MAUI DRUG COURT COORDINATOR TO TAKE JOB IN LINGLE'S CABINET

Key Staffer Of Local Program To Head State Department Of Human Services

WAILUKU -- Gov. Linda Lingle is selecting another Maui official for a
position in her Cabinet, a decision that creates a major vacancy in one of
the more successful programs in Maui's 2nd Circuit Court system.

Officials on Maui said Monday that Lillian Koller, coordinator for the Maui
Drug Court since its inception, has been named by Lingle to serve as
director of the state Department of Human Services.

Attempts to reach Koller for comment were unsuccessful, and Lingle's
communications director, Lenny Klompus, was not available to discuss the
appointment. But officials with the Drug Court confirmed that Koller is
leaving the court program for the state position. The official announcement
is expected today.

"I'm really going to miss her. She's done an outstanding job in creating the
Maui Drug Court," said Drug Court Administrative Judge Shackley Raffetto.

Raffetto and Koller worked together three years ago to set up the system by
which criminal defendants charged with nonviolent, drug-related crimes are
given an option of participating in a court-supervised drug rehabilitation
program instead of going to jail or prison.

"Through the Drug Court, there are now 60 graduates, most of whom have
succeeded in avoiding being involved with the law again," Raffetto said.

Koller, a Maui County deputy corporation counsel when Lingle was mayor, was
selected by Raffetto to implement the program in the 2nd Circuit Court
before it was launched in mid-2000.

The success of Drug Courts on Oahu and Maui has led to an expansion of Drug
Courts across the state, with a Big Island Drug Court to begin and plans
under way for a Kauai Drug Court, Raffetto said.

Dr. Larry Schlesinger, who organized a nonprofit fund-raising arm, Friends
of the Maui Drug Court, said Koller was also administrator for the Friends
program and was instrumental in the fund-raising efforts.

"It was not only the efforts she put into fund-raising, but her personal
relationships with people that made the Friends a success," Schlesinger
said. "She was a wonderful administrator and a remarkable person whose
abilities made the Friends of the Maui Drug Court the most economically
successful in the state.

"We're going to miss her. She was instrumental in seeing the Drug Court come
into being and in the success of its operations."

Raffetto said the success in the Maui Drug Court for adults has prompted
preparations for extending the Drug Court services to juveniles in a project
supported by Maui County, which has recruited former Family Court Judge
Douglas McNish to implement a Family Court Juvenile Drug Court program.

Without Koller's leadership, he said, the Drug Court could not have seen the
successes that it has, he said.

David Ramage, director of Impact-Maui, said Koller had done the legwork and
paperwork required to set up the Drug Court program on Maui. Impact-Maui
provides the treatment program for the individuals accepted to Drug Court.

But Ramage noted it takes many different segments of the criminal justice
system, from police to prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, the state's
public safety system and service providers to make the program work.

"It's a collaborative effort on the part of everyone involved, but Lillian
brought everyone together to work out through the process. Without her, I
don't think we could have succeeded as quickly as we did," he said.

"She's been a leader. It's going to take somebody pretty good to fill her
shoes," he said.

Raffetto said the Drug Court will initiate a recruitment effort for a
successor to Koller but could not say when the program will be able to
replace her.

Ramage said it will be difficult to get someone able to balance an
understanding of the law with the efforts to deal with human behavior. But
with Koller as coordinator for the past 2 years, he said, "We have been
established, and we demonstrated what we can do. The basic groundwork has
been done."

Koller joins a Cabinet that already includes Budget Director Georgina
Kawamura, who was Lingle's budget chief when she was mayor of Maui County,
and Director of Labor and Industrial Relations Nelson Befitel, who served as
deputy corporation counsel under Mayor Lingle. The governor also has
appointed a handful of Mauians to non-Cabinet-level positions.