Cayetano urges A special state House-Senate committee today is setting the stage for an investigation into how the state is spending millions to comply with the Felix consent decree, the committee's co-leader said.
committee to
look into Felix
A co-leader of the panel
says the goal is to get answers,
not to blame or play politicsBy Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.comThe committee's duties will be confined mainly to procedural matters such as adopting rules on how to conduct the investigation and how to secure attendance of witnesses, said state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Waianae), who is chairing the committee along with state Rep. Scott Saiki (D, Moiliili)."We want to make sure the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted," Hanabusa said.
But onlookers say the committee must be careful in how it proceeds by not using its rarely exercised subpoena powers to play politics or seek blame.
"I have yet to figure out how this investigative committee is going to carry out the goal that the committee says is the goal," said attorney Shelby Floyd, whose 1993 lawsuit filed on behalf of Jennifer Felix led to the consent decree. "If they want to find out if monies are being spent appropriately, there's a far better way to do it then haul people under subpoenas."
The Felix lawsuit accused the state of violating federal law by not providing appropriate educational and mental health services to public school children with special needs.
The state then entered into the consent decree, promising to meet court-ordered obligations to beef up the system to provide services.
The state has been held in contempt once by U.S. District Judge David Ezra for failing to meet court-imposed deadlines and faces the possibility of being placed into receivership for missing more deadlines.
The cost of meeting those requirements is now more than $300 million a year, according to the resolution calling for the formation of the committee.
Hanabusa said the Legislature has appropriated a lot of money and that lawmakers are responsible for oversight of the state budget. "The focus of the investigators is to get answers," she said. "Somebody has got to tell us where the money is going and how it's spent."
The committee was formed in response to complaints by state Auditor Marion Higa that she was unable to get certain information from the Department of Education.Gov. Ben Cayetano, who chaired a 1983 special Senate committee investigating the pesticide heptachlor in milk, said he welcomes the investigation because he, too, has been having difficulty getting a handle on the cost. But he urged the Felix committee to also "tread softly" in its work.
"I'm fully aware of what an investigative committee can do, the power of a subpoena, the power to get records, things that ordinarily the Legislature is unable to do," Cayetano said. "We want them to find out the answers to some of the questions ... but what we don't want is for them to engage in an investigation which will become political."
Floyd said part of the reason for the postponement in a court hearing that was originally scheduled for Friday before Ezra on the receivership request was to see how the Legislature's investigation plays out. The outcome of the investigation could have implications in the state's ability to carry out the court's order, she said.
"Many people within the Department of Education are scared about what the investigative committee will do," Floyd said. "They are scared that they will be called into question and will be blamed in the course of what they've done in providing services."