Legislature pushes Citing problems with getting information and possible conflicts of interest among members of the monitoring team, state auditor Marion Higa was the first witness called today by the special legislative committee investigating Felix funding.
ahead with Felix
fund use inquiry
Only 1 of 3 scheduled
witnesses testifiesBy Richard Borreca and Treena Shapiro
rborreca@starbulletin.com
tshapiro@starbulletin.comHiga told legislators that the federal court-appointed monitor for the Felix special education case has contracts with the state to provide services for children who are in the special classes.
Since the court and the state entered a consent decree to provide special educational services for the children, the state has spent $1 billion on the program, according to Higa.
Today's testimony came after U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra yesterday blocked two subpoenas by the special legislative committee. The joint House-Senate committee had attempted to summon Ivor Groves, court-appointed monitor in the Felix case, and his assistant Juanita Iwamoto to testify today, but Ezra ruled that legislators did not have authority to do so. Committee Co-chairwoman Colleen Hanabusa (D, Nanakuli-Waianae-Makaha) said she was not surprised by Ezra's decision.
She added that it seems ironic that although the Legislature has no standing in the case, the federal court was taking action against them anyway. "We're not even a party to this whole thing, and they're issuing these orders that affect a state proceeding," she said.
The committee is investigating whether there has been mismanagement or misappropriation of the funds for special education. Ezra has threatened to take over the state's special-education program in the public schools if the state does not comply with federal regulations. If the committee finds that there has been mismanagement, that may be grounds to do so, he said yesterday.
A lawsuit was filed in 1993 on behalf of Jennifer Felix that led to the consent decree.
The joint investigation is under attack by Senate Minority Policy Leader Bob Hogue (R, Kaneohe-Enchanted Lake), who yesterday issued a news release accusing the committee of "going on a fishing expedition at the expense of children with special needs."
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