The answer may lie at the end of a lawsuit filed against the city by a Manoa landowner.
The Ukumaruku Corp. says the Manoa Neighborhood Board and a number of its members meddled in its negotiations with a prospective client four years ago. The City Council's Policy Committee Tuesday ordered its attorneys to try to settle the case. Ukumaruku had sought $600,000.
"We need to convene some kind of body to determine what kind of guidelines neighborhood board members should have to work with," said committee Chairman Jon Yoshimu ra. "It looks to me like there is now very little guidance."
The role of neighborhood boards has increased over the years and the growth has been encouraged by Council members, Yoshimura said. But if they try to take too big a bite, he said, "we run the risks of individuals and the city being sued and we're going to run the risk of people being disinterested in serving on neighborhood boards."
In 1992, the Manoa Art Gallery at the former Manoa Finance Building got into a lease dispute with landlord Ukumaruku.
When Ukumaruku ordered the gallery owners to vacate, an effort began to save the gallery from the eviction. In the meantime, Ukumaruku began lease negotiations with Bank of Hawaii, which was seeking a Manoa branch site. The Manoa Neighborhood Board, by a split vote, approved a resolution endorsing the gallery and urging all parties to come to a reasonable settlement.
Then-Chairman John McLaren also called a bank official requesting a representative at a community meeting on the issue. During that discussion, McLaren reportedly said the community did not need another financial institution.
Bankoh then stepped out of its negotiations with Ukumaruku, which blamed the community, and board, for interfering with what they considered a private business transaction.
"This was a contractual dispute on a lease between (gallery owners) and our client," said Ukumaruku attorney Connie Meredith. "And they got involved in it which they shouldn't have."
Meredith said neighborhood boards have served a valuable purpose but should stick to the responsibilities they are given by the City Charter. "The Charter says its purpose is to increase citizen participation in government," she said, "not become involved in private business disputes."
David Paco, executive secretary of the Neighborhood Commission, said the lawsuit is an awakening for commission members and those they deal with.
"It's purely an advisory body making suggestions," Paco said. "If someone perceives it as more than that, that's when the board gets into trouble."
Jeffrey Sia, McLaren's attorney, said all his client did was "rephrasing or restating what other com munity members felt" to bank officials.
Neither McLaren nor other neighborhood board members did anything wrong, he said.
"It was a legitimate community issue raised by the community and all the board did was provide a forum for discussion."
Sia said the lawsuit is troubling because "if there's an ultimate adverse ruling, as a matter of public policy, I would think any reasonable person would be concerned about what could happen with neighborhood board members."
Yoshimura said several board members in his district have already resigned because they fear personal liability.
"For my client and others on the board, it's made serving on the board unpalatable," Sia said.