Binhi at Ani center lawsuit allowed to proceed- barely

By MELISSA TANJI - Staff Writer (mtanji@mauinews.com) , The Maui News 

WAILUKU, Maui- A lawsuit involving members of the Binhi at Ani Maui Filipino Community Center board will move forward, 2nd Circuit Judge Rhonda Loo ruled Thursday morning.

Loo denied a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, but she added that it "barely" met all of its criteria to stand up in court.

In the lawsuit, former Binhi at Ani board President Norma Barroga alleges that sitting President Cecille Piros and three other directors associated with the Maui Filipino Community Council were not validly seated on the Binhi at Ani board.

The dispute surfaced publicly last month when Barroga and Piros feuded over whether a Filipino Rice Festival would be held at the Binhi at Ani Maui Community Center in Kahului. Barroga wanted the event to go ahead as scheduled at the center, but Piros and sitting board members decided to postpone the event after Barroga filed a lawsuit Nov. 30 seeking to have four board members removed.

Eventually, the Rice Festival was held Dec. 18 across the street in the Maui Waena Intermediate School cafeteria. Earlier in the morning, the community center on Onehee Avenue was locked, with notices on windows that the festival had been canceled. People who went to the center were met by three private security guards, according to attorney Mary Cochran, who is representing Barroga.

Also on Thursday, Loo denied a temporary restraining order requested by Barroga against Piros and board members Emmanuel Baltazar, Romeo Guzman and Arthur Latayada.

A trial date has not been set.

Outside of court, attorney Matthew Kohm, who is representing Piros and the other defendants, said that although Barroga and her attorney believe she is doing a good thing, she is harming the Filipino community.

"She is actually being divisive," he said. "She is dividing the community rather than uniting it."

In his argument for the dismissal of the lawsuit, Kohm said it was personal and not filed in good faith. He also noted that Barroga is the only one named in the lawsuit.

Cochran, a former state Board of Education member, said she and Barroga disagree with Loo's decisions not to grant the temporary restraining order.

The issue is "membership" and whether Piros and some of her board members were in good standing on the board, she said.

In her argument against dismissal of the lawsuit, Cochran told the court that Barroga should be "commended" for standing up for the principle of following laws and bylaws while others fear retaliation if they speak up.

Cochran said the lawsuit was not a personal matter.

In her lawsuit, Barroga alleges that the Maui Filipino Community Council had been administratively canceled by the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs in 2007 for not filing required paperwork. Therefore, she said, the council was in violation of the Binhi at Ani bylaws that require the council nominees to the center's board to be in good standing.

The council and its subunits get to place several members on the center board.

Kohm pointed out that Barroga, as past president, has a seat on the board but is not a voting member. He noted in court that even though the DCCA canceled the Maui Filipino Community Council, the council still has responsibilities, functions as a board and exists.

Barroga also had objections to Piros' actions after being elected president: hiring her business's bookkeeper to do $800 worth of work for the board; buying $200 worth of bottled water for a retirement party that only 30 people attended; and naming her catering business, without board review, as the food provider for the Rice Festival.