Honolulu City Council Chair barred from seeking third term

Tommy Waters had claimed a delay in the start of his original council term meant he could run a third time but was denied by the Hawaii Supreme Court.HONOLULU (CN) — The Hawaii Supreme Court ruled Friday Honolulu City Council Chair Tommy Waters is ineligible to seek a third consecutive term, barring him from the November election for his East Oahu seat.The divided court held 3-2 that Waters’ election in 2019 counted as his first four-year term under the Honolulu City Charter’s two-term limit, despite him only taking office months after the term began. He was then reelected to District IV in 2022 for the 2023-2027 term.Writing for the majority, Justice Lisa Ginoza disagreed with Waters’ argument that because of the delay in swearing in, his first period in office lasted less than four years and therefore should not count as one of his two consecutive four-year terms.“The term limit provision in Revised Charter § 3-102 is not based on the amount of time ‘served’ or when a councilmember is sworn into office,” Ginoza wrote. “Waters was not elected as a successor to fill a vacancy.”The majority — including Circuit Judges Peter Cahill and Peter Kubota, who were temporarily assigned to the Supreme Court as two regular justices had recused themselves, while a third seat remains vacant — also said allowing Waters’ shortened first period in office to escape the term limit would undermine the purpose of the charter provision.“If time of service was the determining factor for term limits, any councilmember not immediately sworn into office at the beginning of a four-year term, for whatever reason, would be able to assert that particular term does not count for their term limit,” Ginoza wrote.The legal fightbegan years ago with a razor-thin 2018 election between Waters and Ozawa for the District IV seat. Ozawa initially received 22 more votes, but the state high court later invalidated the election after finding 350 absentee ballots had been improperly received and a recount excluding them was not possible.A new election between the two candidates followed in April 2019. Waters won and was sworn into office in May, several months after the regular term began.But the majority pointed to the history of the term limit, which the Honolulu Charter Commission proposed in 1992 to encourage “citizen legislators.” Voters approved an amended version in 1998.“Waters was elected to two consecutive four-year terms in 2019 and 2022. He is therefore ineligible,” Ginoza wrote.Acting Chief Justice Sabrina McKenna, joined by Circuit Judge Michael Soong, concurred in part and dissented in part.The pair said Waters’ 2019 election filled a vacancy created when the Supreme Court invalidated the 2018 election, rather than starting a new four-year term. They said Waters therefore had been elected to only one consecutive four-year term and remained eligible to run again.“At bottom, Waters was elected to a vacancy term under Revised Charter Section 3-105(b) on April 13, 2019. He has therefore not been elected to two consecutive four-year terms under Section 3-102,” they wrote.Trevor Ozawa and Tara Malia Gregory, the two highest vote-getters among eligible candidates in the Aug. 8 first special election, will now face each other in the Nov. 3 second special election.40 District IV voters then challenged the results of the Aug. 8 election. The Supreme Court also issued a separate order Friday throwing out a lawsuit by Ozawa that had originally put Waters’ eligibility before the courts.Ozawa, an attorney and former councilmember who lost the District IV seat to Waters in the 2019 special election, had challenged Waters’ eligibility through a declaratory judgment lawsuit after the Honolulu City Clerk rejected his initial objection to Waters’ nomination.The justices ruled that approach was procedurally improper, since Hawaii election law provides specific procedures for challenging a candidate’s eligibility.The dispute became more complicated when a state court ruled Waters ineligible on July 29, just 10 days before the Aug. 8 primary. By then, ballots had already been printed and mailed.The Honolulu Elections Division told voters on Aug. 1 Waters was ineligible, but his name would remain on the ballot, with votes for him counted only toward determining whether an eligible candidate had received a majority.Waters nevertheless received 8,654 votes, finishing second behind Ozawa’s 12,252 and ahead of Gregory’s 4,212. Jason Liang received 2,674.Waters, Gregory and Ozawa could not immediately be reached for comment.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads