Former Public Works employee suing county
A former Department of Public Works employee is suing Hawaii County alleging gender discrimination and mistreatment.
A former Department of Public Works employee is suing Hawaii County alleging gender discrimination and mistreatment.
Julann Sonomura, who previously served as the DPW’s Building Division chief, said she was frequently treated differently than her male colleagues and was undermined and dismissed by her supervisor, DPW Deputy Director Neil Azevedo.
A complaint filed in Circuit Court in May provides detailed accounts of several examples of alleged discrimination by Azevedo against Sonomura.
“(Sonomura), as a female administrator/executive within the department, was subjected to heightened scrutiny, open hostility in the workplace, and exclusion from department and division operations, that her male counterparts did not experience, which reinforced the hostile work environment and gender-based barriers created and fostered by Azevedo,” the complaint states.
It also alleges that others within the county, including Mayor Kimo Alameda, were aware of her mistreatment and failed to intervene.
“At all times, alleged herein, the county, through its director of Human Resources, Office of the Corporation Counsel and mayor were aware of the ongoing, discriminatory, disruptive and hostile work environment created by Azevedo and Azevedo’s discriminatory intent toward (Sonomura) and enabled, facilitated, encouraged, participated and even reveled in it.”
Sonomura told the Tribune-Herald that as a woman in the largely male-dominated field of engineering, she has faced bias throughout her career. However, nothing compared to her time working under Azevedo.
“So, I have a fairly high tolerance for gender discrimination, but when I was at (the Building Division), I couldn’t help but feel like he valued what men said more than me,” she said.
In one instance described in the complaint, Sonomura said that a male colleague had contacted her, confused, after Azevedo had asked him questions about a project she was in charge of that he knew she had already answered.
On other occasions, she said Azevedo openly dismissed and belittled her expertise in front of colleagues. One of the first incidents she recounted was during a meeting about storm preparation in January 2025.
Sonomura said Azevedo had announced plans to distribute bags filled with sand dredged from the Wailoa River, which is known to potentially contain arsenic. She asked if the sand would be tested before giving it out to residents, to which she said he responded with an angry outburst.
Read more Substitute Torres rescues grim final to make Spain world champions
“I’m like, we don’t know if it’s safe, so maybe we can do something else,” she recalled. “It was like he just cut me off at the knees, and I was dumbfounded. I’d never been treated like that before.”
She said other employees acknowledged privately after the meeting that she was right to voice concern, and they agreed with her recommendation.
From there, she said, things continued to get worse until May 2025, when she was abruptly put on leave. She said Azevedo told her he had received complaints about her, but when asked from whom and about what, he failed to provide any evidence or further information.
Sonomura resigned from the county in December 2025 after her attempts to address the situation internally failed to yield any results, prompting her to file the lawsuit.
“I filed an internal complaint, I used whatever processes were available to me,” she said. “I filed a complaint with the auditor’s office, I filed an internal complaint about my administrative leave, and I filed the whistleblowers with the Board of Ethics.”
Sonomura is being represented in this case by Hilo attorney Ted Hong.
“She did everything you would want an employee at that level of administration to do,” Hong said of Sonomura. “She did alert people, she did ask for help, and basically, it fell on deaf ears. Why? We don’t know, but we’re going to find out in the course of this lawsuit.”
While he said it is disappointing to have a case like this, he hopes it serves as a “wake-up call to the county.”
“From a broader perspective, here in 2026 and 2025, we should not be having these kinds of disputes in the workplace,” he said. “Women are certainly just as entitled as anybody else to be in executive positions and make decisions without having to be unfairly criticized, without being demeaned, without their concerns being dismissed.”
In addition, Sonomura, who is now working as an engineer for the state, said she hopes her case helps lead to the creation of a more effective and thorough process for addressing employee concerns within the county.
“I’d hope that, first of all, that the complaint processes are transparent and fair, so people don’t need to file a complaint in court,” she said. “I would hope that the measures and the procedures they have in the county would be enough. … So I’m hoping that it gets investigated. I hope that other people will have the confidence once they know complaints will be investigated and they can be treated fairly, they’re not going to be targeted for more adverse action if they speak out.”
Hong said that both Azevedo and the county have been served with the complaint but have not yet responded. He said once they file answers the case will proceed, with a jury trial expected to be scheduled in Kona and overseen by Circuit Court Judge Kauanoe A. Jackson.
Read more Is Tom Brady eyeing a WWE future as he continues his public spat with Logan Paul?
The county did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Email Grace Inez Adams at [email protected].
