With three to five employees working at his 4.5-acre nursery near Twin Falls, he wants to build a farm dwelling. According to two suits filed in U.S. District Court in Honolulu last week, he almost had his final permit a year ago, The Maui News reported.

He saw it. He had a check for the $609.50 fee in his hand. The phone rang. The clerk informed him that a zoning inspector had called to say the permit should not be issued.

That was March 7, 2006, and Kuster says he has been unable to resolve the issue since. Meanwhile, according to the lawsuits, other landowners have quickly gotten hundreds of similar permits or SMA single-family exemptions.

Kuster, an Austrian immigrant and naturalized American citizen, believes he has been discriminated against because he is not "local."

In two civil rights suits filed on his behalf by attorney Jim Fosbinder, Kuster alleges that he was denied due process, equal protection and honest government services. Also that he suffered retaliation and racial and ethnic discrimination from Maui zoning and building inspectors and that his property was illegally searched several times.

Deputy Corporation Counsel Jane Lovell said Wednesday that she had read the suit, although the county has not yet been served. When it is, "we will vigorously defend" against it.

She added that no doubt the Office of Corporation Counsel will have to go to the County Council for authorization to hire outside counsel, because one suit names four present and former county officials as individuals.

In April, the council authorized $375,000 to defend county officials and former officials in one of the several Montana Beach lawsuits. Fosbinder is the attorney in that suit too.

One of Kuster's suits names former Planning Director Mike Foley; Charles Villalon, a building inspector; Ty Fukuroku, an engineer in the county Building and Safety Department; Jay Arakawa, a zoning inspector; and an unnamed woman zoning inspector, all as individuals. A separate but parallel lawsuit has been filed against the county alleging failure to train and supervise employees and maintenance of illegal customs and policies.

Fosbinder says Kuster was led to court because for more than a year he has been unable to get an answer from anybody about why the permit was withheld. He seeks an injunction to force the county to act, plus monetary damages to be proven.

According to the lawsuit, Kuster, who grows ornamental plants and ground covers, had obtained 11 different permits and required only his final building permit to begin construction of a 1,000-square-foot house.

The suit says the clerk told him Arakawa had called and told her not to issue the permit. Kuster claims he got close enough to his permit to look at it and see a notation: "HOLD as per Jay Arakawa."

He alleges the hold was retaliation because of a complaint he had made against Fukuroku for unwarranted entries onto his property.

A narrative of events says Kuster had had a series of conflicts with a neighbor.

According to the suit, Kuster was aware of at least eight violations on the neighbor's property, including encroachment on Kuster's property, but he was "inclined to let his neighbor live in peace, despite the obvious illegality of his structure." Kuster alleges that a building supposed to be a storage shed was being used as a residence on the neighboring lot.

Kuster alleges that while he has had, at most, trivial problems with regulations – including a violation for leaving greenwaste in a drainageway – his "local" neighbor has not had the same scrutiny from county officials.

The suit quotes Joe Alloio, another building inspector but not a defendant, as telling Kuster that nothing would be done about the neighbor because, "We hate these things. You want to back off; you don't see them anyway."

The suit attributes the different treatment to a "conspiracy" related to the last mayoral election.

According to the suit, the defendants "knew that then Mayor (Alan) Arakawa had won election on a slow-growth theme, and that it was politically desirable for the county administration to delay building projects as long as possible and to prevent "non-locals" from building on Maui."

The suit says Fukuroku and two other neighbors of Kuster's spent some time on his property, without permission, taking photographs, on Feb. 2, 2006.

Kuster says he called police, not knowing one of the trespassers was a county agent. He says the agent – Fukuroku – refused to show any identification, though he did write his name on "a scrap of paper."

Subsequently, Kuster received several telephoned stop-work orders. Kuster claims he had not done any work that could be stopped, and that he can prove it. He says he still has never received a written order.

He says Villalon accused him of being out to get one of his inspectors, Fukuroku. Kuster then complained to Foley, as head of the department. He says he never got any response.