Dispute divides
landfill committee
One member of a committee charged with recommending where to put a new Oahu landfill is questioning whether another committee member violated the state open-meetings law.
In a letter dated Nov. 25, Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kailua) asked the state attorney general, city prosecutor and state Office of Information Practices to investigate whether it was an open-meetings law violation for Todd Apo to seek signatures from other members of the Mayor's Landfill Selection Committee stating their positions on two matters before the committee.
Apo and Thielen are among 15 members of the committee, which is to make its recommendation for location of a new city landfill to the City Council on Monday.
At a Nov. 21 meeting of the committee, attended by 11 members, Apo handed out two petitions signed by some members of the committee.
One petition, signed by nine members, stated that they believed Waimanalo Gulch, the city's current landfill, must be removed from the committee's short list of five potential sites.
The other petition, signed by seven members, supports selection of a site in Nanakuli as the committee's recommendation.
Apo said yesterday that he collected the signatures outside a scheduled meeting of the committee but does not believe it is an open-meetings violation.
Signing the petitions "was not any decision-making. It was an opportunity for them to voice their position," Apo said.
Committee members Thielen, Bruce Anderson and Kathy Bryant-Hunter said at the Nov. 21 meeting that they believe the committee should not narrow its recommendations to fewer than five sites, including Waimanalo Gulch.
Apo, a vice president of Ko Olina Resort, wants the landfill near the hotel gone by 2008.
Thielen opposes putting the new municipal landfill at Ameron Quarry, in her district.
Jim Fulton, spokesman for the city prosecutor's office, said yesterday that generally, a formal complaint for an open-meetings violation must be filed with the police before it is decided whether the city or state would have jurisdiction.
Spokespeople for the attorney general and Office of Information Practices could not be reached for comment yesterday.
