Warnings from Honolulu legislators that they may not support fully funding the Kona Judiciary Complex project this year has Big Island public and private practice attorneys rallying.
Warnings from Honolulu legislators that they may not support fully funding the Kona Judiciary Complex project this year has Big Island public and private practice attorneys rallying.
The bill authorizing the funding is scheduled to go before the House Finance Committee today.
“We met with several of the key legislators,” West Hawaii Bar Association President Robert Kim said Tuesday. “Money is very tight this year in a supplemental year. (They said) it’s going to be very difficult to fund this project in full.”
A particular concern to these legislators, Kim added, was that Hawaii Island was asking for $81 million for the Judiciary and another $20 million for a new pharmacy school at University of Hawaii-Hilo.
Last session, legislators granted the Judiciary only $9 million to start developing the Kona complex, which has been on the books as a project for several decades. Judiciary officials had initially requested $90 million. At the time, legislators said the cut wasn’t intended to kill the project, but to spread the costs over several legislative sessions.
“We are concerned,” Hawaii County Prosecutor Mitch Roth said Tuesday. “We are hopeful we can get a new Judiciary built. Having to travel to (three) different courts is kind of ridiculous.”
Roth referred to three separate locations in West Hawaii where the Judiciary holds court and offers services. Parking and security are regularly raised as issues at the sites. Combining the courts in one complex would maximize the Sheriff’s Division’s ability to staff courtrooms and help with other security issues, West Hawaii lawyers have argued.
In Roth’s written testimony, to be presented to the committee today, he provided more details about those problems.
“(The) Keakealani Building located at the old Kona hospital is the main courthouse, which houses both a circuit and district court as well as clerks offices and judiciary administration staff,” Roth said. “It has numerous steps, which our deputies must use to enter the building, often laden with files and other equipment. Parking is scarce and efforts to obtain a dedicated stall for prosecutor and public defender were unsuccessful because of existing DAGS rules. We had one deputy fall and fracture her rib while walking with her trial box to her car, which had to be parked in the grass because there was no other parking space. She was in the midst of a felony jury trial and had to continue to work in pain.”
The close quarters at the Keakealani courthouse causes a number of problems, he added.
“Our deputies have observed jurors to appear intimidated because every day when they arrive and leave, and at every break, these jurors must walk by supporters and family of the defendant on trial,” he said. “Trials have had to halt because jurors may have inadvertently heard something improper. Deputies have been threatened by family members upset that a defendant is found guilty. The close quarters don’t provide the space needed to prevent, diffuse or react to intimidation or violence. This is not safe, and a serious incident is just a matter of time.”
Kona Rep. Nicole Lowen, a Democrat who sits on the House Finance Committee, said she is hopeful her colleagues will approve the budget with the courthouse complex’s funding intact.
“Everybody is always the biggest advocate for projects in their district,” Lowen said, adding she had not heard any specific opposition from legislators from other islands to the complex. “I’ve done everything I can.”