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Wednesday was supposed to be the day was confirmed as chair of the .

Instead, a surprise one-week delay is providing the first public glimpse at a behind-the-scenes shoving match between Gov. ‘s administration and an erstwhile ally in the .

Sen. , who asked for the deferral Tuesday, didn’t respond to messages asking him to explain his concerns. But the Senate committee chair in charge of Aila’s nomination and the governor’s spokeswoman — siblings Donovan and Donalyn Dela Cruz — are calling for an expeditious approval and an end to the “political gamesmanship.”

Until Tuesday, Aila’s confirmation appeared to be on track.

On Feb. 12, the Senate Water, Land and Housing Committee unanimously recommended that Aila be confirmed after listening to hours of overwhelmingly positive testimony. Chair Donovan Dela Cruz’s [pdf] was received by the full Senate Tuesday.

Common practice is to automatically schedule final confirmation for one day after receiving the committee report, in this case Wednesday. But Hee’s Tuesday request for a deferral — which came without further comment and was granted without objection, according to Chief Senate Clerk Carol Taniguchi — pushed the matter back for an extra legislative day. Because [pdf] has a mandatory five-day recess scheduled to begin Thursday, Aila’s confirmation was pushed back to March 3.

Donovan Dela Cruz said he was caught off guard by the deferral and was only alerted to it a “couple of minutes” before the meeting of the full Senate was called to order.

“I would have appreciated more time so that I could have actually looked into his concern, if it was legitimate or not, so that we could have fully discussed the matter in caucus,” he said.

His sister, the governor’s spokeswoman, was also surprised.

“It is a little surprising,” Donalyn Dela Cruz told Civil Beat. “We haven’t investigated as to why this has taken place. … We were very happy to hear about the support that William Aila received during the committee hearing.”

Hee’s request for a deferral came after he raised questions about Aila’s ethics. West Hawaii Today Feb. 12 that Aila continues to hold aquarium and commercial fishing permits — a fact that Aila did not disclose in his testimony opposing a ban on aquarium fishing in state waters. Civil Beat subsequently revealed that Aila failed to file his financial disclosure on time with the Hawaii State Ethics Commission. (His form and those of at least two other top Abercrombie administration officials have since been posted online.)

After Civil Beat’s report, according to Donovan Dela Cruz, Hee said on the Senate floor that he hoped the committee would look into the matter. Donovan Dela Cruz wrote Aila on Feb. 17 asking him to respond to Hee’s concerns.

Aila quickly explained he did not disclose that he and his wife hold commercial marine licenses because his position was consistent with testimony provided in years past that the “industry is sustainable at current harvest levels.” Aila said he hasn’t caught and sold aquarium fish since February 1999 and has not sold fish under his commercial fishing license since December 2003. (Civil Beat is coordinating with the department to review Aila’s monthly fish catch reports.)

Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Aila told Civil Beat that he was giving up his commercial fishing license and aquarium fishing permit to render any concerns about them moot. She said he would sign the paperwork Tuesday night.

“The reason for the delay in the confirmation as he understands it is continuing concerns regarding his commercial marine license and aquarium fishing permit,” DLNR spokeswoman Deborah Ward told Civil Beat after speaking with Aila. “The Ethics Commission does not have a problem with it, (but) he’s going to do this so everyone can move on.”

Asked Tuesday, before Aila told Civil Beat he’d surrender his licenses, if he felt Aila’s letter had been a sufficient answer to the ethical question, Dela Cruz said: “There is no ethical question.”

“If someone brings up a legitimate concern, I’m going to follow up, so I’m not going to say that it’s over,” he said. “But I don’t anticipate any other major concern being brought up being that we had the (committee) hearing two weeks ago. … I think if it’s brought up later, hopefully it’s not because of any kind of political gamesmanship.”

The implication is that political gamesmanship is already afoot.

Donalyn Dela Cruz, the governor’s spokeswoman, alluded to some difficulties with Hee when discussing the Aila nomination. Hee and Abercrombie go way back, having spent time together in the Hawaii Legislature before Abercrombie was elected to Congress.

She noted that while almost all Cabinet-level appointees have had a hearing, two that are still waiting — Department of Human Resources Development Director Sunshine Topping and Attorney General — are waiting for action from Hee’s Senate Judiciary Committee. Asked if anyone from the governor’s office has spoken to Hee about moving those appointments forward, Dela Cruz said she’d spoken to Hee personally.

“Sen. Hee said that he was very busy and said he was looking to scheduling those hearings following first crossover,” she said. “We look forward to the governor’s Cabinet being favorably passed, and we’re not aware of any situation that would prevent that from happening.”