ALOHA,

PRESS RELEASE: ON STATE SUPREME COURT CASE /RAIL/IWI/AIS

"Today's ruling exemplifies the arrogance of HART . From day one I made it clear to my constituents that I agreed with the petitioner and that HART was acting in bad faith. Furthermore, I was the only councilmember to object to using taxpayer dollars to defend HART's position and tried to stop the city from perpetuating its ill-will on Native Hawaiian people. This is a great day for Native Hawaiians for today's ruling has substantiated that you can indeed beat city hall." Councilman Tom Berg (Honolulu District One; Ewa Beach to Makaha)

NOTE:

1. BERG was the only councilmember to vote no to each expenditure on every Resolution that came before the Council to fund the attorneys representing the city. BERG had always sided with the petitioner's claim.

2. BERG was the only councilmember to question this process - hearing after hearing that took place before the city council - grilling HART Director Grabauskas numerous times asking HART if it had a "Plan B" in the event HART was to lose any one of the three pending lawsuits against it. HART Director Grabauskas continuously responded with the same answer - "We are confident that we will not lose any of the lawsuits so we have not discussed a Plan B since we will prevail."

To read the Hawaii Supreme Court decision, link here.