Environmental Groups Wary of Who Will Head New State Land Agency
Environmental groups were out in full force during a meeting for the new state agency tasked with developing state lands on Tuesday.
Life of the Land, the Sierra Club, KAHEA and Windward Ahupuaa Alliance all testified at the start of the meeting for the Public Land Development Corporation, raising concerns about proposed criteria for hiring an executive director.
The corporation, created in May, has attracted a stream of criticism and distrust for its broad development powers. This was the board鈥檚 third meeting.
The corporation is currently reviewing resumes of 18 applicants for the executive director position, who will be the corporation鈥檚 sole employee. The board is not releasing the names of the applicants after candidates expressed concerns that it might cause problems with their current employers.
The criteria, distributed at the meeting, includes experience in real estate development, government and pubic relations, strategic thinking, project management and administration.
Those testifying raised concerns about a lack of emphasis in hiring someone with experience in community engagement, land use law and the Sunshine Law, which advances government transparency.
Henry Curtis, executive director of Life of the Land, took his concerns even further, saying that the corporation’s board should reveal information about the candidates.
“I feel like a dummy being up here testifying on something I haven鈥檛 seen,” said Curtis.
Sterling Wong, senior public policy advocate for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs also testified, raising concerns about the corporation adequately taking into account Native Hawaiian cultural issues. The corporation has broad powers to develop state lands, a large portion of which are 鈥渃eded lands,鈥 that are supposed to be held in trust for Native Hawaiians.
The five-member board composed of heads of government government departments, as well as former state Sen. Bobby Bunda and Duane Kurisu, a partner at a real estate investment firm, were receptive to the recommendations, changing the criteria to reflect the concerns. While cultural sensitivity was added to the list of criteria for an executive director, the words “Native Hawaiian” were stricken after the board confirmed that the language of the law did not specify this, only loosely referring to developing lands “in culturally appropriate ways.”
An executive director is expected to be hired by mid-November.
Absent from the meeting was any mention of whether the corporation actually has the right to develop lands, which came under dispute during a legislative hearing last week. Officials from the Department of Land and Natural Resources said that an amendment to the law may have to be proposed this upcoming legislative session in order to ensure that they could move forward and avoid potential litigation.
