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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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US HI: Council Won't Revisit Pot Vote
ccguide Friday 11 Aug 2000 Pubdate: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 Source: West Hawaii Today (HI) Copyright: 2000 West Hawaii Today Contact: Address: P.O. Box 789, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 96745-0789 Fax: 808-329-4860 Website: http://westhawaiitoday.com/ Author: Keith Kosaki, West Hawaii Today COUNCIL WON'T REVISIT POT VOTE Leithead-todd Move To Reconsider Federal Grant Nixed HILO - An unexpected attempt by the County Council to reconsider a $265,000 fed eral marijuana eradication grant failed to gain support Wednesday. Four council members who voted for the grant in July said at Wednesday's regula r council meeting they had a change of heart about the insurance policy provisi on in the grant. Hilo Councilwoman Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd moved for the recon sideration, which was seconded by Aaron Chung of Hilo. They were supported by D ominic Yagong of Hamakua and Leningrad Elarionoff of Kohala. Voting against reconsideration were Chairman James Arakaki of Hilo, Vice Chairm an Al Smith of Puna, Kona councilmembers Curtis Tyler and Nancy Pisicchio and J ulie Jacobson of Ka"u. If the reconsideration had passed, it would have been added to the agenda for t he Aug. 23 council meeting. Leithead-Todd said she would have tried to remove t he insurance policy provision in the grant. Without the insurance, it was possi ble the grant could have been rejected by the council. The council approved accepting the grant July 26, contingent on obtaining a pub lic officials liability insurance policy before the funds are spent. The policy would pay for legal counsel if an impeachment petition is filed against counci l members who supported the grant. Pro-marijuana advocates already have attempted to impeach Mayor Stephen Yamashi ro and six County Council members for not conducting a program review of the er adication program, also known as "Green Harvest." One advocate has said he is c onsidering a second attempt at impeaching the elected officials. Arakaki said Wednesday he's not sure how he would have voted Aug. 23 had the re consideration passed and the insurance policy provision removed. He said in Jul y he would support the grant only if the insurance was included. Tyler, Pisicchio and Jacobson consistently have opposed eradication grants. Smi th also recently voted against the funding. Had Arakaki joined them, it would h ave been a five-member majority. "I don't know," Arakaki said. "The police and DEA (Drug Enforcement Administrat ion) told me they got this money for insurance, so I said, "OK, do it.'" Leithead-Todd and Chung said they wanted to reconsider their votes, because the y weren't comfortable with the provision for public officials liability insuran ce. Both said they knew the funds could be in jeopardy if the insurance provisi on was removed. While the council members changed their positions on the insurance, they did no t change their stances on marijuana eradication. "My resolve to support the eradication has not dampened," Chung said. "I will c ontinue to support the eradication program - minus (the insurance) amendment." Elarionoff said, "(The possibility of) getting sued should not be considered an ymore - it's a given." Arakaki's main concern has been the lack of indemnification for county official s for accepting the money. He said the state Legislature is indemnified for acc epting funds, but not the council. Although he said he believes he would prevail in an impeachment, Arakaki said c ouncil members should not be exposed for simply accepting the money from the st ate or federal government. "Somebody's got to recognize we're doing our work and we should not be faced wi th these lawsuits," Arakaki said. Obtaining the insurance policy hasn't been easy. Police Maj. Morton Carter and Bill Gray, purchasing manager of the county Finance Department, said they still are working to obtain the required insurance. "So far I know of about seven companies that are not interested," Gray said. "I 've had some indication that there are some that might be." In addition, the council rejected a measure that would have raised nonresidenti al monthly sewer user fees from $23 to $31. Nonresidential users, which include businesses and churches, also pay a $3.80 s urcharge for water consumption exceeding 8,000 gallons a month. Peter Boucher, county Wastewater Division chief, said the nonresidential hike w ould have raised an additional $87,500 in revenues. He said the revenues would have been offset by refunds to customers on county gang cesspools. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager
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