Kahele rival awaits ruling

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A challenger to incumbent Mel Kahele may be allowed to run in the race for president of the local Teamsters union without a federal court order.

KAHELE

ILAE

Twice in the past week, Ilae has filed requests in federal court for an order that would prohibit officials of the Teamsters Local 996 from sending out ballots that contain only Kahele's name.

Ilae claims Kahele and members of his administration waited until the last minute to tell him he was not a valid candidate because of a dues infraction that occurred in October 2002 when Ilae filed a worker's compensation claim with the company he was working for.

U.S. District Judge Susan Mollway on Tuesday declined to order the Teamsters to put Ilae's name on the ballot, saying the dispute was a matter for the U.S. Department of Labor to resolve, not her court.

Ilae's lawyer, Michael Green, filed another complaint in federal court on Wednesday, this time claiming that Ilae's supporters were being deprived of the right to vote for a candidate of their choice since the last-minute determination that Ilae was ineligible to run gave them no opportunity to nominate a replacement candidate.

Mollway was scheduled to hold a hearing on the new complaint yesterday morning, but the Teamsters union asked her to hold off until it has a chance to verify some of the documents it has received clarifying the dates Ilae was on worker's comp status.

Those documents seem to indicate that Ilae did not go on worker's comp leave until sometime in November, and if that is the case, it appears that he is eligible to run in the upcoming election, Teamsters lawyer Sean Kim said in papers he filed with the court yesterday.

Kim said Teamsters union officials believe they can verify by the end of the day on Monday when Kahele went on worker's comp leave.

"If (Ilae's) documents are found to be correct, defendant Local 996 will rescind its determination that ... Ilae is ineligible; print ballots that have Ilae's name on it; and will mail those ballots to the membership of Local 996 as required by law," Kim said in the court papers.

But if the documents can't be verified, Kim asked that Mollway hold a hearing on the matter on Tuesday.

"Apparently, discretion is the better part of valor," Green said.

"I think once (Teamster officials) looked back and saw how all of this was playing out, they realized they were screwed," Green said.

Although a tentative settlement has been reached in the month-old bus strike, Green said he believes a substantial number of Teamster members are dissatisfied with Kahele's handling of the strike.

"I don't know what the (strike settlement) package is, but it can't be too good. I think the drivers know they got bashed in the strike, but the point here is that they should be able to vote for whoever they want to, whether it's Slim Ilae or Kahele," Green said.

In 2000, Kahele charged that Unity House president and chief executive officer Anthony "Tony" Rutledge was behind Ilae's decision to run for Teamsters president, but Ilae was found to be ineligible by the Teamsters. Unity House is a labor support organization founded by the late Art Rutledge, Tony Rutledge's father.

Unity House members including Rutledge, have been openly critical of Kahele's role in the strike and held a picnic for Teamsters union members on Labor Day in competition with one held by the union.

In addition, while Green is representing Ilae he also represents Tony Rutledge's son Aaron in an ongoing tax evasion case in federal court, has represented Tony Rutledge in matters involving the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union Local 5, which Rutledge used to head, and was recently named to the Unity House board of directors.

Ilae's wife, Arlene Ilae, is a senior vice president/secretary of Unity House and oversees, among other things, the membership services department.

Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.