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.
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