Posted on: Friday, June 10, 2005

City hiring policy faces challenge

By Ken Kobayashi
Advertiser Courts Writer

A Florida man who says he was rejected for three city jobs because he's not a Hawai'i resident filed a federal lawsuit yesterday seeking to strike down the residency requirement for city positions.

Kevin R. Walsh is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai'i in the lawsuit that also seeks to represent out-of-state job applicants rejected for city positions because they aren't Hawai'i residents.

The suit asks for a judgment declaring that the city's policy and a state law violate the constitutional right to interstate travel. It also asks for an amount of money to be determined and a trial for Walsh and others whose applications were rejected based on the policy.

The suit was lodged against the city, Kenneth Nakamatsu, director of the city Department of Human Resources, and Attorney General Mark Bennett. The suit said as the chief legal officer of the state, Bennett has the authority to prevent the enforcement of the state law upon which the city is basing its policy.

The state law says job applicants for state and city and county jobs "shall be ... residents of the state at the time of their application for employment ...," according to the suit.

City spokesman Mark Matsunaga had no comment, saying the city has not seen the lawsuit. Bridget Palmer Holthus, special assistant to the attorney general, also said they had no comment because they have not been served with the suit.

The suit by Lois Perrin, ACLU of Hawai'i's legal director, and attorneys Anne Williams and Michael Livingston said Walsh applied in March for three data processing and computer programmer positions with the city Department of Human Services.

On his electronic application, he answered he is not a legal resident of Hawai'i.

He later received three rejection letters telling him his application was not accepted because he is not a resident of the state of Hawai'i, "which is required for this position."

The letters said state law requires job seekers to be current or former residents at the time of the application, according to the suit.

Reach Ken Kobayashi at 525-8030 or kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.