Newswatch

By Star-Bulletin Staff

Thursday, May 15, 1997

Maui puts contracts
to court test

While seeking a court ruling on some private contracts, Maui Mayor Linda Crockett Lingle's administration has axed 50 others to comply with a recent state Supreme Court decision on privatization.

"It's clear under the (court's) decision they simply couldn't continue because they are doing the same kind of work that civil servants are doing," Lingle said, referring to the canceled parks and building maintenance contracts.

Maui County also is asking Circuit Judge Boyd Mossman for determination on its private contracts for public services.

"Basically what we've done is taken a very common sense approach to this issue while respecting the Supreme Court's decision," Lingle said. "We're telling the Circuit Court that public service needs to go on and we need to have some sort of a definitive ruling on what types of contracts are OK and which are in violation and void."

Mossman is being asked to review nine contracts.

"We selected these contracts because they were representative of the types of contracts that we have and other counties have with private companies and nonprofit organizations," Lingle said at a news conference yesterday.

UPW asks labor board to look
into keeping Kauai landfill going

The United Public Workers union has gone to the Hawaii Labor Relations Board to help keep Kauai's only landfill open.

The union says its actions are necessary because Kauai Mayor Maryanne Kusaka has said she will close the privatized Kekaha landfill today if the state Supreme Court does not reconsider its decision that Hawaii County's contract with a private company to operate a county landfill violates civil service laws.

Gary Rodrigues, UPW state director, filed suit Tuesday in Kauai Circuit Court to keep the Kauai landfill, contracted to Sanifill Hawaii, open to protect the jobs of other union members.

The county, anticipating that the union would seek an injunction, has filed a request for an expedited hearing. A judge hadn't ruled on the request yesterday.

"The UPW has filed action in Circuit Court to keep the landfill open and so have we," Kusaka said. "We filed a motion for an order to enjoin the county from enforcing (the Supreme Court judgment) allowing it to regard the Sanifill contract status quo so we can keep operating the landfill during an interim period."

Leppert nominated
Campbell trustee

Campbell Estate's newest trustee nominee is Thomas C. Leppert, vice chairman of Pacific Century Financial Corp. and Bank of Hawaii. Leppert would succeed trustee Chairman C. Dudley Pratt, who retires at the end of the year.

Leppert came to Hawaii in 1989 as president and chief executive officer of Castle & Cooke Hawaii. Before that he was a national partner with Trammell Crow Co. in Dallas and principal of McKinsey & Co. in Los Angeles.

A request for approval of Leppert's nomination has been sent to the Circuit Court, as required by law. If approved, he will resign his bank position at year's end and assume the trustee post on Jan. 1.

Campbell Estate owns land in Oahu, Maui and the Big Island, and has shopping, hotel and industrial properties in Hawaii and on the mainland.

See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
See our [Info] section for subscription information.

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Police/Fire


By Star-Bulletin staff

Woman in two-car
accident dies

A two-car accident that killed a 58-year-old woman forced closure of the Ewa-bound lanes of the H-1 Airport Viaduct for more than two hours yesterday afternoon.

The accident occurred at 1:33 p.m. after the woman's 1981 Plymouth compact car stalled in the center lane of the freeway, about a half-mile prior to the airport off-ramp, said Honolulu police Sgt. Kurt Kendro.

A 1995 car Acura approaching from behind swerved, but struck the car.

Fire Department personnel extricated the woman from the car, and she was taken to Tripler Hospital, where she died. The 54-year-old man driving the Acura escaped serious injury, Kendro said.

The accident diverted H-1 Ewa-bound traffic onto Nimitz Highway. All lanes of the freeway were reopened to traffic at about 4 p.m., Kendro said.

Suspect in Salt Lake
robbery held

Police are seeking charges today in connection with an armed robbery at a Salt Lake apartment last month.

Police said the suspect, from a Wilikina Drive address, was arrested last night on Ohai Street in Wahiawa while visiting friends.

He is suspected of the April 30 robbery in an Ala Ilima Street apartment.

Police said two men entered the apartment carrying guns and ransacked the place, possibly looking for drugs.

The occupants of the apartment were home at the time.

Police believe the man may be an associate of Reece Dull, a Wahiawa man charged with the April 16 drive-through robbery of a Wahiawa Jack-in-the-Box and the April 21 robbery at a Waialua apartment building.

Other Police/Fire headlines
in today’s Star-Bulletin:

• Couple in critical care after crash
  
• Driver sought in attempted murder
  
• Pedestrian hit by car on Kapiolani

See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
See our [Info] section for subscription information.