State to pay Maui LAHAINA >> The state has agreed to pay $29,000 to a Maui wedding coordinator who alleged her constitutional rights were violated by government officials regulating marriage ceremonies on beaches.
wedding planner
$29,000 for
disrupting beach
ceremonies
A wedding business owner says
the state violated her rightsBy Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.comAttorney James Fosbinder, representing wedding coordinator Sandra Barker, said the settlement means the state cannot treat a religious ceremony any differently from a birthday party on the beach.
"You can't discriminate against religious activities," Fosbinder said.
Fosbinder said that in the settlement, the state acknowledged that under Hawaii law it could not require permits or fees for weddings.
Barker filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Honolulu, charging her constitutional rights were being violated by the state requiring her to obtain a right-of-entry permit to a public beach and also pay $120 for a state conservation enforcement officer to be at the ceremony.
Barker said the action came after an enforcement officer stopped a dinner for a couple on the beach at Makena after the wedding ceremony on Oct. 20.
She said the ceremony involved a minister and the couple, and she refunded the money to the couple.
"I was really angry," she said. "Are you going to tell me it was more of a problem than windsurfing and surfing schools on the beach? Why should I have to sue to make sure the beaches are public?"
Barker, who has operated a wedding business since 1988, said the interference by the state has caused her to lose hundreds of customers and hurt the wedding industry in Hawaii, prompting potential visitors to go elsewhere.
"I get up every day full of anger and hostility because I've been cheated. ... A lot of people want to have weddings and can't," she said. "Hawaii has the opportunity to be the No. 1 wedding destination in the world. Government is going to undermine it."
Barker said she is planning to file a lawsuit against Maui County for stopping her from performing wedding ceremonies on the beach near her leasehold residential property at Mahinahina.
She said there is no public access in the neighborhood, and the county has fined her $1,000 for allowing people to use her property to get to the beach for a wedding.
Randy Awo, Maui branch chief for the state Conservation Enforcement Division, said he has not seen the settlement and is awaiting instructions from the state Attorney General's Office.
Awo said that in the meantime he does not plan to require an enforcement officer at beach weddings or to enforce the requirement that weddings at beaches obtain permits.
Awo said the permits were required to make sure there were no conflicts among beach users.
Barker said there have been no conflicts with beach users, but she has had problems with neighbors near her Mahinahina residence.
She said police have refused to halt the neighbors from interfering with the ceremonies.
One neighbor tossed firecrackers off a balcony, and another struck a wedding video cameraman, she said.
She said the settlement shows she and people who are being married have a right to be on the beach.
"The next time they interrupt a wedding, we're calling the police because they're breaking the law," she said.
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