot of things done kind of the old-fashioned way. What the Judge says, we
write down in the file, we come back, we would make manual entries into the various data
systems, and that is how we would track things, is by manual, hard copy, hand written
entries in paper files. What we want to do is kind of transition towards the 21st century
practice environment and basically eliminate some of the paper, streamline things, help
people work more efficiently, so the Attorneys can spend more time working on their cases
and less time working on their files. That is what we really want to have people work
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towards. As our primary goal, we want to implement the New Dawn Case Management
System and transition away from HOKU. HOKU is an old legacy system that we sort of
inherited from Honolulu. It is no longer supported. We do not really have access to
anybody to service that system any more. It results in a lot of duplicative and redundant
date entries. What the prior Administration did was locate a vendor named New Dawn
which is responsible for the case management software that has been in place on Maui for
several years. In the interest of not reinventing the wheel, we have been working them, we
have executed a contract, and they have the Notice to Proceed. We are currently in a very
ground level of implementing that system right now. We anticipate that it is going to grow
over time. But the goal of that system is to interface with as many different State, County,
and Federal data systems as possible so that we can reduce the number of time our Clerks
have to enter the same piece of data into their systems. We will talk a little bit more about
the nuts and bolts of that as we move through the presentation. But that is really our
number one goal, is to get that system implemented, to make it happen, and to make it
work the way we envision it working. Secondary goal would be to work towards a paperless
workflow (receive reports from KPD electronically instead of via hard copy, providing
discovery to the defense bar electronically instead of via hard copy). There are several good
reasons for this. First, paper, toner, ink, CDs, pictures, those things all cost money and
they take time. So, we want to minimize those expenses and take time. Right now, the
Kaua`i Police Department has a CAD RMS system for their records management and it is
an electronic system. It is a computer system. Their records are created, stored, and
maintained in a computerized environment. Within our Office, we are going to have our
files maintained and created in at the end of the digital computerized environment. But
those two systems do not talk to each other. So, for us to get reports from the Police
Department, they do all of their stuff on the computer, print it out, send it to our Office, and
then we enter everything back into the system. We need our systems to be talking to one
another. I know the Police Department has been going through a lengthy process for
implementing a new records management system and we think that system is going to be
an excellent system. We want to make sure when we bring our system in, we can get the
try to get these two (2) systems to talk to each other or at the very least figure out a way
that we can receive reports from KPD electronically. We have already had meetings with
Deputy Chief Contrades about implementing that. We applaud their initiative in working
with us on that because it will help us with getting cases to Court faster, with getting
charges files faster, less paper means less paper sitting on people's desks waiting to get
entered into various systems. We think that is a way to really increase efficiencies and
save everyone a lot of money. Third would be Mobile Solutions including tying the case
management system (CMS) into our tablet devices for Attorneys so that productivity
continues regardless of where that Attorney happen to be. We would very much like it if
our Attorneys could be able to interface with our Case Management System via their iPads,
if they are waiting in Court, either stepping out into the hallway or even we have some of
the Judges that are tentatively on-board with having us use these tablets within the Court
environment. Also, we have an Attorney's workroom at courthouse. We would like the
Attorneys —if they have a break in the action, not have to come all the back over the office,
but be able to go over and work in a mobile location. If they are attending a meeting
outside of the office, we would like them to be able to continue accessing their information.
For example, sometimes when you are in Court, it could be any Court, there will be a last
minute addition to a Case Calendar. Right now, if that happens we have got a call back,
have the Clerk go and find the paper file, someone comes and runs the file over to the
Courthouse. It causes delays. It causes a lot of stress. It causes a lot of running around. If
the Attorney can fire up the iPad, open up the case file, have access to the documents that
have been created, the complaints, the motions, the calendars, we can avoid a lot of that
running around and again, saved time is saved money. These are some of our primary
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objectives with regards to Case Management and Workflow. Two, goals and objectives as to
our Victim-Witness Program. I think I will ask Diana to come up and give just a very brief
overview of what we are looking to do with our Victim-Witness Program in Fiscal Year
2014.
DIANA GAUSEPOHL-WHITE, Victim Witness Program Director: Just
as far as where we are in terms of staffing, we are interviewing for a State funded position
for an Advocate and then in October, we will be looking at using Victims of Crime Act
(VOCA) funds to hire another Advocate. Thank you.
Mr. Kollar: Some of our other goals, as I will go through
here, to reorganize and strengthen the Victim-Witness Program by reestablishing the
Victim-Witness program Director position, to oversee the day-to-day operations of the
program. That is something that can really only benefit the County. When I came in, we
had a number of Victim-Witness Advocates, no intermediary Supervisor between those
Advocates and myself. So, that resulted in my position having to perform day-to-day
supervision over their activities when we already had somebody who is more than skilled
and experienced in running that type of program. I have worked with Diana for a number
of years and you are not going to find a more passionate advocate for victims and their
rights as far as the criminal justice community goes anywhere on Kaua`i. So, to take
advantage of her skills and her experience is a no-brainer for us. Secondary, to enhance
and improve the program by increasing the number of Victim-Witness Counselors via as
Diana mentioned, the new Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) grant State moneys and
the ongoing Victims of Crime Act grant which is Federal funds. The Governor, as part of
his Justice Reinvestment Initiative, did assure the Counties funding for Victim-Witness
Counselors. The theory behind that, I think, is the Governor wants to bring home prison
inmates who are housed outside of the State of Hawai`i and I think the idea there is that
many inmates will either end up in parole programs or release programs, integrating them
back into the community as time goes by. As a corollary to that, we would need in our
Office, additional staff to help make sure that the public stays informed as to who is coming
back into the community and what the status is of these offends. We are very thankful to
the Attorney General and the Governor for helping us at least get these increased funds so
we can beef up our staff a little bit. Third, we want to serve victims more effectively by
providing increased level of direct services such as outreach. Right now, it is a component
that unfortunately we are neglecting. Our current staff is essentially focused on providing
day-to-day services to victims of crime and witnesses. We do not have a lot of resources to
go out right now and do proactive outreach within the community to reach out to victims of
domestic violence or reach out to victims of sexual assault or reach out to other individuals
who might benefit from receiving information on crime victim compensation funds, things
like that. Maybe victims that we can reach out to even if cases have not come into our
Office. That is a sector of the victim community, a sector of the underserved community out
there that we would really like to get back into being able to serve and hopefully with our
increased staffing levels and again, this is a staffing increase that is not at any expense to
the County. But it is a tool that we will be able to use to increase the services that we
provide directly to the community. Fourth, to renew and strengthen our partnerships with
the related County and State Agencies, as well as the local non-profit service providers that
we contract with such as the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). They do
amazing work in our community with victims of sexual violence, domestic assault, as well
as providing information on Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), restraining orders,
providing a lot of direct services to folks out in the community that are in need of them, as
well as we do a lot of interfacing with the Attorney General's Office, as well as the related
Federal Agencies that provide funding to our Agency. Having a supervisory person in the
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Victim-Witness
Program helps us in our ability to administer the program efficiently and
effectively to make sure that we kee p g ood relationshi p s with those funding Agencies, we
are getting them the information that they asked for in a timely manner, we are keeping
good statistics, and we are adhering to best practices in that field. Then, again, last
priority would be to restore relationships with the neighbor island Victim-Witness
Programs. In a small community like ours, it often does behoove us to take advantage of
the knowledge and the ntiana o that the neighbor island Victim-Witness Programs can share
with us. Diana, Jennifer, and Marla in our Office all have years of experience in
collaborating with the folks in the different jurisdictions, especially, I cannot say enough
positive things about Dennis Dunn in the Honolulu Victim-Witness Kokua Program over
there. Any time we have a question, a problem, a protocol issue, a funding issue, and
structural issue, we know we can go to them. They will give us the information we are
asking for and we will be able to resolve the problem in a good way for us. Those are our
priorities as far as the Victim-Witness Program goes. Thank you.
Ms. Gausepohl-White: Thank you.
Mr. Kollar: Transition into the legislative arena. One of the
things I mentioned earlier, we really want to strengthen our presence in the legislative
arena by taking a more active role in working with lawmakers. We think it is real
important for us to have a voice in the criminal justice arena. Right now, the Honolulu
Prosecutor's Office does a tremendous amount of legislative outreach. But what is the
relevant issue or salient issue in Honolulu might not always be the same to us on the
neighbor island communities. We partner up, we have worked together, of course, with the
Honolulu folks and that is Jon Riki Karamatsu over there who does most of their legislative
week and Trisha Nakamatsu, as well as folks like Richard Minatoya on Maui, who have a
tremendous amount of experience in the legislative arena. They have a very active voice in
the legislative process, talking with our legislators, with our lawmakers, and helping
g
shepherd different priorities and projects through the State House. As you all know, it can
be a real interesting process getting that sausage made over in Honolulu. So, we try to
keep as close an eye as we can on Bills that we know are going to affect what we do over
here. I know that Mitch Roth over on the Big Island, their newly elected Prosecutor, is also
very keenly aware of how these issues impact all of us. We really have a good partnership
going right now with the Hawai`i Prosecuting Attorneys Association (HPAA). We talk, we
get together, we do not always agree on everything, but we try to especially on the things
that we do agree on, make sure we let our legislators know how we feel because they really
do listen, they do respond to pressure or attention, let us say, and that helps our
community.
One of the major priority we were trying to work on this year, something that was a
project for our Office in particular, was House Bill 587, which was a Bill that would have
increased protection for victims of domestic violence, it would have expanded the reach of
the family abuse statute, which is Hawai`i Revised Statutes (HRS) 709-906. It is our
domestic violence statute here in Hawai`i. It would have expanded the reach of the statute
to include partners or couples that are involved in dating or romantic relationships even if
they had never had a child together or resided together. Right now, one of the real pukas in
that law is that somebody can be roommates for one day and that might make them
household or family members for life. Somebody could have a child together ten (10) or
twenty (20) years ago, they are still considered household or family members under the
statute. But if somebody has been in a dating or romantic relationship, boyfriend/girlfriend
or whatever, even if they had been together for twenty (20) years they would not fall under
that statute if they lived together or had a child together. One (1) of the things we were
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trying to do is tighten that up to include those couples. It actually made it through the
House, it made it through the Senate and I just saw an update yesterday, that the House
disagrees with the Senate amendments so I am not sure what is going to happen there. But
we worked closely on actually drafting the legislation with the members of Domestic
Violence Task Force here on Kauai. So, that was an avenue where collaboration really
helped. We were at a Task Force meeting a couple of months ago and they said, "Hey, we
really have to tighten these laws up." We were talking to Representative Morikami, he was
willing to introduce the legislation and I said, "Well hey, we can help draft, so call us up."
We had internal conversations in our Office, what can be fix, what do we need to work on?
It will come up with the draft, Representative Kawakami introduced it and shepherded it a
great way through the legislative process. If it does not go through this year, we have next
year as well. But now we understand how the process works, how things moves through
the system and it is an exciting thing for our Office to be involved in. I am very proud of
our Office for being involved in that effort.
Another initiative this year would be to support a State Constitutional amendment
establishing a Crime Victim Bill of Rights that was actually introduced not by our Office,
but introduced in Honolulu as Senate Bill 509, House Bill 1085. Hawai`i right now, is one
(1) of seventeen (17) States without a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing specific
rights to crime victims or their immediate surviving family members. We have had a lot of
back and forth and a lot of discussion as to what those rights would be, different voices
heard on all different sides of that issue. But from our perspective, we believe that
something that is very important to us to be a voice for victims and to be a voice for folks
who right now do not have a voice and to also work closely are our HPAA partners to
support a coherent legislative agenda. Like I said, we do not always agree on everything,
but when we do we want to be coherent, we want to speak with one (1) voice and we want to
make sure that our voices are heard.
Ms. Yukimura: HPAA is?
Mr. Kollar: The Hawaii Prosecuting Attorneys Association.
It is a small group and it is fairly informal. But we meet regularly and it consists of the
Prosecuting Attorneys from the four (4) islands together with Unites States (U.S.) Attorney
for Hawaii, Florence Nakakuni as well as the Attorney General. Community oriented
prosecution is something we are also sort of dipping our toes into this year. Basically, what
that consists of is to continue and strengthen our community outreach efforts and listening
efforts by participating in community and neighbor group meetings and just being
responsive to inquiries for service and information in a timely fashion. What this means is
really not us going out and saying we are going to have a meeting and we are going to show
you some stuff and put on a presentation for you. But have our Representatives go out to
meetings that are already happening, of various community associations, hearing what
their concerns are about crime, listening to their issues, bringing that information back to
our Office. If there are questions that people have that need to be answered, we bring those
questions back, we get them answers, and we respond in a timely passion. That is
something that our Program Assistant Ihilani Laureta has been working on. You know
here, she was over here at Council. She has worked for the Courts, very involved in
different community efforts, is a very passionate voice fro justice in our community, and has
busily attending meetings over the last four (4) months whether it is Kilauea Neighborhood
Association, meetings in Hanapepe, all over the island, Koloa Neighborhood Association.
Hearing their concern, bringing them back to our Office so we can make sure we are
servicing those areas effectively, and make sure that we are basically just getting people
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the information that they want, and furthering our mission statement of being open,
transparent, and accountable.
Our goal for this year is to attend at least forty (40) community meetings. I think we
are off to a good start on that initiative and we are looking to keep it up. It is a good low
cost way for us to stay in touch with what the community - take the community's pulse,
basically. Some different community concern. I am sure none of these are any surprise to
you folks. North Shore folks are concerned about property crimes and drug crimes
happening especially near schools, concerns about drug houses, and other nuisance
properties that trouble makers tend to congregate in. South Shore, rock theft from
different cultural areas, culture preserves, and heiaus, and property crimes. Property
crimes are going to be a consistent theme across the island right now. From the West Side,
a lot of concern about genetically modified organisms (GMO) operations, agricultural theft,
and as well as drug crimes.
The Property Crime Unit, again several—what we believe to be achievable goals and
objectives, to reduce the amount of time it takes to get repeat property crime offenders
through the court system and the way we have done that is simply by increasing the
number of Prosecutors we have working on property crimes. These crimes, really, whether
they affect visitors or whether they affect residents, they draw a lot of attention because in
our community, it is a community founded on values of trust. We trust one another. Our
carports are open, we do not like to lock our cars when we go to the store, we like to feel
that we can trust our neighbors and depend on one another and when that trust is violated,
it hits the heart of the community. We really want to address this problem of property
crimes from West Side to the North Shore, is something that is on the rise over the last few
years. Usually, tied to drug abuse/drug addiction and folks looking to steal different items
to sell and get money to support a drug habit.
We are looking to expand our Career Criminal and Property Crime Prosecution
Unit. We are requesting enhanced Career Criminal Prosecution (CCP) funding from the
Department of the Attorney General and hoping to expand the Property Crime Prosecution
Unit from two (2) Deputies to three (3). We will talk about that funding later on because
we did get some disturbing news from Honolulu about that funding the other day. So, some
of that funding might potentially be in jeopardy which is going to create some questions for
how we handle that. Number three, to eliminate the screening backlog. You often hear the
sentence or the phrase, "justice delayed is justice denied." So, just from a nuts and bolts
perspective, we want to move cases through the system faster, we want them sitting on
Deputy's desks shorter periods of time, and we want to be able to get cases to the grand jury
or to the judges for issuance of the bench warrants in a more timely fashion. Any time
there is a transition between Administrations, there is inherited caseload, inherited
screening backlogs and things of that nature. What we inherited is not any worse than
what happened four (4) years ago or probably what happened during any transitional
period that has ever happened. But there was a certain about of backlog. So, one thing we
really wanted to do when we came is do triage, look at the reports, see the things that we
can look at and dispose of very quickly either because of a statute of limitations problem or
some obvious identifiable problem, get rid of those cases, and focus on the ones that are
fresh, that have the impact right now and kind of get those into the Court process. One
way we have attacked that problem is by increased use of the Felony Information Charging
process. It enables us to file charges in felony cases without going through a Grand Jury
process. We prepare Declarations and send them to Judges. The Judges review them for
probable cause and issue the warrants. Grand Jury only happens twice a month, every
other week. You have to get your witnesses lined up, you have to make sure everyone is
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available, and there are a lot of stars that have to line up to get a case into the Grand Jury.
We still do that because there are many crimes you cannot charge without going through
the Grand Jury. So, we continue to use that process. But the Felony Information Charging
is something that you can do every day. So, we try to make increased use of that. Our
report maybe only has to be in our Office for a week or two (2) as opposed to a month or two
(2). We have been very successful in reducing that backlog with property crimes. It has
been almost eliminated. Sexual assaults, drug cases, we still have some backlog to deal
with. But we are making progress and we are getting things done.
Lastly,again, to partner with the community organizations and law enforcement to
recognize and respond to trends in the property crime area. These things tend to be
streaky. You tend to get a group of three (3) or four (4) people that will go out and hit
maybe vacation rentals in a particular area. You have to work very closely with your
Detectives in determining what kind of operations happen out there. Whether it is going to
be to be a sting operation or whether there are folks in the community who can give us
information on who is committing those offenses and go from there. So, it does go from
there. It does come back to partnerships both with the folks at the Kaua`i Police
Department and people in the community who are often a very valuable source of
information for law enforcement and we need to make sure we are paying attention to
them.
Our Cold Case Unit is something that we are extremely happy to be working on
within our Office and I think I will ask Kevin Takata to come up and talk a little bit about
what we are doing with the Cold Case Unit in Fiscal Year 2014.
KEVIN TAKATA, First Deputy Prosecuting Attorney: Good morning. The
first thing we did was to form a team that consists of Police Officers, Prosecutors, and
Prosecutor Investigators. You must understand that this team has taken on this task in
addition to our normal duties. None of us have especially assigned to just do cold cases.
The first thing that we need to do is to identify the case that remain unsolved on Kaua`i.
There are approximately eighteen (18). We are also looking at missing person cases which
contains specify circumstances, which we believe to be homicides and include death on our
unsolved homicide list. The next thing we intend to do is to have reports prepared on the
cases. A summary of the victim's background, the crime, it would include the Medical
Examiner's Report, evidence and property that was collected to make sure that evidence or
property still exists, and lab reports. Then what we need to do is verify whether witnesses
are still alive and available and able to testimony. We need to create a list of potential
suspects. I say list because investigations go astray when you believe you know who did it
and you try to make the evidence lead to that person. We are going to avoid that. Then we
need to create a list of follow-up that we need to do and do that follow-up. One of the
primary things that we will be focusing on is to look at available evidence and see whether
we can have that evidence can be analyzed. Unfortunately, we do not have a crime lab
here. So, what we need to do with the moneys available to us through a grant from the
Attorney General's Office and Kauai is fortunate in being the only Prosecutor's Office in
Hawai`i to have received this grant, is to use this money to analyze the evidence.
Specifically, probably deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) evidence to solve these crimes. What we
also intend to do is create a three (3) tiered priority list based on the probability of solving
these crimes. Now, we also intend to look at crimes where we believe the prime suspect has
passed away. Why? Although, the suspect has passed away, if we can tell the family of
that murder victim that we believe we know who killed your loved one, it was this person
and he has since died, at least that gives them a sense of knowing that their case was
looked at and closed rather than the uncertainty of not knowing who did it and to live with
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that and nagging doubt. Among the things I would like to see done here is to publicize
those case and get the public's assistance. Those cases will remain unsolved unless we keep
it in the public's attention, just the way KPD and the County did with the Justin Klein
case. It was publicized, people were reminded that KPD was still looking for that suspect,
and he was apprehended. So, that is our Cold Case Unit and that is what we are up to.
Thank you.
Mr. Kollar: The Cold Case Unit is an effort that we
undertake in partnership with the Kaua`i Police Department. We have two (2)
Investigators within our Office that work on these cases and that would be John Burgess
and Joe Adric. We are extremely happy to have Mr. Adric on board. He had retired from
the Kauai Police Department last year and has a wealth of experience investigating
homicides. We felt like there was more work he could do, more ways he could benefit our
community, so we brought him on about three (3) months ago and he has been a huge
addition to our team. So, very happy to have him, as well as John Burgess, who is sort of
the lead in our Investigative Unit. Many years of law enforcement experience. So with
them, working with Kevin, working with Melinda and on the KPD side working with
Detectives like Bryson Ponce, James Miller, and Assistant Chief Asher, we feel like it is
well over one hundred (100) years of experience to bring in to bear on these cases because
the public does not every forget these case and we want to make sure we do not every forget
them either. We also want to make sure that we continues to make wise use of the existing
grant funds for sophisticated forensic testing including cases that might be quite old. What
little evidence still remains, we want to make sure that we are using that wisely and
judiciously.
One thing I did forget to mention earlier when I was talking about our work on
legislation, was to mention that we do make use of, as folks probably do over here, the
Hawai`i Legislative Tracker and we did want to thank Paula Morikami and her staff at
Boards and Commissions for providing training to our staff on making use of that resource.
It is a tremendous asset, as you undoubtedly know. Having these Bills moving through the
system can be very confusing and rapid thing. So, anything we can do keep on top of that to
make sure we are getting notifications is a benefit to us.
Successes and achievements. Our staffing, I feel, has been a very great success at
this point. The team that we have put together is something that makes my job so much
easier and I think makes our public — make our community a much safer place. We were
able to fill or staff vacancies in a short amount of time with highly qualified individuals.
What the result of this is, is that we decreased the amount unspent salaries that will lapse
at the end of the fiscal year and we increased the level of services provided to the
community. It also enables us to appropriately route tasks to the proper staff, which again,
using money smarter, using money more efficiently. If we have tasks that can be done by a
Legal Clerk III, as opposed to Supervising Legal Clerk, we want to have those tasks done
by that person or clerical tasks that can be done by Support Staff instead of having to be
done by Attorneys. Routing the appropriate task to the appropriate staff member.
One priority for us and one area we are asking the Council for support on is for the
Council to restore the full funding to our vacant Deputy Prosecutor position so that we can
fill it and create, essentially, a Zoning Enforcement Unit. That position, I indicated in our
narrative, that is E-88, which shows in the budget for next year, I think, as a dollar funded
position. It is currently in our budget as a funded Deputy position. So, we are not asking
for a new position here. We are just asking for that position to not be cut. This Deputy, we
envision working fifty percent (50%) on the Transient Vacation Rental (TVR) and zoning
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matters in conjunction with our Planning Department and our Police Department and fifty
percent (50%) on other Administrative practice areas. As I mentioned earlier,
Administrative practice areas include the Asset Forfeitures, the Rule 40s, and the appeals.
Why that matters is because Asset Forfeiture funds constitute and important source of
training moneys for our Department. As the County's available funds to provide training
dwindle from year-to-year, it is incumbent on us to find other sources to pay for that
training and the Asset Forfeiture Funds do help out with that. We also note that KPD has
been really increasing their Administrative Asset Forfeit case load in recent years.
Sergeant Carvalho over at KPD has been really doing an outstanding job. But it does result
in increased volume of work coming into our Office. So, having that Deputy could absorb
some of that caseload would really help us process those petitions faster and potentially
take some of the load off the County funded training budget areas.
Now, as far as the TVR and zoning enforcements, I am sure we will have a chance
to discuss that later on. But we have had meetings since December with the Planning
Department, with the Planning Director over there, and with Marisa in Planning who has
been helping them with these issues in identifying particular avenues to conduct
enforcement. We have even got together and met with the Kaua`i Police Department to see
what avenues there might be for collaboration there because this is going to have to be a
collaborative and it is going to have to be a joint effort. Like I said, we have two (2)
Investigators in our Office that are working on servicing the day-to-day needs of our
Attorneys as well as servicing the Cold Case Unit. I am going to be reluctant to pull them
off of unsolved homicide cases and put them into zoning cases. We need to rely on the
Planning Department's investigative staff. I know they have folks like Les Milnes who are
extraordinarily talented and smart people who we have worked with before on investigating
cases of a criminal nature, who understand what search warrants are and how to work with
the Detectives. We want to make sure that we continue working together with them, but
also maintain the resources in our Office to move these cases forward independently.
A picture of our staff there. This is where I was going to call them up to say "hi."
But that was done earlier. So, a picture of all of our smiling faces in December. Another
one of our successes, enhancing our relationships basically within the Kaua`i Police
Department. We feel that we have improved and increased communications within the
Department especially with the Detectives in the Investigative Services Bureau. We have
reinstated the practice of holding weekly informative meetings where we get together with
the Detectives, discuss cases, discuss ideas, discuss case law, and investigative models,
procedures and different things. Those meetings are really a tremendous benefit, I think,
both to our Office and their Office. We have also fostered an atmosphere of communication.
We have let KPD know that they are free to call our staff anytime, make the connection,
reach out, stay in touch. If they have got a question at 3:00 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon,
just call us. We would rather answer it than have it become a problem in a month or two (2)
months or six (6) months. So we are trying to really make sure that we keep the lines of
communication open and we feel we have been successful in that. Also, another way we
have increased our partnerships is by providing training to KPD new hires including forty
(40) hours of training on the Hawai`i Penal Code for each new recruit officer and sixteen
(16) hours of training in the Hawai`i Penal Code for all new Police Dispatchers. Like I said
earlier, we are the largest law firm on the island. We have fourteen (14) Attorneys on staff.
That is a tremendous amount of knowledge, experience, and wisdom. So, what we want to
do is take that, share that with the folks who are coming into the law enforcement
environment, and even if they do not absorb everything that we tell them in that forty (40)
hours and memorize it, they at least have a face, they have got a name, they have a phone
number and E-mail address, somebody that they would feel comfortable reaching out to if
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they have a question about a statute or something later on throughout their twenty (20) to
twenty-five (25) year career. For us to provide that training on the ground floor, I think,
the benefits just multiply themselves.
Operational efficiency and process improvements. Completed a smooth transition
into a new Administration with continuity of all operations. We knew that was expected
and we are not patting ourselves on the back. But we are very happy that we have kept
everything going. We had a major murder trial that was set to go a month after we took
office. We were able to make that happen, basically, keep things moving seamlessly.
Successfully implemented new filing system, completed the procurement of the Case
Management System, re-purposed dozens of old filing cabinets to other County
Departments and disposed of tons of archived documents via secure shredding. Also,
transitioning to the use of the County's SharePoint Portal. This is something the County
already pays for, it already exist, it is already out there. It is a good way to share
documents securely within an Office so we do not have to rely on old shared hard drives
which are less secure and more prone to failures, outages, service interruptions, and things
of that nature. So, just trying to take advantage of the tools that are already handed to us,
make sure we are moving forward.
I have included a few photos here. On the left you have got a before photo of what
our conference room looked like and on the right, you can see what it looks like today. All
the documents on left there, they were all scanned as parts of the last Administration and
we do thank them for getting that project done. They were all scanned and in January we
were finally able to complete procurement of shredding services and dispose of all of those
documents. So, what you see there is probably fifteen (15) filing cabinets and twenty (20)
bankers' boxes and that is just what was in the conference room. Now, we can actually use
our conference room as a conference room which is nice. Another before and after shot. On
the left you see what the back of our Department used to look like. More filing cabinets
stuffed with old files going back to 2004, 2005, 2006, and even older stuff we found, as well
as spiders, cobwebs, and things. On the right there, you see what our new mobile filing
system looks like. Again, that is a procurement that was completed in the last
Administration. Installation was completed after we came in, in January. That is one of
those rolling file systems like they have down in the Police Records Department. It enables
us to store our documents in a much more sensible way and a much more organized way. It
saves us a ton of space. Just another before and after. Our hallways before was filing
cabinets, stuffed with documents, questions as to whether they complied with disability
access issues which I am profoundly sensitive to over the last two (2) months and now our
hallways are clear again. It just contributes to it be a more organized work environment,
less cluttered, people know where things ware, and there is a less sense of "oh, my gosh,
what is all of this stuff."
Upcoming plan and initiatives for Fiscal Year 2014, Case Management System
implementation we talked about that already. Estimated start date of April, 2013 and
again, a Notice to Proceed on that contract has been issued. Right now, we are in the
groundwork of talking with the vendor and figuring out how to implement the system
within our Office. We do expect it will be a fairly quick implementation. It is a cloud
hosted system so it is not hosted on County servers. There are no adjustments to the
County's infrastructure that we have to make, which is another positive. So, really they
just need to come in, give us the client on our systems, and make sure we have the right
data fields to plug in information into. So, happy about that. Victim-Witness Program
reorganization, which we already discussed. Continuation of efforts to investigate and clear
cold cases. Continuation of efforts to work with KPD, U.S. Marshals, and Attorney General
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to bring non-compliant registered sex offenders into compliance and prosecute where
appropriate the violators. There are non-compliant sexual offenders on Kaua`i. We do have
some grant funds coming into the Office that we are going to be able to use to make sure
that staying on top those cases and monitoring that situation, initiating prosecution and
bringing people back into compliance. Also, integration of the mobile devices, the tablet
computers into the courtroom environment and providing increased technical training to
the Deputies. One thing I am really excited about, especially with the tablet computers is
right now — I want to thank, I have to thank Brandon Raines and the County's Information
Technology (IT) team for working with us on this. Right now, we have only got sort of
limited support for the iPads as you folks know. They turn out to be basically glorified
E-mail checkers and internet surfing kind of things. But we are really determined that we
are going to use these as business tools the way that they are intended to used. We have
been working with Brandon very closely. I have to praise his level of responsiveness and
support. Nothing, but a pleasure to work with and Kelly and Jolene and his whole staff.
Every morning you see our Deputies tromping over to courts and they have these books, big
plastic bins full of different paper materials. Thanks to Brandon and thanks to the iPads
now this book, it is right here. So, we do not have to carry these things around. We can go
into court. If we have to look up what is 291-E61, we can just open up the electronic version
of this book, go right to it, and the language is right there. Our Deputies do not have to sit
in court and fumble back and forth and find things. It is a much more organized and
professional work atmosphere. So, very happy to see that moving forward. As well as
providing training for the Deputies, making sure that we are getting them the skills and
experience, making sure that we can send people like Lisa to learn how to prosecute
juvenile sexual assaults. It is a highly specialized practice. There is not a ton of it that
happens in Hawai`i, so sometimes we need to send people to the mainland for training.
Sometimes we need to send people to Honolulu for training with the other Prosecutor's
Offices across the State. So, we want to make sure that we focus on sending the Deputies
work in those practice areas to get the appropriate training. Just in the last four (40
months, we have been successful in accomplishing that.
Challenges, there are challenges as always working in a government setting. First
is dealing with the ever increasing and changing systems and interfaces on the State level
(Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS), Juvenile Justice Information System (JJIS),
Hawai`i Integrated Justice Information System (HIJIS), National Crime Information
Center (NCIC)). There are all different computer networks that we use to gather
information on people's criminal histories, criminal records, files, and information that we
need to move cases forward. We have a lot of folks that come to Hawai`i from other States,
from the mainland, we might need to find their criminal information. So, we need to go to
different kinds of systems to location that info. We want to make sure that our Case
Management System talks to these systems. Again, so that we do not have to have
everybody booting up ten (10) different systems on their computer every morning. So, that
is a challenge. Especially as these things are perpetually morphing, the State is
continually upgrading their systems. Sometimes it helps and sometimes it throws us a
curveball so we need to keep one step ahead of these things. As well as just making sure
our system talks to the Police Department system. Coordinating within various Agencies of
the County, State and Federal level to ensure efficient and effective operations within our
Office. Like we said, as far, a a as the TVR,piece goes, making sure we can work with Planning,
making sure we can work with Police, and making sure we can work with the Council in
terms of legislative things that come up for whatever issue it might be. Third, contending
with issues presented by a lack of space in the Office. This is something that is not so much
a problem right now, but it could potentially be something on the radar screen for the
coming years. We have basically maxed out our space envelope within the Office. By the
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time we add the new Victim-Witness Counselor and if bring on this Deputy Prosecutor we
are asking for, we are going to be basically maxed out and not have space to put additional
staff beyond that. We are a little bit constrained in what the layout of the building is. We
have a secure area that is separate from what KPD secure area it. So it is not a very
flexible floor plan. What is the solution to that going to be? That is a question for future
years. But it is something that we least have to have our or radar screen and think about
how we are going to contend with it when it comes up. Getting rid of all of those
documents, papers, and filing cabinets did actually help us free up a lot of space in the
Office. But that is kind of a one (1) time fix. That is not something that we can really do
again. Continue to find meaningful opportunities for training and education for our
Deputies in tight fiscal times. As I just mentioned, not a lot of appellate law practitioners
on the island, not a lot of sexual assault p
rosecution specialists on the island. We do have
p
to look elsewhere for our training opportunities and we know it is a challenging fiscal
environment. We are not asking for you to come in increase our training budget. But we
are trying to be creative and resourceful in how we apply the moneys that we get, as well as
look for grant funds or external funds to make sure we are keeping our people educated and
up to speed on their practice areas. Then, finally, just institutional resistance to change.
Working with government sometimes you hear the phrase, "this is the way we have always
done it." We try to make that a "no no" within our Office. That is not a good reason I want
to hear come out of my staff's mouth and it is frustrating when you hear it from other
people because we need to innovate at the County level. We need to innovate within our
Department and we are constantly looking for ways to do that. But sometimes it is a
challenge and you need to be flexible to do that.
We have got some statistics here as far as our budget overview goes. As you can see
the vast majority of our budget consists of salary and wages, almost all of it. The numbers
speak for themselves there. The numbers, as sent here from the Administration indicate a
Fiscal Year 2014 budget of three million four hundred forty-four thousand five hundred
1 ninety-six dollars ($3,444,596), which is a decrease from Fiscal Year 2013's roughly three
million eight hundred thousand dollars ($3,800,000) budget. I would note that even with
the funds provided for the Deputy Prosecutor position we are asking for we are still
requesting less than what we got last year. We are requesting a decrease. We are trying to
be prudent. We are trying to do some other things as far as truth in budgeting, especially
with regards to one important area. You will notice in this year's budget, we budgeted the
Deputy Prosecutor positions to reflect the actual salaries, building in a small cushion in
case of very modest increases. But rather than budgeting them all at the statutory
maximum of one hundred one thousand dollars ($101,000), budgeting them closer to what
they are actually paid and then taking the difference to provide funding for some of the
previously dollar funded positions so that we do have Clerical Staff that is adequate to meet
our operation's needs. Also, what that does is it prevents us from lapsing the unspent
salaries at the end of the fiscal year because we have got bodies in the positions, the
salaries are being expended, and the County is receiving the benefit of that money that was
allocated to our budget. So, that is one important thing that we have tried to work on I
know if you look at past three (3) years and look at the amount of moneys that have lapsed
between OPA in unspent salaries, we have taken very meaningful, concrete and
measurable steps to make sure that is not a problem in the upcoming fiscal year or in
future fiscal years. We know it has been an issue in the County, not just our Department.
We are trying to be mindful of it and we are trying to adhere to the best practices as Ernie
and his staff asked us to do, and as we know that the Council also considers a priority. So,
we are very mindful of that.
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Here are some pie charts. Again, salary, wages, and benefits comprise almost our
entire budget. Not a whole lot of fat to trim in the other areas. I want to thank you all of
you for listening, for your kind attentions, and for being so gracious to my staff. I
appreciate having the opportunity to come here and present this to you and look forward to
answering any of your questions or inquiries. Thank you very much.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you very much as well. Mel, thank you
for holding it while the presentation was there. First of all, before I go any further, I want
to thank you for a very complete presentation. I want to also make sure that we
understand that this is the beginning of what are four (4) budget schedules for today. I
want to really stay focused on mission and objectives versus hearing about future
I philosophies because we do not have that generous amount of time this morning. We
already have the Transportation people here.
Mr. Kollar: Yes, sir.
Chair Furfaro: It will be our format to go around the table cure
those questions. I also want to say that we appreciate and I appreciate more than anybody
about filling vacancies that existed so it does not contribute to the surplus. But on the
upside and this is my question, I know how I am measuring the outcomes here, now that I
am using those staffing positions. I want to make sure that you realize that next year we
will be asking for some very measurable completions of goals.
Mr. Kollar: Absolutely.
Chair Furfaro: I know you will focus on that.
Mr. Kollar: Thank you.
Chari Furfaro: We will start our first round around the table.
Again, thank you again for bringing your staff over and the presentation was very
professional.
Mr. Kollar: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Kagawa, we will start with you.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Justin, thank you for
your presentation. I have been getting a lot of E-mails about the Attorney for the TVRs and
I am kind of surprised that I have not received any testimony or communication from the
Planning Director, Mike Dahilig. We talked a lot and he has not told me that he supports
what you are doing. In your presentation you say it is very critical that the Prosecutors
work with the Planning Department. I am wondering if you had those discussions with
him and that he supports that in this current time?
Mr. Kollar: I want to thank you for that question. The
Planning Director and I have had frequent and numerous conversations about this. I do
believe he is in support what we are asking for as I know he wants to move forward with an
enforcement piece to the TVR situation. He and I were actually on the radio last night
discussing this issue. We talk frequently about it between the two (2) of us. We have had a
number of meetings with his staff and my staff at my Office trying to figure out what we
can do to work together to make that happen. I know he is in support. If you want
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testimony from him or have particular questions for him, I know he is coming in next week.
Also, we can ask him to provide some testimony or perhaps when we come back for our
follow-up we can do that. But I can tell you he is in support of what we are asking for.
Mr. Kagawa: Well, apparently some of the members of the
public—there are a lot of people interested in this issue.
Mr. Kollar: Absolutely.
Mr. Kagawa: I am chasing it also. I want to see some justice
done for people the abuse the laws. But I am just surprised that Mike has not told us that
we should support it or help in because we have also been grilling Mike also on trying to do
more in the area.
Mr. Kollar: Undoubtedly, and if you would like to hear it
from his mouth or that would be beneficial, I think that is something that can happen
without too much stress. Like I mentioned earlier, it is going to be all of these Departments
working together and I know he has certain staffing needs. We have certain staffing needs.
The Police Department has certain staffing needs and between the three (3) of us, we need
to make sure that we have the qualified staff to move forward on this situation. Like you
said, getting justice because there are people there — it is plain to say are abusing the
process and we want to make sure we are stepping up to the plate and doing what we can
do. I appreciate that very much.
Mr. Kagawa: On that line, I had a little difficultly trying to
track the salaries because there are a lot of ups and downs with the Attorneys and with the
dollar funded assistance that you have actually put moneys put in. I was just wondering,
are those Law Office Assistant position 9104, 9085, T2822 have all of those positions been
filled?
Mr. Kollar: Yes, sir. Those are essentially Support Staff
positions, Clerical Support staff positions and we do have all of those filled. The only
position that we have that is vacant right now is the position that shows up on next year's
budget as E-88 which is the Deputy Prosecutor Attorney position. That is the only vacancy
that currently exists.
Mr. Kagawa: Last year there was eighty thousand dollars
($80,000) in that position and this year, what happened was you went to the Department of
Finance and it got cut?
Mr. Kollar: Basically.
Mr. Kagawa: Okay, because you have not filled it yet?
Mr. Kollar: Correct.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: I am just going to change my rule a little bit
here. Let us get this TVR question around the table completed. If you have a follow-up
question for that, that will not count as your question. But let us get the TVR question
gone. Mr. Rapozo, did you have a follow-up JoAnn, did you have a follow-up? Go ahead.
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Mr. Rapozo: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Justin for
your presentation. First of all, I am not convinced that Mike is interested in pursuing this
because this Council funded the position last year to go investigate and he chooses not to do
it. So, I am not convinced and action to me speaks louder than words. So, maybe
Mr. Kagawa needs written testimony. I do not because I am fully aware of what their
priorities are and it is sure not the TVR enforcement. Last night you folks were on the
radio, that sparks the community to send us E-mails because I noticed, and I had planned
to listen to that show when I left here but by the time we left here I forget. But anyway, it
is a big issue, especially in the North Shore. But it is actually happening all over. I am not
convinced that is a priority of Planning. A few months ago, within this year, I learned that
the Planning Department stopped sending the Notices of Violation to our Office.
Mr. Kollar: I cannot speak for what happened last year.
Mr. Rapozo: No, no this year.
Mr. Kollar: Since December 3rd, we have not received Notices
of Violation from the Planning Department.
Mr. Rapozo: Now, Justin, does that sound like somebody that
is interested in prosecuting violators?
Mr. Kollar: You would have to ask Mr. Dahilig about what
his operation does. I know that I am interested in prosecuting them.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes, I know. But I am responding to the
question that Mr. Kagawa asked you and that you spoke for Mike saying that you know he
is interested. I am saying, I do not get that.
Mr. Kollar: Well, I can clarify then. I cannot say what his
plan is for his operation. But he has indicated to me that he would be happy for us to have
the resources that we are looking for. So, I have to take that at face value.
Mr. Rapozo: I understand that. I had the discussion with Ihi
last week. I said, "I am having a hard time funding a position to prosecute violations that
will not be sent over."
Mr. Kollar: Well, there are other ways to build case and
build investigations. If for some reason, and I do not see this happening, if a County
Department was going to refuse to cooperate with us, again which I do not see happening,
there are ways for to us get information anyway. I mean there is a subpoena process. It
has been used before and it has worked before. I know that is one of the things that you
worked on with the Prosecutor's Office before.
Mr. Rapozo: Yes, but we got the violations. We did not need
subpoenas. We got the violations.
Mr. Kollar: I can remember about seventy-five (75)
subpoenas sent over and they were complied with after a fight. But they were complied
with. I would hope there were lessons learned from that situation in terms if we are asking
for information, we expect to receive the information.
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Mr. Rapozo: Well, again, Justin, I guess if, and if Planning is
not — it is like saying that the cops are not going to sending over to the reports to the
Prosecutor's Office for whatever reason. I do not know. But that is what is happening with
Planning. We do not want these cases prosecuted, so we are not going to send it to the
Prosecuting Attorney's Office. That is what is happening. This is not at you, I am saying
that I cannot see funding a position that relies on the Planning Department's cooperation
that they have clearly showed that they do not want to do.
Mr. Kollar: Right and we expect the Planning Department's
cooperation and we do not—it is not like we cannot do without it. We do expect it and if we
are not getting it, you can bet that we will be back over here to talk about that. But what I
can say is cases like this are very paper intensive and once we get the paper, we may be
able to find enough to move on even if they do not have an investigator write up a report
and send it to us. It may be enough to subpoena a file and say, "We can tell right now, we
have a violation. We have all we need to establish probable cause. We think we can prove
beyond a reasonable doubt." I understand your point though.
Mr. Rapozo: Like you stated earlier, you are not going to pull
off your Investigators from real crimes, violent crimes, homicide crimes and I do not think
that is your job to investigate zoning violations. I really do not.
Mr. Kollar: I do not disagree.
Mr. Rapozo: Unless it comes across from the Planning
Department and this is major point. Planning is not doing their job. They have chosen not
to enforce TVR violations. Why would we just say, "Planning we are going to let you go
and, here Prosecuting Attorney's Office, here is some money. Why do you not go do
Planning's job?" That is not what we do. That is not what — I am not going to support that.
Believe me, I will pursue this with Planning. But we already had the discussion here and it
is clear, when someone in Planning said, "Mel they are not even sending the stuff over to
the Prosecutors." I said, "Really?" So, we are working on that, Justin. I am working on an
amendment that will require them to do so like we did with the grading grubbing. But that
will take time. But in a perfect world, think about this, imagine if Planning went out and
did their job, went out and did the inspections, signed the notices, sent the criminal side to
you, took care of the civil side, our County Attorneys would process the civil penalties, fine
them, and we would have a pot of money to pay for this Prosecutor.
Mr. Kollar: I do not disagree with any of that.
Chair Furfaro: Justin, I want to say, you can see this is a
discussion that we are going to have a Planning.
Mr. Kollar: I get that sense.
Chair Furfaro: This is the Prosecutor's Office that we are
talking to now.
Mr. Kollar: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: But make sure you understand and you have
three (3) E-mails from me on this subject, April 3rd, April 5th, and even as late as yesterday.
It is a concern for the Council. We have to address that with Planning.
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Mr. Kollar: Yes, and again anything I say, I can only talk
about what we are going to do and what we are willing to do. My comments and what I
said last night and what I am happy to say here today is, we are willing and able to move
forward. We cannot control what other Departments do. We can control what we do and
we are not saying let people off the hook, do not let people off the hook in other Agencies or
other Departments, but give us the tools that we need to do our job and we are going to go
out and give it our best shot. I think that is my best answer for that.
Mr. Rapozo: That is all I have for now.
Chair Furfaro: That is just a follow-up question. That was not
your turn. JoAnn, you have the floor. We are staying on the TVR.
Ms. Yukimura: Yes, thank you. Hi Justin.
Mr. Kollar: Hi.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you for your presentation. About the
position E-88, you said you do not want it to be cut, but do you not want more than that?
You actually want it refunded?
Mr. Kollar: Yes, I want it funded. Yes, to be clear.
Ms. Yukimura: You want it funded at what level?
Mr. Kollar: Ideally, in a perfect world that we do not live in,
would I like it to be funded at the maximum level. But we would be surviving if it was
funded at the eighty thousand dollars ($80,000) level as it was last year. I am confident we
would be able to get a qualified candidate at that level.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Bynum, then Mr. Hooser.
Mr. Bynum: When this was dollar funded, was that after
dialogue with the Administration?
Mr. Kollar: Not about this specific issue. But during the
course of our budget discussions within the Administration, it was indicated and I know
they are in a tough spot. So, I am not bad mouthing anybody. I know they have to make
cuts and they said, "Well we are going to dollar fund this."
Mr. Bynum: But it was parts of a dialogue? It was not a
surprise to you?
Mr. Kollar: Well, if you mean there was a dialogue in that we
said we do not want you to dollar-fund this and they said we are going to dollar fund it, that
was pretty much the dialogue.
Mr. Bynum: I think the previous Prosecutor made pretty
strong arguments about the need for this level of staffing and had support of the Council. I
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said earlier in the budget before I looked at this, I was concerned that the Prosecutor's
Office not get stuck in transition that a position happens to be vacant because like any
Prosecutor of a new election, making a transition. Regarding TVRs, we need to be honest
and talk turkey. There is a lot of evidence or allegations that are in the media that the
TVR Ordinance is being mishandled at Planning and potentially at the Public Works side
because of two (2) really serious issues in my mind. One being a manipulation of the
process that leaves habitable units in the flood zone, which I think is a very serious health
and safety issue. I think we all know that you can be grandfathered in at that low level,
but when you do a certain level renovation, you have to comply and not have habitable
units. I think the evidence is that TVR owners are renting habitable units to visitors in the
flood zone and that is a very serious health risk if that is true. The other side of that is that
I am very concerned about that this Council passed a law that said you have to demonstrate
active involvement in TVR prior to March 7, 2008, particularly in the year prior. The law
says provide these documents, the allegation is that the documents have not been provided
and permits have been issued anyways. I am very upset if that is true. I have already
asked and I am brainstorming as how, as a Council, we can investigate that and follow-up.
I am very supportive of having this position for two (2) reasons. One is to keep the level of
funding that previous Prosecutor said was required to be sufficient. The Council bought
that argument and funded this position and I do not think we want to step back from the
level of service that the Prosecutor's Office is providing. But particularly because you are
willing to focus on these issues and others that maybe have not had the attention that they
deserve. In terms of the Planning Department making a choice to not routinely refer every
zoning violation, I believe that was done for a specific purpose that had to do with the
relationship between the previous Prosecutor and the Planning Department and misuse of
that. I do not think there will be those communication problems between your Office and
the Planning Department. I think this is going to be a hot topic when the Planning
Department is here and it is going to be a hot topic going forward because I want more
answers to the questions that are out there.
Chair Furfaro: Can you pose that in a question?
Mr. Bynum: I am supportive of this position. But this
position would not be just doing TVRs.
Mr. Kollar: No, and I wanted to be clear. We are looking
0
more like fifty percent (50%). But my hook on this, what really got my attention was we
live on an island where tremendous rainstorms happen. We live on an island where
tsunamis happen and we live on an island that people have been killed by raging walls of
water before. When I think of unsuspecting individuals in an unpermitted structure in a
flood zone, that is what kind of make my heart race a little bit because people have died on
Kauai before from water being where we do not want it to be. I do not want people to die.
For me, this is not a political question of I hate TVRs, I want to throw every TVR owner in
jail, and I am philosophically opposed. No, none of that is true. It is not the number one
priority of my Office. But when I think about this from a health, safety, and welfare
perspective, I do not want people to die.
Mr. Bynum: I want consistency. I think it is very clear in the
past, zoning violations have been selectively enforced and that is not appropriate. If there
is a violation, it needs to be handled appropriately and I do not believe that has been the
case. I believe that the current Planning Director is trying to move to that goal. But I
think there are likely some serious problems and it is not just whether—it is whether these
laws were properly enforced by the County people. It is not just a question of what the
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applicant has done. But it is a question about the integrity of that process and justice being
equitably applied. We have a fourteenth amendment that says there is equal protection. If
this type of zoning violation gets lots of attention, then this gets none, then that is wrong.
Chair Furfaro: We need to pose that as a question, Tim.
Mr. Bynum: Do you agree with what I just said?
Mr. Kollar: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Hooser.
Mr. Hooser: Mr. Kollar, thank you very much for your
presentation. Since we are talking about the TVRs, to be clear, the position you are asking
for is not in the budget that came over from the Administration?
Mr. Kollar: It is not funded under the budget. The position
still exists, but it exists at a dollar fund level.
Mr. Hooser: Did you discuss with the Administration, the
Mayor's Office, that you wanted to pursue TVR violations and that was the purpose of this
position when you asked for it?
Mr. Kollar: Without getting into the specific details of our
conversations we indicated that we needed the position to be able to do our job.
Mr. Hooser: But not specific to TVRs?
Mr. Kollar: Correct.
Mr. Hooser: Okay. I was trying to figure out because we are
being asked now to support the funding half for the TVR. So, I was wondering if the
Administration was asked the same question. Now you are telling me not as specifically as
you are asking us?
Mr. Kollar: Correct.
Mr. Hooser: So, the Administration did not deny your request
to support TVRs?
Mr. Kollar: I do not think it was anything like that, no.
Mr. Hooser: A couple of things for me, as Councilmember
Kagawa so eloquently put it, there is a lot of people are chasing the TVR issue. We are all
concerned about it. One of my main questions would be some assurance given the situation
with some reluctance from the Planning Department that if this position was funded, what
assurances I would have there would actually be prosecution with or without the
cooperation of the Planning Department?
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Mr. Kollar: Again, I cannot say what anybody else does with
their Departments. But I can say and I have also been pretty clear in talking about what
we want to do with this position that is not going to be a situation that Grand Jury
warrants will go out a week after we get the position or penal summons are going to go out
a week after we get the position. These are going to be paper intensive cases. This is
uncharted waters we are venturing into. How long will it take to build a case? I cannot
make any promises about that. Are we going to give it our best effort, that is what I can
promise you.
Mr. Hooser: I would hope that next year, when we sit here,
that there would be some cases, and it is clear. I think if we cut to the chase, so to speak,
Joan Conrow her blog KauaiElectic has apparently documented, I think eleven (11) cases
now that seem egregious. It is citizen investigations apparently going on and they are very
clear step-by-step, that two (2) things, I believe are clear. One is that violations are blatant
and egregious and are there and that this would not have occurred without the Planning
Department at the minimum, being inefficient in fulfilling their role. At the worst case
situation, they would be complicit. I mean it is just out there in everybody's face, these
cases and there are probably more that will be coming. The County is not doing its job, the
Planning Department, more the Prosecutor at this point given that it the information is
public. My question is what happens when the Prosecutor's Office investigates a case, you
mentioned, I think, that there is apparent clear violations and it is also maybe clear that
there are some issues within the Planning Department in terms of enforcement. While
your Office is doing the investigations, how much is that going to investigating the role of
Planning Department, not just the role of the homeowners?
Mr. Kollar: Well, I will back up a little bit. Again, my
primary function here is to look into issues that are threatening the health, safety, and
welfare of people who live mostly on the North Shore and Wainiha and areas like that. So,
that is where we start. We have all read or most of us have read the same blog entries and
believe me, I wish I could print this out and walk into Court and say, "That is proof beyond
a reasonable doubt." But it is not. I think some people think that is all that it takes. But
we have to do a little bit more work. So, that is where we start, investigate the case and
what it leads to, it leads to. I am not saying that we are going to find corruption in County
worker and I am not saying that we will not find corruption in County workers. I am going
to say, if we uncover evidence that crimes have been committed we deal with that. I can
only be accountable for what happens in my Department and making sure when we use
resources, we are going out and what we find is that we find, and we prosecute criminals. If
we find that people have committed crime along the way, we would take of that as it come.
It is not like we are going to go out looking for corruption. It is not like we are going to shy
away from it. I think that is the best way I can address that right now.
Mr. Hooser: Thank you. Just to restate that with or without
the cooperation from other Offices, your intention is for approximately fifty percent (50%) of
this person's time to investigate TVR violations and to prosecute as may or may not be
needed, I guess?
Mr. Kollar: To see what cases we can work up. It is clear
from the evidence that we have seen, that the process is being abused. But we have to take
that paperwork and distill it down into some kind of violation of a criminal statute
applicable under State or County Law or Ordinance and that is the process that that person
is going to work on.
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Mr. Hooser: Thank you.
Mr. Kollar: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Members, I am going suggest something here for
us and that is on this issue, I am going to make a request for you to be present when we
meet with Planning.
Mr. Kollar: When is that?
Chair Furfaro: April 16th, Tuesday.
Mr. Kollar: That may be a travel day.
Chair Furfaro: May we have someone, one of your Deputies
present?
Mr. Kollar: Yes.
•
Chair Furfaro: Now I want to move on to other things dealing
with this and there is no one at this table with the exception of maybe JoAnn Yukimura
and myself, who convened the first TVR Conference to resolve these issues with
stakeholders, that was twelve (12) years ago. Twelve (12) years ago, my first year on the
Council. And talk about paper trail, you have heard it in my E-mail. But I do not want to
carry this dialogue without Planning hearing the issues and you hearing it first time. That
was the message in my original E-mail to you. I have to make sure you guys are talking.
Mr. Kollar: Absolutely.
Chair Furfaro: On that note I am going to go to...yes. I am
going to come back to other questions on the presentation. You will be after Mel or do you
want to continue on TVR?
Ms. Nakamura; I thought he asked his question.
Chair Furfaro: No, I said it would not count as his question. We
will get all of the TVR stuff out of the way.
Mr. Rapozo: My question is really brief. You talked about the
lobbying the legislative relationships. In this last session did the OPA provide testimony on
the proposed Bills regarding the legalization of marijuana and gambling.
Mr. Kollar: We did testify on the gambling Bill. We did not
testify on the marijuana legislation.
Mr. Rapozo: Why was that?
Mr. Kollar: There were already a lot of voices in that mix.
Mr. Rapozo: I understand, but...
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Mr. Kollar: We did not have a position to take on that
legislation. There were a lot of Bills. We stayed out of it.
Mr. Rapozo: You do not have a position?
Mr. Kollar: We did not have a position on any of that
legislation, correct.
Mr. Rapozo: And gambling you did?
Mr. Kollar: I had asked to have testimony submitted against
that legislation. I hope it was done. If it was not, it was our intent to provide testimony
against that because that, I do not support.
Mr. Rapozo: But the marijuana as you sit here today you do
not have a position either way?
Mr. Kollar: I did not have a position on any of the Bills
before the legislature at this time.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Nadine, you have the floor.
Ms. Nakamura: Hi Justin, thank you for the presentation. I
wanted to ask you, what is the difference between,in your budget, the Deputy Prosecuting
Attorneys and the Special Prosecuting Attorneys?
Mr. Kollar: The Special Prosecuting Attorneys are paid
partially or in full with grant funds and are technically contract positions. They are not
Deputy positions created under the Ordinance or the Code.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you. That is my question.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: We are going to have another round?
Chair Furfaro: If there are that many questions. But I am
trying to get to our original calendar. Do you have a question on the presentation now? I
could come back to you?
Mr. Bynum: I do. I actually have two (2) that I am hoping to
do. I actually only have one (1), but I wanted to follow-up on Mel's question. The
legislation to legalize marijuana failed. But I believe that the legislature does seem poised
to decriminalize minor possession and make it a fine. Does your Office have a position on
that legislation?
Mr. Kollar: We did not support — well, our technical position
here, we do not have any position on any of those Bills that are pending right now. Of the
two (2) that I would be less questioning of would be the decriminalization Bill because it
does maintain some sanctions, it does maintains keeping it away from young people, away
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from kids, and does maintain a sanction which realistically is pretty much equivalent for
what you see for petty misdemeanor level offense today. It would be going from one
hundred fifty dollars ($150) fine to a one hundred dollars ($100) fine. That is a fight that I
made a policy decision for our Office not to have a dog in this go around.
Mr. Bynum: I am more interested in what impact, if that law
passed, and that would reduce the amount of misdemeanors that your Office has to
prosecute, is that correct?
Mr. Kollar: Not dramatically. There are very few cases —
this is not a thing that is clogging up our court calendar, basically. So that was an
argument that troubled me a little bit from the pro-legalization side was that this was
something that is something that is clogging up our Court docket. It is really not clogging
up our Court docket here on Kaua`i. We do have case coming up involving juveniles and we
have to make sure that we continue address that situation. But as far as petty
misdemeanor marijuana cases, those are not something that is really bogging down our
Criminal Justice System, which is why I am not particularly invested in us losing those
fifty (50) or whatever misdemeanor case a year versus pick them up as civil violations. It is
not something that I want as a distraction for our staff.
Mr. Bynum: I understand and part of the testimony that I
read said there was a study that there was a fifty percent (50%) increase in criminal
prosecutions for simple possession in the State of Hawai`i, apparently not on Kaua`i though.
Mr. Kollar: Well, there has not been a fifty percent (50%)
increase during time I have been in Office. That is all I can work on.
Mr. Bynum: Okay. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn, you have a question?
Ms. Yukimura: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: Everybody, I am going to go around the table one
more time. JoAnn, you have the floor.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. First of all, I want to say that your
presentation was very well organized and informative and I appreciate the clarity of
purpose and the clarity of your organization. It feels you have sort of mastered your job
quickly. I also wondered if you would introduce the other two (2) staff that is here that
have not been introduced?
Mr. Kollar: Absolutely. Still here, Art Williams, who is our
Administrative Officer, as well as Jamie Chong, who is our Grants Coordinator. I just
asked them to be here because they may have more of an understanding of the nuts and
bolts than I do especially as far as the grant funding, contract things, and other
Administrative issues.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you. My question for you is about the
Asset Forfeiture Fund, which you said you use or will use for training?
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Mr. Kollar: Sometimes we do make use of those funds for
training purposes.
Ms. Yukimura: I am just not clear about how it works because
the Police come and request, I think, our permission to use the Asset Forfeiture Fund, is
that same process you would use too?
Mr. Kollar: It is the same thing.
Ms. Yukimura: It is the same fund and did we ask for how much
is in that fund right now, staff? Anyway, let us do that, if we did not. But whatever the
amount is, it is there and it is available for use by either the Prosecutor or the Police
Department in this procedure that comes before the Council, gets the approval, and then
uses the money, is that how it goes?
Mr. Kollar: Correct.
Ms. Yukimura: Okay, alright, very good. Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: We will look up that number, JoAnn and we will
share it when we get to the end of the meeting today.
Ms. Yukimura: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Hooser. We are going to go around one more
time now. Mr. Kagawa.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you. Regarding the salaries of the Deputy
Prosecuting Attorneys. I do not really want to go back in time. But I noticed in last year's
budget a lot of the Deputies were paid at that one hundred one thousand dollars ($101,000)
rate and there was one that was paid half time fifty thousand dollars ($50,000), another one
was at eighty thousand dollars ($80,000). Basically everybody else was one hundred one
thousand dollars ($101,000) and then this year, I noticed in yours, E-43 went down
twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000), E-41 went down twenty-five thousand dollars
($25,0000, E-89 went down ten thousand dollars ($10,0000, E-93 went down ten thousand
dollars ($10,000), E-94 went down twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000), and E-95 went
down twenty thousand dollar s ($20,000). I am just wondering what was the rationale?
Less job importance?
Mr. Kollar: No, it is not necessarily that the Deputies are
actually paid less because historically the Council has budgeted the positions at one
hundred one thousand dollars ($101,000) and then maybe they were only paid sixty
thousand dollars ($60,000), sixty-five thousand dollars ($65,000), seventy thousand dollars
($70,000), eight thousand dollars ($80,000), ninety thousand dollars ($90,000), whatever
and that is why we have the huge amount of unspent salaries that lapses at the end of the
fiscal year. What we did is, this year,we are budgeting them at close to what they are
actually getting paid and then we have an amount of saving that comes out of that that we
can use to pay the previously dollar funded positions. So, we are getting more positions,
same pay, for the same budget.
Mr. Kagawa: Are you saying in the previous years' budget, the
salary amount in the budget was a lot more than they actually got paid?
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Mr. Kollar: Correct.
Mr. Kagawa: So, this year you are closer to the actuals?
Mr. Kollar: Correct.
Mr. Kagawa: Makes sense.
Mr. Kollar: Call me crazy.
Mr. Kagawa: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: This is a follow-up question from Vice Chair on
that same question. You have the floor, Nadine.
Ms. Nakamura: Maybe this is for Councilmember Kagawa, but
we had asked about that last year and were told that they had to show the upper level
amount in the budget even though that is not what they were paid.
Chair Furfaro: It does not mean we agreed with that
observation. But you were the beneficiary of that. Mr. Rapozo .
Mr. Rapozo: New question, last question. This year, in this
budget, do you folk have any fund going to Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA),
whether grant funding or...?
Mr. Kollar: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: How much and for what?
Mr. Kollar: Jamie, possibly Diana.
Mr. Rapozo: I was under the impression that the funding was
not going to happen this year to the YWCA.
Mr.Kollar: No.
Chair Furfaro: Jamie, when you come up, could you tell us also
how that compared to last year.
JAMIE CHONG, Grant Coordinator: Currently we have a contract with
the YWCA and the amount that they are receiving up until I believe it is July 31st is ninety
thousand dollars ($90,000). Then starting August 1St, the new amount that will be going to
the YWCA from VOCA which is a grant fund, is going to be seventy thousand dollars
($70,000).
Mr. Rapozo: Seventy thousand dollars ($70,000)?
Ms. Chong: Seventy thousand dollars ($70,000).
Mr. Rapozo: So, a decrease of twenty thousand dollars
($20,000)?
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Ms. Chong: Yes.
Mr. Rapozo: And those funds are for?
Ms. Chong: It will go for the YWCA Sexual Assault
Treatment Program and Family Violence Center.
Mr. Rapozo: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Thank you, Jamie. Nadine, it is your turn.
Ms. Nakamura: Under "other services" and on your budget,
page 27, there is Diversion Program ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
Mr. Kollar: I think that is the Teen Court, yes.
Ms. Nakamura: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: So you are increasing the Victim-Witness
staffing?
Mr. Kollar: We are attempting to, yes. We should be doing
some interviews before the end of the month.
Mr. Bynum: In your presentation you said restore outreach,
which is — so I wonder, is that where it was in the past where even victims of crimes who
are not going to have prosecution because the former Prosecutor said Victim-Witness is just
for the cases that we are actively prosecuting. I know in the past, there was outreach
because many cases where crimes happened, sometimes you do not know who the
perpetrator is. But they are eligible for Victims of Crime Act compensation or
Victim-Witness services or I you may decline prosecution in past and those folk got
Victim-Witness services, is that the restoration you are talking about?
Mr. Kollar: Well, I am not here to comment on philosophical
approaches from previous Administrations. But our intent is to provide services where
possible to folks that are in that situation, where maybe a suspect has not been identified,
but person might still be eligible for compensation under Crime Victim Companion Fund or
situations like that, yes.
Mr. Bynum: Are you aware that Kaua`i's Crime Victim
Compensation has gone down dramatically over the last three (3) to four (4) years?
Mr. Kollar: I am not surprised to hear that.
Mr. Bynum: So, one outcome we might expect of outreach that
happened again, is that the amount of eligible victims that receive compensation might go
up again?
Mr. Kollar: As we provide increased services, that would be
the hope, yes.
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Mr. Bynum: Thank you very much.
Mr. Kollar: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: JoAnn, before you go to your question. The joint
fund would go through in about eight (8) months that you both share from, is around three
hundred sixty thousand dollars ($360,000). But if there were deduction yet prior to
January, that is not reflected. I hope that answers your question, JoAnn.
Ms. Yukimura: Yes, thank you. What you are saying, Chair, is
that our latest figure that in the Asset Forfeit Fund, there is three hundred eighty-six
thousand dollars ($386,000)?
Chair Furfaro: That is what it looks like, through January.
Ms. Yukimura: Yes, thank you, through January. May I ask my
question then?
Chair Furfaro: You have the question. It is all in the Police.
Ms. Yukimura: I am being told on the Asset Forfeiture Fund,
that that is only the Police's fund. Are they two (2) separate fund?
Chair Furfaro: No, it is one (1) account, they are both used by
both. Are we all clear now?
Ms. Chong: OPA receives Asset Forfeiture Funds separate
from whatever KPD receives. But we both...
Ms. Yukimura: Oh, interesting.
Chair Furfaro: You both have access to it?
Ms. Chong: Right. We both have access. But our account is
set up separate from theirs.
Ms. Yukimura: This total that we have been given, which I think
is Police, is different from you have?
Ms. Chong: From what we have, yes.
Ms. Yukimura: Can you provide that information?
Ms. Chong: Yes.
Chair Furfaro: We will send that over a question. But I wanted
to let you know, when you send it over as a question, we just got notice that we received our
eight (8) month update. So, when you send it back, so we are not referring to January, the
whole report, and use the eight (8) months for the balance?
Ms. Chong: Okay, will do.
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Ms. Yukimura: Thank you, Jamie.
Chair Furfaro: That is good, JoAnn?
Ms. Yukimura: Yes, thank you. May I ask my question now?
Chair Furfaro: Yes, of course.
Ms. Yukimura: I am interested in the point that Mr. Takata
made about the crime lab and using grant moneys to analyze the evidence on the cold cases.
Apparently the situation that handicaps both the Police Department and the Prosecuting
Attorney's Office is the lack of a crime lab and lack of access to quick analyses. Is that
correct?
Mr. Takata: Due to the lack of a crime lab within the Kauai
Police Department, we have to pay for things such as DNA analyses. Honolulu has not only
a crime lab, but their own DNA unit. So, we have to go outside to get that work done. It
also includes analysis of fibers and anything else that we want done.
Ms. Yukimura: Is this the case of all of the neighbor island
Counties, Big Island and Maui as well do not have a lab like Honolulu's, so they also go out?
Mr. Takata: I am not sure what the situation is on Maui. I
believe that the Big Island also lack a crime lab. We have to pay for things, like, if we are
charging someone with driving with an open container, to get that open container such as
beer with a notorious case recently, we have to send that to Honolulu for analysis.
Ms. Yukimura: To Honolulu?
Mr. Takata: Yes.
Ms. Yukimura: So, you do use the Honolulu Crime Lab for some
things?
Mr. Takata: Right.
Ms. Yukimura: But for the more sophisticated or more difficult
lab analyses, you go to the mainland for that?
Mr. Takata: It depends on the situation. If we need
something more quickly because we have to stand in the back of the line many situations
when we send things.
Ms. Yukimura: In Honolulu?
Mr. Takata: Right. Then we may have to go elsewhere.
Honolulu's DNA lab cannot do certain types of analysis so we have to contract with labs
that are capable of doing that type of analysis.
Ms. Yukimura: And Honolulu has to also, if they are not capable
of doing that analysis?
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Mr. Takata: Right.
Ms. Yukimura: So, it is either they do not have the capacity or
the line is too long for your purposes?
Mr. Takata: Right.
Ms. Yukimura: Has there been any discussion of expanding
Honolulu's lab and the neighbor island Counties paying for part of that, but then having
quick access to some of the more fundamental lab tests? I mean has there been any
discussion about that because I have been involved at this table about this issue before and
that appears to be one of the stumbling blocks to your case investigations.
Mr. Takata: I do not have information to answer that
question.
Ms. Yukimura: But when you have your HPAA meetings, is that
possibly an item of discussion that could lead to that joint work or payment? The other
question at the top of my head is, are there labs in the private sector or elsewhere in
Honolulu that for other reasons do it or could rev up their capacity to do it that would give
us quicker feedback?
Mr. Takata: Well, to answer your first question, whether we
can discuss that within the Prosecutor's Association? Yes, we can. But the crime labs are
within Police Departments. So, perhaps that discussion is better left to the Police
Departments to work out. As Prosecutors, we do not get involved with investigation. Our
expertise is prosecution.
Ms. Yukimura: Right, but you were saying in the pursuit of the
cold case, you need crime lab analyses?
Mr. Takata: Right, because there May have been evidence
that was untested. DNA was being used in prosecution in late 1980s. There are cases that
occurred that where the evidence was not analyzed or perhaps even after then for whatever
reason was not analyzed and we need to take a look at those cases and analyze the
evidence. As to the availability of other testing labs in Honolulu, there are. The State has
their own lab now and they do some testing for drugs s and we can send evidence there e for
testing also. We also look at the availability of testing for free, if possible, such as if the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) can do it for us. We will ask them to. But again, we
are at the back of the line.
Ms. Yukimura: I see, thank you. One (1) of the reasons I asked
these questions is because I am aware that in the 1980s Wilcox had a lab that was so well
run that hospitals from O`ahu were sending their lab work to Wilcox Hospital and that was
run by Dr. Quinton Belles, who is Mike Belles' father. I think he did work many Honolulu.
But when he moved to Kaua`i to work at Wilcox, the business all moved too because he was
such a reputable person. It just made me wonder if there was a potential for getting the
economies of scale by putting all the work together and then creating a lab.
Mr. Takata: That would be great if there were a so called
essential lab. But I think again, that discussion is better left to the Police Departments.
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Ms. Yukimura: Thank you.
Mr. Takata: You are welcome.
Chair Furfaro: We are already back with Transportation. If I
went around the table one (1) more time, would that satisfy you folks?
Ms. Yukimura: I am done.
Chair Furfaro: Okay. I will give you one (1) more question,
Mr. Bynum. You have the floor.
Mr. Bynum: You are familiar with the Children's Justice
Center?
Mr. Kollar: Yes.
Mr. Bynum: I was Director there years ago and then
involvement by Agencies waxes and wanes over time. I just wanted to know if you have a
commitment to engage with that system?
Mr. Kollar: Absolutely. We actually just attended a
proclamation with the Mayor and with the Representatives just two (2) days ago, I think.
But also, we do meet with them regularly. Kevin, and Lisa Arin and myself, when I am
available, we do meet. It is a monthly basis, yes?
Mr. Takata: Yes, we do meet on a monthly basis. We do meet
on a monthly basis with the Children's Justice Center, other Agencies, and also with the
Director, who I believe has done an excellent job on her brief time at that position. She
meets with the Police Department and our Deputies to go over cases whether they are being
prosecuted or in the investigation stage to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks.
Mr. Bynum: So, there is that front-end interdisciplinary team
case reviews happening?
Mr. Takata: Yes, our meetings are now attended by, I think, a
dozen (12) people. It is a really good working group.
Mr. Bynum: I think from a victim's perspective and to have
these inter-Agencies understanding what each other's goals, it is incredibly important. I
watched this clearly because I was the guy for a few years. Sometimes it has worked like
gangbusters and it has huge — but if one Agency just kind of reduces their commitment,
then it loses that synergy. I am just glad to hear that you are committed to following
through with that and being parts of that process. Thank you.
Mr. Takata: If I may make a pitch, they have of a drive for
slippers to represent the victims on Kaua`i. Their goal is eighty (80) pairs, they are at
thirty (30), and they would like those slippers by next Thursday for a presentation. If you
can help, I would ask you to contribute.
Mr. Bynum: And that is Friends of the Children's Justice
Center? Thank you.
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Mr. Takata: Just the Children's Justice Center. You can drop
it off there.
Mr. Bynum: They also have this community group that raises
funds to support the needs of victims. Thank you very much.
Mr. Takata: Thank you.
Chair Furfaro: Kevin, I am going to wrap this up. You can
probably stay there to hear the wrap up here because we are going to be finished. Thank
you for sharing that with us. If we have additional questions that have not been raised, we
will be sending them over in writing. I also want to say that Kevin, we are very, very
happy to have you with us on team.
Mr. Takata: Thank you
Chair Furfaro: In fact in the Honolulu's Prosecutor's Office, you
worked with my cousin, Donny and he told us how lucky we were to have you here. I would
like to say how appreciative we are that you came to our community to come to work.
Mr. Takata: Thank you, Chair. We are related in a way
because Don is like a brother to me.
Chair Furfaro: I also want to say that this is the Prosecutor's
team first budget process and I will not have a lot of questions for you because you
presented us your plan. But I do want to note, we will be looking for measurements next
year against what you presented to us. On that note, we are going to adjourn for the Office
of the Prosecutors. We are going to take a ten (10) minute break. But thank you for a very
professional presentation.
Mr. Kollar: Thank you, Chair.
There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 11:17 a.m.