Court says term
started in 1998

The Big Island Council chair has
not exceeded his limit, a judge rules

HILO » Circuit Judge Glenn Hara ruled yesterday that a Big Island term-limit law did not bar County Council Chairman Jimmy Arakaki from running in the recent election.

Arakaki was re-elected to another two-year term on Sept. 18, beating his only opponent in the nonpartisan race, Ollie "Ole" Fulks, 3,104 votes to 796.

Fulks was among several Big Islanders who filed suit before the election saying a term-limit provision in the Hawaii County Charter prevented Arakaki from running.

Arakaki has served on the Council since 1990. In 1996, voters passed an amendment to the charter that limited Council members to four two-year terms. But the amendment contained no date when it would become effective.

Arakaki had argued that the effective date to start the clock was in 1998, since there were no limits in effect when he ran in 1996. That would allow him to serve until 2006.

His position was supported by legal opinions from County Clerk Al Konishi and county attorney Lincoln Ashida.

Fulks and others argued that the clock started in 1996, ending his service this year.

In a hearing yesterday, Fulks' attorney, David Kimo Frankel, cited eight other states in which courts ruled that term limits went into effect immediately.

He noted a Louisiana case in which a candidate won an election but a judge barred him from taking office because of term limits.

But Arakaki's lawyer, Brian De Lima, said the facts were different in the mainland cases. Also, because there were no term limits when Arakaki filed papers to run in 1996, De Lima said, a ruling that the limits began in 1996 would make them improperly retroactive to the time of Arakaki's filing.

Judge Hara agreed and said the effective date must therefore be 1998.

After the ruling, Arakaki said, "I always tried to conduct myself under the law, and I think I did."

Frankel has filed a pending action with the state Supreme Court seeking to invalidate Arakaki's election on Sept. 18 on the grounds that Arakaki was not eligible to run. Frankel declined to concede yesterday that Judge Hara's ruling removes that basis for invalidating the election.