Often, settling a good thing, Ashida says

BY ERIN MILLER | WEST HAWAII TODAY

Corporation Counsel Lincoln Ashida on Tuesday gave mauka Rotarians a lesson in how his office works — and why sometimes the county chooses to settle lawsuits rather than take those cases to court.

“What we see, statistically and realistically, what ends up costing the taxpayers is not the accumulation of a whole lot of little cases,” said Ashida, who has spent 11 years with the office and is now running for county prosecutor. “It’s one case every so often that will do you in.”

The county settles five to six major cases annually, he said to the Kona Mauka Rotary meeting at Teshima’s restaurant in Honalo. Last fiscal year, the county had an especially good year, he added, noting eight cases settled, another five dismissed by court order and one dismissed when the plaintiff agreed to dismiss the case. The total amount of money requested of the county last year was $5.2 million, while the county ended up paying $410,000, Ashida said.

In the two previous fiscal years, the county paid $570,000 and $3.4 million in settlements. The bulk of both years’ settlements went to one case each year, he said. Sometimes, municipalities just have to pay, he said. Some of the county’s largest settlements are for motor vehicle crashes, in which a county employee, driving a large county vehicle, hits another vehicle, injuring or killing someone. That’s going to end in a lawsuit, Ashida said.

“Nobody meant for that accident to happen,” he said. “Our job at that point is damage control, to mitigate the bleeding of taxpayer money.”

Taking cases to court is expensive, and also not always a good use of tax dollars, Ashida said. He told the story of a Hilo police officer who shot and injured a suspect in a burglary case. The county eventually settled the case.

“Why was it good business decision?” Ashida asked. “The cost of defending (the county) would run into hundreds of thousands.”

A settlement for tens of thousands, then, makes fiscal sense, he added.

But he acknowledged the county agreeing to those settlements can leave individual employees feeling as though the county hasn’t really defended them or their reputations. That particular officer told Ashida that he didn’t do anything wrong, and that his decision to shoot at the vehicle was what he was trained to do.

“I haven’t been able to think of any contrite way of saying it’s OK,” he said. “That gives me pause.”

When the county settles a case, the payment comes from his department’s budget. That’s something he’d like to see change, with the payment coming instead from the department that took the action that led to the lawsuit.

“That department is going to do a better job encouraging their people to do better, because it’s hurting them,” Ashida said.

emiller@westhawaiitoday.com