Maui is poised to spend more than $800,000 in taxpayer dollars to hire outside counsel to defend the county against various legal challenges and to pay legal settlements.

The County Council voted last week to accept recommendations from the Government Relations, Ethics, and Transparency Committee to approve $750,000 to hire outside counsel to represent the county in cases involving allegations from the mayor’s former chief of staff, a Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs complaint filed by another former county employee, and efforts to acquire a pollution discharge permit for a Lahaina wastewater reclamation plant.

The council also accepted recommendations to approve more than $45,000 to settle an insurance lawsuit filed after a Kīhei apartment was flooded by a water main break, and to give county attorneys the go-ahead to negotiate the settlements of another insurance lawsuit and a 2023 gender discrimination lawsuit against the Maui Police Department.

On Tuesday, the council is scheduled to vote on whether to accept a unanimous recommendation from the ethics and transparency committee — which includes all nine council members — to settle another lawsuit filed against the county by conservation groups that say streetlights operated by a county contractor threaten three critically imperiled native seabirds.

It is not unusual for local governments to budget for anticipated lawsuits and legal challenges over the course of a year. But in addition to run-of-the-mill insurance claim lawsuits and other proceedings, Maui appears to be gearing up to defend itself against multiple accusations from former government employees.

A staff member for council member Nohelani U’u-Hodgins, who chairs the committee, referred questions about the legal payments to the Department of the Corporation Counsel.

Litigation expenses, including retaining outside legal counsel and settlement payments, are accounted for in the Department of Finance’s annual budget, according to an emailed statement from the department.

Complaints From Former County Employees

The largest legal expenditure on the council’s agenda last week was the retention of the law firm Marr Jones & Wang for up to $350,000 to represent the county in “pre-litigation negotiations and litigation” regarding allegations made by Leo Caires, who had served as Mayor Richard Bissen’s chief of staff. Caires also ran for State Senate in 2022.

Caires was replaced as chief of staff in October by Cynthia Lallo. At the time, Bissen’s office said Caires would transition to a position as the energy commissioner in an administration shakeup the mayor said was aimed at enhancing the reach of renewable energy.

No details about the nature of Caires’ legal allegations were publicly available, but during a June 2 government relations committee meeting, Corporation Counsel Victoria Takayesu said that they were related to “confidential personnel matters” and that she believed litigation was forthcoming.

While the county is typically represented in civil matters by Corporation Counsel, Takayesu said there were “multiple conflicts of interest with this case,” and it was evident based on the circumstances why it was necessary to hire outside lawyers.

When reached by Civil Beat, Caires referred questions about his case to lawyers at Fujiwara & Rosenbaum, which specializes in civil rights issues, employment law, whistleblower protection and police misconduct cases. Joseph Rosenbaum, one of the firm’s lawyers, declined to comment for this story.

Council members also recommended spending up to $150,000 to hire Kobayashi Sugita & Goda to represent a county auditor in negotiations related to a Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs complaint filed in May by Christopher Salem, a Nāpili resident who worked for the county during Mayor Michael Victorino’s administration.

Council members had previously agreed in 2024 to pay the Honolulu-based law firm up to $450,000 to defend the county against Salem’s allegations of wrongful termination and government corruption. The firm also represented the county in a 2021 lawsuit filed by Salem in Hawaiʻi’s Second Circuit Court on Maui, again taking over for Corporation Counsel to avoid any conflicts of interest. 

According to the lawsuit, county officials including individuals from Corporation Counsel colluded with private developers to allow certain coastal building projects to circumvent some permitting requirements. Salem was fired by then-Mayor Victorino, Salem stated in the lawsuit, because he publicly shared details about that misconduct and blew the whistle on local government corruption. 

The county has denied the allegations.

In Salem’s May complaint, he accuses county Auditor Lance Taguchi of using his official position to shield evidence of unethical and unlawful conduct by county attorneys who participated in the alleged scheme laid out in his lawsuit.

Pollution Discharge Permit

Council members are also on track to approve paying the law firm Beveridge & Diamond up to $250,000 to represent the county’s Department of Environmental Management throughout the permitting process for the Lahaina Wastewater Facility — and in any related legal challenges.

The wastewater reclamation plant has long been able to inject between millions of gallons of treated wastewater into the ground daily without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which regulates the amount of pollution allowed to enter U.S. waters. The discharge, which contains high levels of substances known to damage coral, reemerges in the ocean near popular West Maui beaches. 

But the facility must obtain the permit to continue injecting treated wastewater as a result of a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision prompted by a lawsuit against Maui County.

Maui residents — including ocean users, cultural practitioners, farmers and landscapers — who spoke at a hearing in October overwhelmingly opposed issuing a new permit and said that treated wastewater should instead be used to irrigate golf courses and resorts.

Legal Settlements

There also may be movement on a 2023 gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by a female Maui County Police Department employee. 

Melissa Magonigle, a longtime business administrator at the police department, sued the department in Hawaiʻi’s Second Circuit in 2023, stating that she was “subjected to pervasive harassment and discrimination and to unequal terms and conditions” because she is a woman and in retaliation for making a gender discrimination complaint.

In the lawsuit, Magonigle said she worked for the department for 19 years, and the discrimination began in 2021 after the hiring of Chief John Pelletier and Former Deputy Chief Charles Hank III.

A trial date was previously scheduled for Aug. 4. On Thursday, lawyers for the police department submitted various documents to the court in preparation for a trial, including a witness list, an opening statement summary and proposed jury instructions.

The Maui County Police Commission declined to take any disciplinary action against Pelletier in September 2022 after a third-party investigation found various complaints about his leadership style and accusing him of harassment were unsubstantiated.

Rosenbaum, who also represents Magonigle, declined to comment on the status of her lawsuit or any settlement negotiations.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.