Probe targets City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle is considering criminal charges against a key city official for her work on environmental conferences co-sponsored by the city and private foundations.
city summit work
By Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.comBut an attorney for Lynette Char said his client has done "absolutely nothing improper" and that Carlisle's investigation of his client is without merit.
In a 12-page lawsuit filed in state Circuit Court yesterday, Char's attorney, Philip Brown, disclosed that the prosecutor's investigation into Mayor Jeremy Harris' campaign is targeting Char's use of city time and resources to organize the 1999 and 2001 Mayor's Asia-Pacific Environmental Summits.
Brown also said that Carlisle's office has informed several witnesses incorrectly that the nonprofit, co-sponsors of the summits -- The Friends of City and County of Honolulu and the Environmental Foundation -- were raising funds illegally from Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' political donors.
"The Prosecuting Attorney's Office knows or should know that there was absolutely nothing improper about ... Char's activities in connection with the city-sponsored events," Brown wrote.
"The prosecuting attorney's representatives have created for plaintiff Char the imminent threat of criminal prosecution and other civil jeopardy when she is simply doing her job."
The Prosecutor's Office had no comment.
Char is the deputy director of the city Department of Enterprise Services and is married to local attorney Peter Char, a top fund-raiser for Harris' aborted 2002 gubernatorial campaign. Both Lynette and Peter Char are officers of the Friends of the City and the Environmental Foundation.
The Star-Bulletin previously reported that the prosecutor's office is investigating the Friends of the City and County of Honolulu and the Environmental Foundation, which received more than $100,000 from the city and more than $170,000 from major city contractors.
The investigation of Lynette Char is similar to an investigation of Mike Amii, director of the city Community Services Department. In July, Honolulu police officers arrested Amii on suspicion of second-degree theft and racketeering for allegedly conducting work on the Harris' campaign while he was on city time.
Brown, noting that the city Ethics Commission has cleared Lynette Char for her work on the summits, said he is asking that a Circuit Court judge declare the environmental conferences to be city-sponsored events and that Lynette Char is entitled to work on summits during city time.
Brown added that the mayor's summits are not political events but are world-class environmental summits that have been attended by about 500 government leaders and environmental experts from 29 Pacific Rim countries.
"The allegations of improper conduct and threatened prosecution have chilled plaintiff Char and other city employees from working on the 2003 Environmental Summit and future city events co-sponsored by the Friends and the foundation," Brown said.
City & County of Honolulu
