Posts Tagged ‘Mauna Kea’

More OHA News

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

By: TRUSTEE ROWENA AKANA

Source: September 2009 Ka Wai Ola o OHA Column

MAUNA KEA SELECTED FOR THIRTY METER TELESCOPE

Despite the serious concerns voiced by our administrator regarding the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Observatory Project, on July 2, 2009, the board of trustees voted in favor of an OHA resolution supporting the selection of Mauna Kea as the site for the proposed project.  Trustees Cataluna, Waihee, and I were excused from the meeting and did not vote for the measure.

On July 22, 2009, Advertiser Staff Writer Mary Vorsino reported that Mauna Kea was selected for the TMT project despite the strong opposition from Native Hawaiian and environmental groups.  While Mauna Kea is considered sacred to us, the environmentalists are concerned about how the project will impact rare native plant and insect species at the top of the mountain.

The planning and permitting stage will begin in 2010.  Construction is scheduled to begin in 2011 and completed in 2018.  While this may seem like a done deal, the opposition posed by potential lawsuits could delay work on the new telescope. 

LEGISLATURE OVERRIDES LINGLE’S KAHANA VALLEY VETO

According to a July 16, 2009 Honolulu Advertiser article, the Kahana Valley living cultural park was established 30 years ago to preserve one of the few surviving ahupua’a.  Residents who were living there at the time received 50-year leases in exchange for 25 hours of work a month on cultural activities.  Last year, the state attorney general discovered that the leases had expired and six families without leases were told to leave.

During this past legislative session, Rep. Jessica Wooley introduced HB 1552 which authorizes the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) to issue long-term residential leases to qualified persons in state living parks. The bill also establishes living park planning councils to develop state living park master plans to ensure the living park achieves its purpose and goals.  Mostly importantly the bill establishes a 2-year moratorium on evictions of residents of Kahana valley state park.

On July 8, 2009, Governor Linda Lingle said she intended to veto the bill and this forced residents to schedule a protest rally the very same day.  After the bill was vetoed on July 15, 2009 by the Governor, the veto was quickly overridden and passed into law by the legislature, much to the relief of Kahana Valley residents.  Those residents who faced eviction last October will be allowed to remain in their homes and the way is now paved for more leases.

PRINCESS ABIGAIL KAWANANAKOA’S LAWSUIT

According to a July 17, 2009 Advertiser article by Rick Daysog, a lawsuit was filed in state Circuit Court on Wednesday, July 15, 2009 by Princess Abigail Kawananakoa against the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), the Department of Health, the State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) and Kawaiaha’o Church.

Princess Kawananakoa believes that Kawaiaha’o church officials and construction workers dug up and disturbed the burial plot of her ancestor Queen Kapi’olani and those of other Hawaiian families.  She also alleged that the church skirted state burial laws, with the help of state officials, to fast-track the construction of the project.  “This project is about greed, not God,” Princess Kawananakoa said in an e-mail to The Advertiser. “I must take this to court because I cannot allow the desecration of Hawaiian graves to continue.”

In April, church officials denied that the Kapi’olani plot had been impacted.  However, a month later, they said they were unsure whether construction work had dug into the Kapi’olani plot.

George Van Buren, an attorney for Princess Kawananakoa, wrote in the lawsuit that the church and DLNR officials should have known it would find human remains because the property used to be part of the cemetery.  Van Buren also stated that church officials and the DLNR disregarded the advice of the church’s archaeological consultants, who recommended a “subsurface archaeological study for iwi, or bones, and other cultural artifacts” before beginning construction.  “Kawaiaha’o Church was concerned that any archaeological inventory survey would discover a concentration of human burial remains in the graveyard that could hinder and/or perhaps halt construction of the multipurpose center,” Van Buren said.

DLNR officials would not comment, saying they have not yet reviewed Kawananakoa’s lawsuit. 

SECOND KAWAIAHA’O LAWSUIT

The Advertiser also reported that Dana Naone Hall, former chairwoman of the Maui-Lana’i Island Burial Council, also plans to sue DLNR and church officials over their handling of the matter.  Naone Hall, who has relatives buried within the church’s cemetery ground, said that state law requires Kawaiaha’o officials to do an environmental assessment of the property since the church is a “designated historic site.” 

In her July 2, 2009 letter to DLNR, the Department of Health, and the Oahu Island Burial Council, Naone Hall has brought up the following serious concerns:

(1) The necessity to be clear about burial sites and cemeteries on Kawaiaha’o Church properties;

(2) The history of repeated disinterment of Native Hawaiian burials should not continue without any standards;

(3) DLNR has not conducted the Historic Preservation Review required by its own rules;

(4) Kawaiaha’o is not a cemetery as defined in HRS Chapter 441 and HRS 6E-41;

(5) The burials that were identified during construction were known about beforehand not “inadvertent discoveries.”

(6) DLNR and DOH do not possess the legal authority to disinter burials at Kawaiaha’o Church in the manner suggested in DLNR’s June 11, 2009 letter to Kawaiaha’o Church; and

(7) The agencies cannot permit any further construction on the Kawaiaha’o Church property until the Environmental Assessment is lawfully concluded.

Until the next time.  Aloha pumehana.

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Posted in Land

Layoffs vs. furloughs

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

By: OHA Trustee Rowena Akana

Source: Ka Wai Ola o OHA, August 2009

Everyone knows our state economy is suffering. Despite this fact, the Governor plans to lay off as many as 2,500 state employees to try and balance the state budget. Although OHA is autonomous from the Governor’s control, OHA still plans to lay off as many as 24 employees. In order for our economy to recover, it is important for people to have jobs.

MORE OHA NEWS

* Thirty Meter Telescope on Sacred Mauna Kea

On June 30, 2009, our Administrator sent a letter to the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Observatory Project at the University of Hawaii (UH) at Hilo regarding their Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Here are some of his many concerns:

(1) The TMT would be the largest telescope on Mauna Kea. It will be 180 feet high and take up 5 acres. They also need to build an access way to the observatory and major renovations to the Hale Pohaku Mid-Level Facility.

(2) OHA believes the Draft EIS is premature because the state Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) has not yet received or approved the following four sub-plans it required of UH in April of 2009: a Cultural Resources Management Plan, a Natural Resources Management Plan, a Decommissioning Plan, and a Public Access Plan.

(3) Past subleases for other Mauna Kea observatories have been issued at a reduced rate of $1 per year with UH getting “in-kind” viewing time at the observatories. This only benefits UH and prevents both the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and OHA from receiving substantial amounts of money that is sorely needed during these difficult times. Public Education is only one of the five purposes of Ceded Lands established by the Hawaii Admission Act.

(4) The Draft EIS needs to stress that there are alternative sites available, such as the Chilean site at Cerro Armazones.

(5) Finally, the Administrator wrote that the cultural resource analysis of the Draft EIS is “wholly flawed” and does not properly examine the impacts of siting what would be the largest telescope on Mauna Kea.

Despite these serious concerns, instead of OHA suing the University of Hawaii for mismanagement of sacred ceded lands, on July 2, 2009, the board of trustees voted in favor of an OHA resolution supporting the selection of Mauna Kea as the site for the proposed TMT project. The question is why?

Trustees Cataluna, Waihee and I were excused from the meeting and did not vote for the measure.

* Quid pro quo for San Diego Charter School?

On May 27, 2009, a proposal to give a San Diego Charter School, Pacific American Academy (PA’A), $100,000 as a pilot project for supporting mainland charter schools with Hawaiian students was included on page 12 of the OHA Fiscal Biennium 2010-2011 Budget Realignment #1 action item. I found this deceptive since there was no way for the trustees to know from reading the board agenda that this proposal would be considered.

The whole idea of trying to sneak what should have gone through OHA’s grant program into our budget was totally inappropriate. One of OHA’s deputy administrators explained that they recommended giving assistance to the Charter School since the group had helped the administration when they traveled to San Diego for Kau Inoa sign-ups. This explanation was defended by the Chairperson, Haunani Apoliona.

Due to serious concerns from trustees, including the fact that the grant request did not go through proper procedures for consideration and the fact that too many critical details were missing from the proposal, the trustees removed it from consideration. I was personally assured that this $100,000 grant would not find its way back to the board.

However, less than a month later on June 24, 2009, the grant was listed on the board agenda as one of the Fiscal Year 2009 Grant Recommendations. The trustees approved giving the San Diego-based Pacific American Academy a $100,000 grant. Trustees Cataluna and I were excused from the vote. Trustee Mossman voted against the proposal.

There are a hundred reasons why this grant should have been deferred indefinitely. This is a pilot program. It was never clearly identified as to how many Hawaiian children would be enrolled. No itemized budget was submitted. This was certainly not a prudent decision to make in these tough economic times. Grants should be judged on its sustainability. This grant had none.

This San Diego grant was able to rush through the grants process, within 30 days while other local grant applicants are sometimes forced to wait for years due to “lack of funds.” Fast-tracking the grant is especially baffling to me since there wasn’t $100,000 left in the grants budget at the time. Trustees need to be concerned that this sends a very misleading message to future grant applicants – That a grant application can be fast-tracked if you have helped certain OHA personnel or trustees in the past.

* The Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. Giveaway

Without regard to Trust Assets, OHA transferred $863,361.77 from OHA’s Fiscal Reserve Account to the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. (NHLC) for the balance of attorney’s fees collected, including interest, originally paid to OHA regarding the Hokulia case.

Trustees voted to approve this at our June 24, 2009, board meeting. Trustees Cataluna and I were excused from the vote. In a written memo to the BOT, I opposed the transfer for the following reasons:

(1) The NHLC is not entitled to the $863,361.77 since OHA is not a client of the NHLC and therefore should not have to pay “attorney’s fees.”

(2) A large portion of the NHLC’s operating budget comes from OHA. For many years, NHLC was actually listed by name within OHA’s budget bill passed by the Legislature. Currently, the OHA budget bill that was recently singed by Governor Lingle includes $491,981 in general funds and $491,981 in OHA trust funds for fiscal year 2009-2010 that can be used by NHLC to provide legal services for our beneficiaries. For fiscal year 2010-2011, the amount is $473,080 in general funds and $473,080 in OHA trust funds. In other words, we pay their salaries. If they win a case, then we are entitled to half of the award.

(3) The NHLC has not paid their share of funds from the Hokulia case to the State of Hawaii, which claims they were entitled to half of the award. Instead, OHA paid over $1 million to the state, which included NHLC’s portion.

(4) Unlike other organizations that OHA funds, the NHLC was never forced to make any sacrifices to their budget, unlike other nonprofits that had to suffer a 20 percent budget reduction.

(5) The OHA Fiscal Reserve is to be used for unforeseen emergencies ONLY and not to “seed an endowment,” as NHLC plans to do with the money. I am certain our investment policy has no such provision for that kind of expenditure.

Finally, it makes little sense to release employees because of budget cuts and yet be able to give $100,000 to a group in San Diego, and another three-quarters of a million dollars to another organization at the same time.  Until the next time.  Aloha pumehana.

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Posted in Government

Support Senate’s OHA Settlement Bill

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

By: Trustee Rowena Akana

Source: Letter-to-the-Editor, Star-Bulletin, April 19, 2009

I strongly support Senate Bill 995, which attempts to resolve claims and disputes relating to the portion of income and proceeds from the lands of the public land trust for use by OHA between Nov. 7, 1978, and July 1, 2009.

This bill proposes to convey Mauna Kea to OHA, along with several other parcels of land. The bill would allow OHA and the state to reach a “global settlement” of the past and future obligations of the state to native Hawaiians.

The committee felt that the proposal made by Gov. Ben Cayetano back in March 31, 1999, is a sensible and appropriate approach toward a “global settlement” and that it should be re-offered to OHA.

It should be noted that a global settlement does not include natural resources, water and gathering rights or any other rights.

The Senate’s “global settlement” offer includes monetary payment to OHA of $251 million; conveyance of public lands from the state to OHA equal to 20 percent of the 1.8 million acres of ceded lands already inventoried, and the suspension of the $15.1 million in annual payments to OHA effective a date to be agreed upon in good faith.

In my view, SB 995 provides a great opportunity for all native Hawaiians to finally have the resources to build a strong nation.

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Posted in Government

Legislative Update: OHA versus UH for control over Mauna Kea

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

By: TRUSTEE ROWENA AKANA

Source: March 2009 Ka Wai Ola o OHA Column

`Ano`ai kakou…  I call out in a kahea for all Hawaiians and the people of Hawaii to oppose the University of Hawaii’s management of Mauna Kea and to support Senate Bill 995, SD2, which would give OHA ownership of our sacred mountain.

SB995 SD2 attempts to resolve claims and disputes relating to the portion of income and proceeds from the lands of the public land trust for use by OHA between 11/7/1978 and 7/1/2009.  This bill also conveys Mauna Kea to OHA, along with other parcels of land.  The House version of the above bill (HB901 HD2) does not include Mauna Kea.  It passed third reading on 3/10/2009 and has crossed over to the Senate.  At the time of the writing of this article, the board has not taken an “official” position on SB995 SD2. 

During the Cayetano administration, OHA was offered 20% of all ceded lands and $150 million in cash.  Five OHA board members refused the offer.  Two of those members are still on the OHA board.  In Governor Cayetano’s recent book, he speaks to the foolishness of those board members and refers to the events as a “missed opportunity” for OHA.  SB995 SD2 offers OHA another opportunity to redeem itself.

Efforts to Transfer Total Control of Mauna Kea to UH

HB1174 HD3 would allow the University of Hawaii’s Board of Regents (BOR) to adopt administrative rules to regulate public and commercial activities on Mauna Kea lands that UH leases from the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR).  The bill, in its current form does the following: (1) It requires the BOR to establish procedures to enforce these rules; (2) allows UH to collect administrative fines for violations of these rules; and (3) Establishes the Mauna Kea Management Special Fund for the deposit and use of these revenues.

KAHEA, Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, Sierra Club Hawaii Island Chapter, Royal Order of Kamehameha I, and numerous concerned individuals opposed this measure.  OHA originally opposed the first version of the bill, but now supports the bill with amendments.

In her February 3, 2009 testimony to the House Committee on Higher Education, KAHEA Program Director Marti Townsend strongly opposed HB 1174 for the following reasons:

  • “Mauna Kea lands leased by the University are ‘ceded’ lands.  Granting this authority to the University will violate the Supreme Court’s ruling in OHA v. HCDCH.  With this bill, the Lingle Administration is seeking to transfer ceded land protected by the public lands trust from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) to the University of Hawaii.”
  • “Mauna Kea lands are public trust lands that must be managed by the landlord (BLNR), not the University, who is a mere lease-holder. State law requires that public trust lands be leased at fair market value for the benefit of the people of Hawaii, not the lease-holder.” 
  • “According to current state law, ceded lands are managed and administered by DLNR. See, HRS sec. 171-3. This bill seeks to transfer the ceded lands of Mauna Kea from DLNR to the University by granting the University ‘authority to manage and control public activities on the Mauna Kea lands.’ This is the exact same type of agency-to-agency transferred deemed illegal by the Supreme Court in OHA v. HCDCH and therefore should not be allowed by the state Legislature.” 
  • “The University’s activities on Mauna Kea have exploited, destroyed, and desecrated irreplaceable natural and cultural resources on the summit.  Mauna Kea’s Hawaiian alpine desert is unlike any other place in the world.  It is home to many Hawaiian endemic species some are found only on Mauna Kea!  Multiple reports, audits, and lawsuits have confirmed that the University’s telescope activities have violated the law and continue to destroy the natural and cultural resources of Mauna Kea.” 
  • “In multiple reviews of the University’s activities on the summit, the Hawaii State Auditor found that UH’s management of Mauna Kea is ‘inadequate to ensure the protection of natural resources’ and ‘neglected …the cultural value of Mauna Kea.’ Their report stated that UH’s Institute for Astronomy ‘focused primarily on the development of Mauna Kea and tied the benefits gained to its research program,’ and that its focus on telescope construction has been ‘at the expense of neglecting the site’s natural resources.’” 
  • “The University will use this authority to limit public access to the summit, regulate when and how Hawaiians worship on the summit, and expand telescope construction on the summit.” 
  • “For 30 years, the University has failed to pay the fair market rent to the State for its subleases to foreign countries and corporations that own telescopes atop Mauna Kea, as required by HRS sec. 171. This means the University owes the people of Hawaii back rent for the numerous telescope and support structures on the sacred summit.” 
  • “Unfortunately, the University has never accounted for the profits it has gained from its destructive use of Mauna Kea. According to a report to the UH Board of Regents in 1994, however, the University enjoyed at least $60 million annually in benefits from its use of Mauna Kea. In 2001, the University admitted to the Legislature that the work conducted on Mauna Kea earned $8 million a year just from the patent-lease contracts with defense contractors like Raytheon.” 
  • “Surprisingly, during this time of debilitating economic crisis, the University is not paying this back-rent to the State. Instead in this bill it is proposing to establish a special fund that would allow it to pocket all of the profits from the use of Mauna Kea lands, bypassing the general fund altogether. The University is literally seeking the Legislature’s approval to rob the people of Hawaii.”

On March 10, 2009, it passed third reading in the House with eleven (11) Representatives (Belatti, Berg, Brower, Carroll, Hanohano, C. Lee, Luke, McKelvey, Saiki, Shimabukuro, and Thielen) voting no and has crossed over to the Senate.

I will continue to keep you updated on these bills as they make their way through the second half of the legislative session.  In the meantime, I encourage each of you to call your elected officials and let them know how you feel about these important pieces of legislation.  Aloha Ke Akua.

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Posted in Land

Leave Mauna Kea Alone

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

By: Trustee Rowena Akana

Source: Letter sent to newspaper editors, October 2008

I fully support Chile’s bid to be the site for the proposed $1 billion Thirty Meter Telescope being built by U.S. and Canadian Universities instead of Mauna Kea.

Both sites offer the same clarity of atmosphere that the telescopes need, but Mauna Kea is a sacred mountain and should not be further desecrated.

Mauna Kea has already been irreparable damaged by existing telescope facilities and it can never be restored to its original, pristine state.

I say, stop the devastation and let the Chileans have it.

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Posted in Land