Kauai gauging
privatization fallout
The ruling may affect 150
By Joan Conrow
contracts worth $14 million
Star-BulletinLIHUE -- Kauai County is scrambling to figure out how it will operate the island's only landfill after a judge ruled the state Supreme Court's privatization ruling applies to the Kekaha dump. But rather than immediately cancel Kauai County's contract with Sanifill Hawaii or allow United Public Workers members to assume operations, Circuit Judge George Masuoka said he would supervise a transfer plan. He gave no deadline for the county to assume control.
The county is still reviewing 100 to 150 other private contracts worth more than $14 million to see which are subject to the Supreme Court ruling that stated Hawaii County's contract with a private firm to operate its West Hawaii landfill violates civil service laws.
Kusaka and other neighbor island mayors say the ruling affects other contracts because the court affirmed that private contracts cannot displace civil service jobs.
Kauai County, believing most contracts will be affected, has notified 75 to 100 contractors that their agreements could be suspended when the Supreme Court ruling is finalized within a few days, said Bob Mullins, administrative aide to Mayor Maryanne Kusaka. "We lurch from one crisis to another."
County officials are trying to develop plans to keep essential services going once the contracts are suspended, Mullins said, "but people on the island will feel the pinch. Right now, providing service to the public is secondary to obeying the law."
Mullins said it could take the county six months to a year to obtain the necessary Health Department permits, create new job positions, train workers, obtain insurance and purchase equipment. And it's unknown how the county will pay for it all, he said.
Sanifill attorney Mike Belles said the county will need $1.5 million in new equipment, $3 million to cover two years of operating costs, $500,000 for various actions required by the Environmental Protection Agency and possibly another $5 million in damages to Sanifill for lost profits.
But the biggest cost is insurance, Belles said. Sanifill now has a $10 million policy that extends for 30 years after the closure of the landfill, as required by federal law. Kauai County hasn't been able to find an insurance company to underwrite such a policy, he said, so it likely would have to be self-insured.
"So it will cost the county $22 million to allow five public workers to operate the landfill as opposed to Sanifill, which would be paid $4 million for two years," Belles said. "It's a dramatic contrast the taxpayers will have to pay."
Belles said 12 Sanifill workers - 11 of them Kauai residents - could lose their jobs when the county assumes management of the landfill.
Mullins said the problem is complicated by the fact that the landfill is scheduled for closure in July 1998. Sanifill had been working with the state on a proposal to expand the dump vertically, which could add five to seven years to its life.
He said that plan is now up in the air, which could lead to Kauai losing its only dump before another is opened.
County Attorney Jonathan Chun said the county will explore whether the state lease for the Kekaha landfill can be transferred to Sanifill, which would allow the firm to continue operating the dump.
The county also likely will ask the Circuit Court to review its other agreements "to try and get a reading as to the validity of our other contracts," Chun said.
Maui Mayor Linda Crockett Lingle took a similar approach and yesterday won a 14-day restraining order on the cancelation of several contracts.
The order affects some 250 contracts and grants for Maui public services involving millions of dollars; a preliminary hearing before Judge Boyd Mossman is set for May 27.
Meanwhile, Hawaii County yesterday failed in its attempt to get a temporary restraining order from Circuit Court to allow it to continue using volunteer fire fighters.
County Managing Director Bill Davis said the county had filed a "friendly suit" against the Hawaii Fire Fighters Association seeking the order.
He said he would meet with deputy county lawyer Ted Hong this morning to seek new means of protecting the volunteer fire fighter program.
Fire Chief Nelson Tsuji said the Fire Department depends on volunteers for roughly half its fire-fighting force. The Department has 250 volunteers compared to 280 paid firefighters, he said.
