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Committee convenes in executive session to consult on lawsuits, special counsel and settlements
Summary
The committee recessed into a closed session citing HRS §§92-4 and 92-5(a)(4) to consult with attorneys about multiple pending matters, including named lawsuits, retention of special counsel, and settlement claims; no public testimony was offered on those items during the open portion.
After the public portion of its meeting, the Committee on International Legal Affairs of the City and County of Honolulu recessed into executive session to consult with attorneys on a series of legal matters announced on the agenda.
The chair read each executive-session agenda item in public before the committee closed the meeting. The items listed for closed consultation included: the settlement of Marquise Johnson v. City and County of Honolulu; Joshua Kepler et al. v. Michael Berger et al.; a request to retain Fukunaga, Mateyoshi, Ching & Khan Herrera LLP as special counsel to represent the City and County of Honolulu; a resolution to retain the law firm Kobayashi Sugita Gota as special counsel to represent defendant Darryl Khan in the action Joshua Feasterbach v. City and County of Honolulu; a settlement claim by Michelle Koyanagi against the city; the settlement of Dietrich v. City and County of Honolulu; and grievances and related civil cases involving UPW and the city refuse division.
The chair stated the committee was adjourning to executive session pursuant to Hawaii Revised Statutes §92-4 and §92-5(a)(4) "to consult in a closed meeting with its attorneys on questions and issues pertaining to the powers, duties, privileges, immunities, and/or liabilities of the city, the council, and the committee" as listed on the posted agenda. For each executive-session item the chair asked whether anyone wished to testify; staff confirmed there were no in-person or remote testifiers for those items.
The chair also identified persons who would participate in executive session: all council members present, representatives from the Office of Corporation Counsel (named on the record as Dana Viola, Duane Pang, Catherine Nesti, William Awang and Robert Khan), staff from the Office of Council Services (named as Wynton Park, Gina Pitcher and Saichi Lay Layu), and council staffer Heath Williams. The committee then recessed to the closed meeting; no substantive deliberations on those items were conducted in the public session.
Because the meeting moved into executive session under the statutory exemptions the committee cited, further details of the closed consultations and any actions taken there were not disclosed in the public portion of the record.
