Monday, September 01, 2008

Citizen forces government to obey law

When the voters adopt a charter amendment to limit officials to four two-year terms, you would think that the government and the effected officials would obey it.

In Hawai'i County (the Big Island), the voters adopted such a limit in the 1996 election. In 2004, a long time political boss, who had already served more than 4 terms, filed nomination papers, again. Several citizens sued to block the appearance on the ballot of the long-serving politician, James Arakaki. One of those citizens is my brother-in-law Matt Binder of Kealakekua. The circuit court ruled for Arakaki.

But a couple of days ago, the Supreme Court of Hawai'i, in a 4 to 1 decision, ruled for Matt and the other plaintiffs. It is shocking that it took the court almost FOUR years to rule!
Clark, et al. v. Arakaki, et al. No. 26976

Way to go, Matt!

Here is Matt's press release:

For Immediate Release

August 29, 2008

The Supreme Court of Hawaii today issued its decision in the case of Clark v. Arakaki and County of Hawaii, overturning a Hilo Circuit Court ruling that allowed Jimmy Arakaki to serve his last term in office despite Hawaii County's term limits law.

The Court focused on two issues: first, whether the 1996 Hawaii County Term Limits Amendment was valid even though it did not have a starting date (it ruled against James Arakaki on this issue), and second, whether the application of the Charter Amendment to Arakaki would be retroactive application of the law (it ruled against Arakaki on this issue as well, on the grounds that the Amendment was certified on November 25, 1996, while Arakaki was sworn in on the first Monday in December 1996, or several days after the Charter Amendment became effective.)

Plaintiff Matt Binder reacted to the ruling saying, "Why was the Hawaii County Corporation Counsel working so hard to help Arakaki subvert our county charter? Our county attorney actually argued in court that the entire term limits law should be thrown out, a law that Arakaki voted for and the corporation counsel reviewed before it was sent to the ballot. It looks to me like the Corporation Counsel argued against that law in court just to help Arakaki stay in office because he was part of their Old Boy Network, and that's the kind of judicial political favoritism that people like George Bush and Alberto Gonzales inflict on our justice system."

Binder added, "If it hadn't been for Judge Hara's original erroneous ruling in Hilo circuit court that the Supreme Court overturned today, we wouldn't have had to endure those last two years of Jimmy Arakaki and his divisive politics. The trash issue, West Hawaii road issues, development issues, solutions to all these things were delayed as Arakaki and his fellow obstructionists on the council and in the mayor's office, people like mayoral candidates Stacey Higa and Billy Kenoi, just continued their Old-Boy business as usual."

The entire ruling can be found at the following Hawaii Supreme Court web address:

For more information:

Fred Paul Benco, attorney for the plaintiffs
1188 Bishop Street
Suite 3409
Honolulu, HI 96813
Tel: (808) 523-5083

David Kimo Frankel, attorney for the plaintiffs
Volcano
808-345-5451

Matt Binder, plaintiff
Kealakekua
808-324-0430

Ole Fulks, plaintiff
Hilo
808-966-4074

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