This is a developing story and will be updated.

Honolulu City Council Chair Tommy Waters is ineligible to run for reelection, a state court judge ruled Monday, even though his name is already on the primary election ballot and voters have already begun voting.

The Honolulu City Charter limits council members to two consecutive four-year terms. But Waters had sought a third consecutive term this year, arguing his first term had begun late and therefore wasn’t a full four years. Waters started his first term in May 2019, months after the usual start date, because a legal dispute over ballots triggered a do-over election.

Waters’ longtime political opponent Trevor Ozawa challenged Waters’ argument in court last month, and Circuit Court Judge James Ashford on Monday agreed that Waters is ineligible.

The Honolulu City Charter describes regular terms and vacancy terms, which are partial terms to which Waters had compared his situation. A vacancy can occur if a council member resigns or dies in office. Because Waters’ first term was not a vacancy term, Ashford said, it was therefore a regular term that counted towards Waters’ term limits. 

“It was always a regular four-year term,” Ashford said Monday morning.

The court decision threatens to upend a Honolulu council race in which voters are actively filling out ballots ahead of the Aug. 8 primary election. Waters’ name was already printed on the ballot, alongside Ozawa and political newcomers Tara Malia Gregory and Jason Liang.

What will happen to Waters’ votes, or whether a special election will need to occur, is unclear.

Waters will likely appeal the ruling today or tomorrow, Ashford said at the end of his decision. Asked his plans after the hearing, Waters said he needed to talk to his lawyers first.

Longtime Rivalry

Ozawa and Waters have been political rivals for years. Their current disagreement is an outgrowth from their matchup eight years ago during the 2018 general election, when the two men ran against each other for the City Council seat representing the Waikīkī and East Honolulu district.  

Back then, the two men finished within fewer than 50 votes of one another. Waters, who initially lost, challenged the result in court, and a judge invalidated the results. That set up a special election rematch between Ozawa and Waters in April 2019, which Waters won.

Waters took office in May, five months after council members usually take office. Because of that, Waters says, he did not receive a full four-year term. He says that means he can run for a new term that would begin in 2027 and end in 2031.

“It is undisputed factually that Mr. Waters has not yet been elected to serve two ‘four-year terms,’” Waters’ attorneys said in a written response filed last month, “as he has served one four-year term and one partial term that lasted three years, seven months, and twenty-five days.” 

Each side argued that the plain text of the Honolulu City Charter supports their case. 

Ashford agreed that Waters took office after council members typically do so, “but that fact does not alter the term he ran for,” Ashford said.

Assuming Waters won this election and served through 2031, that would give him more than 11 years in office despite the City Charter aiming to limit council members to eight years of service.

“That’s clearly and undeniably contrary to the obvious intent (of the Charter),” Ashford said.

Election law experts from around the country told Civil Beat that term limit language in the Honolulu City Charter is ambiguous. Other jurisdictions, they said, clarify the threshold for when part of a term counts toward term limits.

Waters told Civil Beat in May that even he wasn’t sure whether he’s eligible to run.

“I’m going to give it a shot,” he said at the time.