The Mililani Neighborhood Board crossed the line between making recommendations and taking action when it filed an appeal with the city over the granting of a permit to Mililani Town Association for an antenna to be used by a cellular telephone company on the site of an association-owned community center.
The association threatened to sue members of the board, and at least two board members resigned because of the possibility that they could be held liable for damages. Neighborhood board members are not considered public officials immune from suits filed for actions taken in their official capacities. City Corporation Counsel David Arakawa said the board exceeded its advisory function by appealing the decision granting the permit for the antenna. "It's not advisory and they aren't recommendations," Arakawa said.
As a result of the threatened lawsuit, the board voted to withdraw its appeal. Neighborhood board chairman Richard Poirier commented, "We're basically suing ourselves" because most of the members and constituents of the neighborhood board are members of the Mililani Town Association. The members of the association board are elected, as are the members of the neighborhood board.
An attorney for the association, Joyce Neely, said the association had no problem with the neighborhood board's objections to the antenna until the appeal was filed.
It's unfortunate that members of a neighborhood board felt they had to resign because of the threat of a lawsuit. Citizen participation should be encouraged, and this situation certainly does nothing for that cause. The limits to the boards' functions should have been spelled out more clearly to the members by the Neighborhood Commission or another authority to avoid such problems.
In an earlier case involving the Manoa Neighborhood Board, the city paid $20,000 as part of a settlement after the board stepped into a dispute involving a Manoa landlord and a potential tenant. That dispute and the one in Mililani are not examples of what the neighborhood boards are supposed to do.
President Clinton has bragged about reducing the budget deficit, but Moore says most of the credit belongs to Congress. Clinton's budget plans, Moore says, "have always been far more financially reckless than his fiscal tightwad rhetoric." That rhetoric helped Clinton win re-election, but the public should still pressure him to make his actions fit his words.
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John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
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Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
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A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor