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University of Hawaii officials are pushing for passage of a bill that would reinstate the authority of the UH president over construction and related professional services.

is described by supporters as critical for UH to continue having control over projects on the 10 campuses that comprise the University of Hawaii System, including its flagship campus in Manoa.

“We are grateful that the bill has been scheduled and will be heard,” said Jan Gouveia, vice president for administration. “It is crucial to really all that we’ve been able to accomplish these last several years.”

That work includes a $32 million  at the University of Hawaii West Oahu in 2018, and groundbreaking last year for a $57 million renovation of a UH Manoa library that was built in 1956. The that will replace Sinclair Library is expected to be finished by the start of the 2025 fall semester.

But one of the two committees set to hear the bill Tuesday afternoon is run by Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, a longtime critic of the university and its use of state money.

Earlier this month the Senate narrowly rejected the confirmation of Alapaki Nahale-a to continue serving on the UH Board of Regents. Kim criticized Nahale-a, who was the board chair, for failing to scrutinize administration budgets and policies.

The Kalihi lawmaker, who chairs the Senate Higher Education Committee, has also expressed concerns about dilapidated and unused student housing facilities. And Kim did not hear of the UH procurement bill.

Still, UH officials are optimistic about the passage of HB 2499, which is part of Gov. Josh Green’s legislative package. It unanimously cleared the House on Feb. 27.

Last week, the House Finance Committee passed that, among other things, gives UH $17.5 million to partially restore pandemic-era cuts to UH. The House budget also provides UH $223.4 million in general obligation bond funding , including $25 million for capital renewal and deferred maintenance at the seven community colleges.

The budget bill still has to go through the Senate, and a hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

It could be a bumpy process. Rep. Kyle Yamashita, the House Finance Committee chair, said at a press conference last week that dramatic changes could still come to the budget, given the starkly different views on the state’s ability to pay for the recovery of the Maui wildfires.

The House says the state has the $1 billion needed for that, as does the governor, but Senate leaders have warned that steep cuts may be necessary to balance the books.

Law Changed In 2013

One indicator of the Senate’s disposition toward UH and the budget , when Kim’s committee and the Senate Government Operations Committee jointly consider HB 2499. It received no testimony in opposition and is supported both by Gouveia and Bonnie Kahakui, acting administrator for the State Procurement Office.

Kahakui wrote in that UH “is conducting construction procurements in a compliant, efficient, and transparent manner.”

The concern for UH is that it’s not the first time it has sought to give the president procurement power over construction. The president does have procurement authority over contracts for goods and services.

The switch from the UH president to the chief procurement officer first came in 2013 in a bill from former Rep. Isaac Choy, another critic of UH who at the time chaired the House Higher Education Committee.

A committee report on Choy’s said that “the prudent and transparent management of public funds” appropriated by the Legislature and expended by the university “is a matter of statewide concern.”

, co-authored by Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz and delivered to Kim, then the Senate president, said that a 2010 exemption for UH from parts of the state procurement code meant that construction projects “went from a design-bid method to a design-assist method. With that change came the opportunity to allow individuals to choose which firms would be part of the design teams. Your Committees believe this process led to the appearance that certain companies may have received favorable selection.”

UH opposed HB 114.

In 2018, the Legislature amended the state statute to reinstate the president’s authority but gave it an expiration date of June 20, 2021.

When 2021 came, the Legislature changed the sunset date to June 30 of this year. The author of that bill, Senate Bill 589, was Kim, and one of the co-sponsors was Dela Cruz, who by then had become WAM chair.

That bill singled out the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine and UH cancer center, had each received substantial public funds and other resources.

“It is in the public’s interest that State resources be efficiently and effectively managed to optimize the public benefits,” the bill stated.

UH opposed SB 589.

HB 2499 would repeal the 2021 law and give the UH president permanent procurement power, something that is standard for the leaders of other government institutions.

As Gouveia noted in her testimony, prior to 2013 — and currently, as allowed (for now) by the 2021 law — the president had the duties, powers and authority of a chief procurement officer.

It is similar, she said, to the administrative director of the courts for the Judiciary, the president of the Senate, the speaker of the House, the chair of the board of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the superintendent of the Department of Education, the CEO of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation and the administrator of the State Procurement Office.

Under the 2013 law, Gouveia said UH has had to operate under “a bifurcated procurement system.” There was one set of procedures, templates, forms and approval workflows specific to goods and services, and another set for construction and construction-related professional services.

The dual authority, Gouveia testified, has “caused confusion” for both UH personnel “and, more importantly, the vendor and contracting community” who bid on university projects.

Kim did not return a call for comment.