Aloha e,
Tomorrow morning, Wednesday, October 7th, there are three pieces of proposed legislation will be coming before the county council.
The first is Resolution 218-09 to reorganize the county council by replacing Pete Hoffmann with Emily Naeole as vice-chair of the county council, Dominic Yagong with Fresh Onishi as chair of the Finance Committee, and Brenda Ford with Guy Enriques as chair of the Public Works and Intergovernmental Relations Committee.
Resolution 218-09 is bad legislation because:
It is illegal. This reorganization was first attempted by the current county council majority on June 16th. This attempt resulted in the well-known and on-going Sunshine Law lawsuit against the county council. The court ordered the council to undo the reorganization and revote on all subsequent legislation. The court then was a Sunshine violation was moot After Brenda Ford led an effort follow the court’s orders and undo the reorganization, the court found that the issue was moot. However, the court is allowing the June 16th reorganization resolutions to remain in evidence because it is relevant to West Hawai’i Today’s legal the complaint that there is a pattern-and-practice of Sunshine Law violations by certain members of the county council.
The current Sunshine Law litigation has not been resolved. All actions of the current county council since April of this year are at risk until this litigation has been resolved. Pressing forward with a resolution that is in substantially the same form as two resolutions that the court will be considering as evidence of a pattern-and-practice of Sunshine Law violations is not in the best interests of the people who voted for the county council representatives.
Fresh Onishi is not yet qualified to be chairman of the Finance Committee. Current chairman Dominic Yagong is the District Manager of 12 successful stores located around the island of Hawai’i and has served on the county council for almost 9 years, almost 3 years as head of the Finance Committee. He has an expert level of knowledge about the county budget, budget process, and finances. Fresh Onishi was the head of the Elderly Services Division of the county Department of Parks and Recreation and has limited budget and financial experience. He has served on the county council for less than one year and his actions are at the core of the current Sunshine Law litigation.
Guy Enriques is not yet qualified to be chairman of the Public Works and Intergovernmental Relations Committee. Brenda Ford has been chairwoman of the PWIRC for almost three years and led efforts to revise the county’s flood control and soil erosion control ordinances and managerial audits of the Department of Public Works. As a result, she has an expert knowledge of county, state, and federal laws and has working relationships with experts within the state and around the country as she continues to halt practices that are endangering the public’s health, safety, and welfare. Mr. Enriques is an extremely gifted and successful volleyball coach and leads one of the largest volleyball camps in the country. However, Mr. Enriques has served on the county council for less than one year and has publically admitted that he is feels overwhelmed by what he still has yet to learn. He has little experience with the Department of Public Works or the numerous associated county, state, and federal laws, yet he feels that he and Mr. Onishi “should be given a chance to play”. Mr. Enriques actions are also at the core of the current Sunshine Law complaint.
Bill 136 is bad legislation because it is illegal. Bill 136 is a proposed conventional rezoning to removes 29 acres from Palamanui’s special project district zoning. Land Use Policy 2.8.2.b. of the Kona Community Development Plan states ” rezoning anywhere within the Kona Urban Area … shall require an amendment to the Kona Community Development Plan that triggers Hawaii Revised Statute Chapter 343 Environmental Review Process “ Bill 136 is not described as an amendment to the Kona Community Development Plan nor has the Planning Department required Environmental Review.
Bill 137 is bad legislation because:
It provides the same loopholes and gray areas that have allowed past developers to ignore promises of public and community benefit while pocketing massive profits. All areas of our island are suffering the consequences of past rezonings that favored private and other special interests over the public’s. The last county council had begun to turn that tide until a tsunami of off-island contributions to the campaigns of Billy Kenoi and Guy Enriques wiped out local community political power. While it is good to have a Planning Director, it is unfortunate that Ms. Leithead-Todd has not learned from past mistakes and is supporting business-as-usual.
It does not provide for the construction of a new West Hawai’i campus university building. The estimated cost of the new campus building is $8 million. Palamanui has only committed $5 million. The state is facing additional budget shortfalls and cutbacks and there is no written agreement that from the state or private sources to provide the additional $3 million. However, Palamanui can begin to allow commercial and residential occupancy within its project by issuing a construction bond for the $5 million commitment instead of actually constructing the building.
The new West Hawai’i campus building does not provide room for expansion of existing Kealakekua college programs and services. The Kealakekua campus has 8 classrooms and the new building will have 8 classrooms. Sources within the university have told me that the plan is to basically take everything at the existing campus and “plop it in the new building”.
It contains no county-mandated measures to mitigate unlawful pollution of the fresh water lens located beneath the property which flows out onto our Class AA pristine nearshore marine waters and coral reef. Palamanui has stated that its wastewater treatment plant will process sewage to an R-1 standard and that the wastewater will be used for irrigation. Bill 137 does not require the developer to build this irrigation system, but state law requires two wells to inject the wastewater underground. If and when this is done, wastewater will flow quickly to the coastline and into our nearshore Class AA pristine waters. R-1 water contains nitrates and phosphates. Studies have proven that underground wastewater injection wells are the cause of the algae blooms and cloudy water plaguing West Maui. Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that the county has “an affirmative duty” to protect our ocean waters and the impact of underground injection well on West Hawaii’s Class AA “not influenced by humans” nearshore marine waters, Bill 137 does not yet include county affirmative duty protections, such as a requirement for Palamanui to participate in the county’s planned water quality monitoring program.
It does not contain county-mandated measures to mitigate unlawful damage to on-site and nearby essential cultural sites and resources. There are numerous burial lava tubes and other important Native Hawaiian cultural sites within and around the planned university and planned road right-of-ways south of Palamanui to Palani Road. Even though these sites are protected by the state constitution, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, there has been no transparency about how government agencies, large private landowners and their planning consultants are addressing these cultural resources.
If you find the above reasons sufficient to oppose Resolution 218-09 and Bills 136 and 137, please provide testimony to the following e-mail addresses:
counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us, bford@co.hawaii.hi.us, genriques@co.hawaii.hi.us, kgreenwell@co.hawai.hi.us, phoffmann@co.hawaii.hi.us, dikeda@co.hawaii.hi.us, enaeole@co.hawaii.hi.us, donishi@co.hawaii.hi.us, dyagong@co.hawaii.hi.us, jyoshimoto@co.hawaii.hi.us'
Mahalo! Chuck Flaherty
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