Parking Fee Meeting 4/28/10 a bitter disappointment!

Parking Fee Meeting 4/28/10

The special meeting with Boating Program Administrator, Ed Underwood, held at Honokohau on April 28, 2010, was a bitter disappointment.

Since the proposal to charge for parking at Honokohau Small Boat Harbor was first publicly explained on April 7, 2010, at the “Talk Story session at the harbor, scores of questions have been asked about this parking plan, and very few of them have been adequately and fully answered.

The most disappointing thing to me about yesterday’s meeting was that despite the lengthy protestations of the five boating community members that were invited to the meeting (Al Gustafson, Neal Isaaacs, Tina Prettyman, Fred Duerr and myself), as the long meeting was winding down, Underwood announced that he was already planning another meeting “in two weeks” to announce the implementation of the parking plan. In other words, nothing we said at the meeting mattered, he was moving ahead with his plan to charge for parking. Why then, did he even bother to waste our time?

Our major point of disagreement with Mr. Underwood, is whether or not parking fees are going to be a barrier to our clients and the general public. Many of us who work at Honokohau believe that parking fees will deter a percentage of those who currently come to Honokohau harbor. In these dire economic times, we cannot afford to prevent anyone from coming to the harbor, nor can we afford to pay for our own parking and that of our employees, crew and clients. What part of the word recession does Underwood not understand?

It is particularly hard to swallow this bitter pill because Honokohau Harbor is surrounded by unused State land, and many marine businesses and boat storage facilities have been created mauka of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway, because this unused State land has never been made available to those who were willing to develop it.

Therefore, the Honokohau Harbor “financial deficit” that Underwood bemoans, is largely BECAUSE of the incompetence of the Boating Division in failing to lease its land to those willing to pay to develop it.

He also admitted in our meeting that a substantial part of that “deficit” is also because he opted to make an administrative change to how income from current land leases is characterized in his budget. For decades the land rent generated by Gentry’s Kona Marina, The Fuel Dock and other land leases at Honokohau, has always been included on the books, as part of the revenue stream the harbor generates. By simply changing the bookkeeping, is made to look like a much bigger loser than it really is.

Part of my disappointment is that his proposed fix—instituting parking fees at Honokohau—is highly unlikely to put much of a dent in the alleged deficit. It is a shortsighted, ill-conceived attempt to pick the low hanging fruit (our wallets), with zero consideration for the larger economic impact of those parking fees on the boating community and the busineses here that support it.

As Ed Underwood described his parking plan to us, it is actually a big experiment to see if charging for parking at Honokohau is attractive to a parking contractor, whether it is actually possible (how do you designate parking stalls in gravel?), whether it generates a reasonable return, and what the impacts are on the boating community. We answered the latter question, loud-and-clear, we think it will have a huge impact on the boating community, and we can’t afford an experiment, especially during this economic recession.

There are also larger questions about the process followed by the Boating Division, to get us where we are today. State law clearly requires that administrative rule changes follow a specified series of steps. Public hearings must be properly announced in a paper of public record, and held in a place that is reasonably accessible to those effected. The public hearing was announced once in the Honolulu Star Bulletin (which is not distributed or delivered on the Big Island), and the hearing was held in Waimea. That hardly seems to follow the intent of the Administrative Procedures Act that the community be informed and offered a reasonable opportunity to participate.

So what do we do now?

We raise the pressure, bring it to bear on Governor Linda Lingle and more importantly the Lieutenant Governor (Duke Aiona) who is running for Governor and needs all the votes he can generate. Get your clients, friends, business associates, attorneys, even your mother, to write to the Governor and ask that the DLNR delay or withdraw the implementation of parking fees at Honokohau Harbor.

Email addresses are provided below.
FYI, I met with Mayor Billy Kenoi, brought he and his staff (Wally Lau and Bobby Command) up to date on our concerns and fears, and the Mayor has committed to supporting our cause all he can, starting with a letter to Laura Thielen asking her to at least delay implementation of the parking fees.

Many of us have been in touch with Representatives Denny Coffman and Cindy Evans, and they are on our side and working on our behalf. Keep them informed of everything you do by copying them with your emails and letters.

Al, Neal and I are prepared to help the harbor users to form an organization to contnue to fight the parking fees,; fight for better utilization of the State land around the harbor; and fight for the improvements we need, have paid for and deserve in our harbor.

Al has already distributed his mana’o regarding the meeting yesterday, and I share his view that when the next public meeting is held at Honokohau, we need hundreds of people to attend and make their concerns heard.

We will keep you posted.
Aloha,
Rick Gaffney

Email protocol:

I would suggest that an effective way to proceed is to address your concerns to Governor Linda Lingle (gov@hawaii.gov) and Laura Thielen, Chair, BLNR (laura.thielen@hawaii.gov) then b.c.c. your email letter to the rest of the email addresses on this list.