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“This project is not simply removing foundations. It’s jackhammering, pouring concrete, and making a lot of noise,” Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC) attorney David Kimo Frankel told the state Board of Land and Natural Resources at an April 27 hearing.

Frankel wanted to dispel any notion that the clearing and excavation work the University of Hawai`i had proposed to start this month on Haleakala was minimal. Mostly, he wanted to stop it from happening.

And he has succeeded, for now.

In a May 3 letter, Lisa Munger, an attorney for the university, informed the NHLC and state deputy attorney general Julie China that faced with new limitations on construction set by the Land Board and a motion in 1st Circuit Court by NHLC’s client, Kilakila `O Haleakala, for a temporary injunction, the university has chosen not to perform any construction activities at this time.more...

Delays continue for the contested case over construction of the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope on Haleakala.

Rosemary Fazio, the new hearing officer appointed last month, has quit, citing objections from Kilakila `O Haleakala (Majestic is Haleakala), a native Hawaiian group that opposes the telescope.

On April 13, state Board of Land and Natural Resources chair William Aila appointed Fazio to replace Steven Jacobson, the case’s original hearing officer who was ousted in March after the board found he had had unpermitted ex parte communication with the University of Hawai`i, which holds the Conservation District Use Permit to construct the telescope.

Kilakila `O Haleakala, the petitioner in the case, objected to the appointment because Fazio, a partner with Ashford & Wriston, occasionally represents University of Hawai`i president M.R.C. Greenwood.

In a May 1 letter to Aila, Fazio stated that although she did not believe her representation of Greenwood would compromise her objectivity, she felt it was prudent to withdraw as hearing officer given Kilakila’s objections.

She stated that she had already started reviewing the documents and discussing the case with Aila's staff, but would not charge the Department of Land and Natural Resources for her services.

On May 2, Aila appointed former state deputy attorney general Lane Ishida to replace Fazio. Comments or objections to Ishida’s appointment must be filed with the DLNR by May 10.

The state Board of Land and Natural Resources yesterday amended the University of Hawai`i Institute for Astronomy's Conservation District Use Permit to construct the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope on Haleakala.

In its Minute Order No. 19 , the Land Board limited construction during the contested case hearing over the permit to removal of a site known as Reber Circle and other unused facilities. The board added that any construction done before the conclusion of the contested case "is done at UHIfA's sole risk and discretion and ... shall not be a basis for a later assertion of vested rights or exclusive privilege."

The decision, made with the concurrence of only four of the Land Board's seven members, diverges from the board's Minute Order No. 17, which recommended only that the permit be amended to require the university to provide 30 days notice of construction work and to give the Land Board the ability to impose conditions on construction activities.

Kitty Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, has made little secret of her wish to see the protected status of the green sea turtle removed. This legislative session, she found an ally in Rep. Fay Hanohano, who introduced House Resolution 61 and House Concurrent Resolution 87, which (if adopted) would have urged the National Marine Fisheries Service to “recognize the recovery of the Hawaiian green sea turtle and begin active management of this important species” and to “delist it from the threatened list under the Endangered Species Act.”

Then the resolutions were hijacked. On April 5, the House Committee on Water, Land, and Ocean Resources was set to hear the two identical resolutions – but now they were proposed to have nothing at all to do with turtles and instead were calling on the Office of Planning to work with Honolulu government officials to develop a master plan for Koreatown.

Support for the original measures was submitted by the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs (which included a statement by Simonds), two former council members (one of whom has been employed as a contractor by Wespac in recent years), and a current council staff member, Josh DeMello, who scolded the Legislature for its sleight of hand.

“Why does [the proposed resolution] totally change the resolution from green sea turtles to koreatown?” DeMello’s emailed testimony states. “This is a sham being perpetrated by the legislature by noticing for honu and changing the bill to something completely different. If you wanted a koreatown reso, you shouldve submitted one. Cannabalizing an existing one is shameful and arrogant. Let the honu resolution stand and do not accept the … proposed bill” [sic].

The resolutions state that “scientific studies as well as reports by Native Hawaiian lawaia (cultural practitioners of fishing) have concluded that the honu is approaching full recovery and that the environment and ecosystem are suffering from the current over-production, over-population, and lack of management of honu.”

By the afternoon of Monday, April 8, the Koreatown language had been inserted into another resolution, HCR 168, which had originally urged the formation of Community Concerns Councils for rural areas.

In the end, the WLO committee decided to defer action on the honu resolution, but not before Simonds submitted further testimony as president of the Maunalua Hawaiian Civic Club. "Access to honu, another of our traditional resources, is severely restricted under the [Endangered Species Act," she wrote.