DON GUZMAN, New top county prosecutor

Former Maui County Council member Don Guzman was confirmed Friday as county prosecutor.

All nine members of the County Council voted in favor of Guzman, who served on the council from 2012 until last year, when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor.

Guzman, who is also a former deputy prosecutor, is Mayor Michael Victorino’s second pick for the top prosecutor job.

John D. Kim, a holdover from the Alan Arakawa mayoral administration, was rejected by the council in a grueling confirmation process.

As the vote on Guzman was being taken in Council Chambers, Vice Chairwoman Keani Rawlins-Fernandez supported Guzman’s nomination, saying that as acting prosecutor, he had already made strides by “using his authority to correct prior injustice” to victims’ families and the Hawaiian community.

Rawlins-Fernandez asked at the council’s Governance, Ethics and Transparency Committee meeting on March 15 if background checks had been made for her and her staff by prosecutor’s office employees in retaliation for the council rejecting Mayor Michael Victorino’s nomination of John D. Kim to continue as county prosecutor. Council Members Tamara Paltin and Yuki Lei Sugimura individually alleged at the same meeting that background checks were done for them and their staffs. Recently confirmed Maui County Prosecutor Don Guzman said Friday that a software audit showed no background checks were executed at that time.

Council Member Tamara Paltin asked that going forward employees of the Office of Prosecuting Attorney respect council members’ staffs.

Guzman said he contacted a software provider and the state attorney general’s office, and “they did a software audit” that looked through the department’s inquiries from November to March 20 to see if checks were done. He said that if the software is used to conduct work outside of criminal cases the office is handling, it could jeopardize the prosecutor’s software license.

Victorino is still awaiting confirmation on three directors, Lori Tsuhako for housing and human concerns, Rowena Dagdag-Andaya for Public Works and Eric Nakagawa for Environmental Management.

Victorino’s first picks — for housing William Spence, and for Public Works David Goode — were not confirmed.

Victorino appointed Nakagawa as director of Environmental Management after the department’s confirmed director, Mike Miyamoto, resigned because of health reasons.

Tsuhako on Thursday received a recommendation for approval by the council’s Governance, Ethics and Transparency Committee. Her appointment now heads to the full council.

Dagdag-Andaya and Nakagawa are awaiting a meeting date with the committee.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

Due to editing errors, the original story published Sat., April 6, 2019 gave an incorrect date for Rawlins-Fernandez’s comments and incorrectly attributed the claims of alleged background checks. The Maui News apologizes for the errors.