Lingle invited to Governor-elect Linda Lingle and her team can sit in on state negotiations for a new 1,100-bed prison in Halawa Valley, says Gov. Ben Cayetano, but he will not halt the talks, as Lingle requested.
observe prison talks
Gov. Cayetano says he will not
Committees set up to help Lingle hire officials
suspend negotiations as asked
By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.comSince April, Cayetano has been pushing for a private developer to build a new prison next to the overcrowded Halawa facility. The new prison would take the place of the Oahu Community Correctional Center in Kalihi.
But Lingle and lieutenant governor-elect James "Duke" Aiona complained that they did not want the Cayetano administration to approve a prison deal that would obligate the new administration.
Cayetano said yesterday that the state is negotiating with a private developer after a bid from the developer was rejected because it was too high. Cayetano said he has been negotiating "with the unsuccessful bidder to determine whether the cost could be reduced."
"If she wants to sit in on the negotiations, that is fine," he said.
Aiona said the new Republican gubernatorial team does not want to be observers. It wants to have the power to approve or reject the deal.
"There are so many doubts, it is unfair to the new administration and to the people of Hawaii," Aiona said.
"We need more bed space, but not to just warehouse people. We have to do a better job in corrections in integrating people into the community," said Aiona, a former Family Court judge who developed the state's drug court system.
The new negotiations are with members of the team that pitched the private-prison idea to Cayetano early this year. They include Melvyn Y.K. Choy, managing partner of Durrant-Media Five; Norman E. Wirkler, president of Municipal Capital Markets Group; James Anderson, senior vice president of Foresite Capital Facilities Corp.; and Edison Miyawaki and Kale Ane, principals of Group M.
The proposal calls for building a 1,100-bed facility and an 88-bed "super-maximum-security prison" at a cost of $85 million. The plan then calls for a second phase, with a 232-bed maximum/medium-security facility and a 300-bed jail at a cost of $31 million.
Cayetano did not say yesterday whether there are new specifications for the prison.
In a Sunday letter to Cayetano and state Attorney General Earl Anzai, Lingle said she was concerned over what she called last-minute negotiations.
She noted that the only bid for the prison was rejected, and the project was not put out to bid again. The governor's office then took over negotiations, which Lingle said she believes to be "highly irregular."
"Ms. Lingle and Mr. Aiona are incorrect when they suggest that the state's negotiations on the new prison have been going on for only three weeks," Cayetano said in a statement. "Ms. Lingle is incorrect when she states there is something 'unusual' going on because the state is negotiating with one private vendor."
Cayetano said the project has been in negotiations for some time, and noted that state law allows the governor to directly negotiate with a vendor to build a new prison.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
State of Hawaii
