Stealing Islands from Hawaii and Why the Lanai Manele Bay Heist Was a Setup

There was a quiet undertone of near-panic in the legislature chambers at 11 A.M. on Wednesday, April 24th, 2019. There was, underway, an uncomfortable attempt to push HB1032 through committee despite aggressive, widespread public opposition to this legislation and its companion, SB1257, for weeks on end before this hearing.  A petition was presented that displayed hundreds of angry comments aimed at the very idea of privatizing public lands, much less the legislation itself. Every legislator had seen this. There were persistent in-person public testimonies throughout the hearings, carefully researched and flawlessly presented, and emails from every part of the State protesting this atrocity.  Overwhelmed with the poor logic of privatization of public assets, legislators backpedaled, trying to put a pretty face on what could only be ugly, an increasingly hard sell.  It looked as if HB1032 was going down.

Ah, but then, there was that suggestion.  THAT suggestion.  After pointing out that she was a former BLNR member (the board that would approve any lease) Lynn McCrory, Pulama Lanai’s senior vice president of government affairs, and Larry Ellison's front person on Lanai, insisted Lanai’s lone recreational harbor is the poster child for a small boat harbor that would benefit from private management. She testified three times that Manele “has surrounding land that could be added to provide more opportunities for the boating community,” although she neglected to mention Pulama owns and controls this land.  A reprint of the testimony can be found below.*

So it was then, by this mere suggestion from a top official of a private management company that operates the harbor's "surrounding land", Larry Ellison's land, that Lanai's public harbor would be thrown into the sacrificial boiling oil of privatization to appease the god of money -- in this case, Larry Ellison's money -- a familiar scenario, as all of our legislators are now worshipers. Even Lanai Representative Lynn DeCoite commented that she'd never been notified of the Manele Bay privatization option -- she knew nothing about it until the final vote on April 30th.  

And when it was over and the votes were cast, it was the public harbor at Manele Bay that would turn private, no doubt destined to be an enclave for Ellison's rich friends . . . a private kind of place where the one-percent could share a cold one and talk about investments.  Private security would keep the Lanai riffraff from disturbing the day, assuring a quiet and enjoyable experience.  The official explanation: Manele Bay Public Marina would be a pilot project for State public harbor privatization.

There was absolutely NO JUSTIFICATION for privatizing Lanai's Manele Bay public harbor, because it has consistently been a profitable harbor for the State of Hawaii, showing $93,148 in profit as of the last viewable accounting period.

Manele Bay, Lanai, historic public harbor for decades, was now dubbed the pilot project for public marina privatization. The fly in the ointment, or one of them, was that DoBOR's Underwood, in his "Strategic Plan" for the public harbors in Hawaii, clearly states, in writing, that Kewalo Basin was, in fact, the pilot project for privatization and that Howard Hughes Corp would light the way.   Howard Hughes Corp did indeed light the way by doubling, and then raising once again, on top of that, the slip fees in Kewalo's now too-expensive-for-the-public marina that is being developed to the lessee's for-profit plans. 

Another in-your-face snub by lawmakers -- the very same ones that we trust, elect and then pay with our hard-earned tax money.

These are the legislators who just sold out the people of Hawaii to private interests:

What you can do to stop this legislation when it goes to the Governor:

There is a special contact form on the Governor's website where you can submit your opposition to HB1032 and ask the governor to veto this bill.  It will only take you a few minutes to do this and will help tremendously.  Click here to go to that form: https://governor.hawaii.gov/contact-us/comments-on-legislation/

Please join us in opposing HB1032, and any similar legislation, forever.  Please sign the petition below and let your voice be heard (Please Note: iPetitions.com provides this service to us for free. When you submit your signature, it will ask for a donation. You don't need to donate and your petition was submitted.  Donating is entirely voluntary and will not affect your entry):

* Larry Ellison's Front, Lynn McCrory, Testified Three Times Before the Legislature in Favor of Privatization; see testimony below, click to enlarge: