{"id":5271,"date":"2019-05-01T00:58:11","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T00:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/?p=5271"},"modified":"2019-05-16T12:56:30","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T12:56:30","slug":"public_outcry_waters_down_hb1032","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/01\/public_outcry_waters_down_hb1032\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Outcry Stops DLNR\/DoBOR Public Lands Privatization Bid . . . For Now"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tLegislators Water Down Bill Leaving Many Unanswered Questions\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTrue Intent of Legislation Outed by Alert Public During Deliberations<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

What do you give the man who has everything? Give up?\u00a0 A public harbor, of course!\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

In a bizarre twist at the State Capitol, last Friday, April 26th<\/sup>, the legislature, backpedaling in the face of public outcry, has apparently decided to drastically downscale public submerged land privatization ambitions, morphing these into a single \"Pilot Project\" that hands billionaire, Larry Ellison, the public harbor at Manele Bay on Lanai<\/a>.\u00a0 This whole turn of events seemingly came out of nowhere, and everyone has been left wondering how Lanai's Manele Bay public harbor has become a privatization \"Pilot Project\" when there is already one in progress at Kewalo Basin, courtesy of the Howard Hughes Corporation. \u00a0 As if to put an exclamation point on the latter,\u00a0 DoBOR's Ed Underwood has been continuously reminding the public, over the past couple of years, in writing and at high-profile meetings, that the Howard Hughes' lease arrangement has been and is currently the \"Pilot Project for Submerged Lands Privatization.\"
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House Bill 1032 was a DLNR\/DoBOR inspired piece of legislation that was an unapologetic attempt to hand public submerged and fast lands, in Hawaii\u2019s statewide public harbor system, over to private, for-profit interests.\u00a0 Essentially, this was a bid by DLNR Chair, Suzanne Case, and DoBOR administrator, Ed Underwood, to rid themselves of the responsibility of administering Hawaii's public harbor system.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harbor management has always been difficult for the State, but it seemed to have gotten much worse around the time that the previous Chair, Laura Thielen took over the DLNR.\u00a0 Ironically, it was during her tenure that the harbor saw drastic rate increases and an attempt to change the laws to make privatization of public assets, like our harbors, much easier. After the Thielen rate increases, harbor administration worsened, the facilities experienced an accelerated deterioration until, today, there are tens of thousands of dollars in unrecoverable lost revenue every month from unrented boat slips, while harbor infrastructure continues to crumble at an alarming rate.
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At first glance, the HB1032 legislation emerged so watered down that it appeared to be a clear victory for the people.\u00a0 And, in the short term, it was.\u00a0 But this kind of legislation has been popping up more frequently in the legislature, especially over the past ten years, and there is nothing to suggest that it won\u2019t reappear. <\/span><\/p>\n

**Public beware:<\/strong><\/em> SB1258, an identical bill to HB1032, that would privatize Hawaii's public submerged lands, is now waiting for legislative review, and will face a vote when the new legislative session begins in January, 2020.<\/strong><\/em>**<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Hawaii is besieged with greedy corporate interests wanting to control public lands and assets because of the lucrative tourist dollar here.\u00a0 Clearly, there needs to be a new model for administering public assets and lands, one that does not include privatization of public property as a component.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

HB1032\u2019s failure was a temporary reprieve from the onslaught of greedy private interests salivating to control public lands, but, to be sure, the barbarians are at the gate and there will be more attempts like this in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Please see our account<\/a> of the conclusion to deliberations regarding HB1032's companion bill, SB1257<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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For Those of You Who Are Interested in The Fine Print \u2013 What Happened on Friday, April 26th<\/sup>, with Regards to HB1032 and the Companion Bill, SB1257 -- We\u2019ve Reprinted the following Notice from One of the Activists Who Spearheaded Opposition<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you, thank you, thank you<\/em>,<\/strong>\u00a0to each and all of you for signing the Petition opposing SB1257 and HB1032 (over\u00a0500\u00a0signatures in less than a week), and for calling and e-mailing your Legislators and expressing concern about DOBOR's attempts to lay the groundwork for a complete transfer of the Ala Wai Harbor \"in its entirety<\/em>\" (i.e. fast lands, submerged lands, everything you see in the Harbor) to private<\/u> corporations for private<\/u> profit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

YOUR VOICES WERE HEARD LOUD AND CLEAR.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

First and foremost, DOBOR will NOT<\/u> <\/strong>be allowed to lease out the Ala Wai Harbor \"in its entirety\" as it sought to do via HB1032, at least not anytime soon.\u00a0 Although HB1032 is moving forward to a final vote, the authority that it will grant to DOBOR is FAR, FAR LESS than what was sought in earlier versions of the Bill by DOBOR (and the proponent of DOBOR's efforts, Sen. Sharon Moriwaki).\u00a0 The final language of HB1032 will only allow DOBOR to lease out Manele Bay<\/em> (Lanai) in its entirety, including all submerged lands therein, as part of a five-year \"pilot program\" to determine whether privatization might succeed elsewhere.\u00a0 DOBOR is required to report back to the Legislature on its progress periodically, and the \"pilot program\" will end in 2025.\u00a0 While still posing a dangerous precedent in that it allows for significant leasing of submerged lands, this is a gigantic improvement from the Bill's earlier language that would have essentially allowed this \"pilot program\" to be skipped altogether and for DOBOR to immediately hand over to corporations land and waters that are used by thousands<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0everyday for access to ocean recreation.\u00a0 The legislators obviously heard your call to step cautiously with respect to one of the last places in Waikiki is still \"for locals\" (and not just tourists).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DOBOR will also\u00a0NOT<\/u><\/strong> be allowed to kill the boating community by exponentially increasing the mooring fees charged at the Ala Wai and Keehi.\u00a0 \u00a0SB1257 was killed in its entirety after FOUR attempts to come to an agreement as to its final language.\u00a0 This Bill was clearly designed to drive boaters out of the Ala Wai Harbor to \"clear the way\" for the leasing of the Harbor \"in its entirety<\/em>\" that HB1032 would have<\/u><\/em><\/strong> allowed if it had passed in its earlier form.\u00a0 In short, last week was not a good week for DOBOR.\u00a0 Hopefully those at the helm of DOBOR got the message that their arrogance and contempt for the Public that they are supposed to serve will not be tolerated.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is important to note<\/u><\/strong> that while DOBOR failed to achieve most of what it strived for in this legislative session, it still does have the previous-granted authority to lease out significant portions of the Harbor.\u00a0 DOBOR is rapidly moving to act on that authority, and in fact put out a \"request for proposals\" for private leasing and development of over 11 acres of the Ala Wai Harbor just weeks ago.\u00a0 The land in question includes the place where the fuel-dock once was, the lot where the boat haul-out facility once was, the triangle parking lot by the Helipad, as well as the ENTIRE block of land where the Harbor Office harbor office currently sit (a giant parcel on which a condominium could be built).\u00a0 So, although DOBOR cannot immediately wash its hands of its obligations as the holder of lands held in public trust, as it would like to do, large portions of the Harbor are still under threat of significant private development into condominiums, wedding chapels, or whatever will make corporations rich at the expense of locals.\u00a0 Information on that is available at DOBOR's website, here<\/a>.\u00a0 Relevant dates are pasted below.\u00a0 Visit Hawaii Ocean News<\/a> for updates on DOBOR's RFP (and also a very well-done article about everything that transpired with respect to SB1257 and HB1032).<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, thank you for helping to win an important battle in keeping\u00a0PUBLIC LANDS FOR THE PUBLIC<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Aloha,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Erik<\/span><\/p>\n

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SIGNIFICANT DATES [Re: DOBOR's CURRENT REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS; LEASE BIDS FOR SURROUNDING PROPERTIES AT THE ALA WAI HARBOR]<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Deadline to Submit Notice of Intent form \u2013 April 22, 2019; 4:00 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deadline to Submit Statement of Qualifications \u2013 May 9, 2019; 4:00 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

Notify Qualified Applicants of RFP\u00a0 \u2013 approx May 28, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Deadline to Submit Proposals \u2013 approx July 8, 2019; 4:00 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

Evaluation Committee\u2019s Selection of Developer\u00a0 \u2013 approx July 22, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Land Board Approval of Selected Developer and Negotiation of Development Agreement \u2013 approx August 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do you give the man who has everything? Give up?\u00a0 A public harbor, of course!\u00a0 In a bizarre twist at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lying-to-hawaiis-public","category-privatizing-public-assets","category-stealing-public-lands-and-assets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hawaiioceannews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Texaco-Dock-HB1032-TEXT-2.png?fit=1018%2C782&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiioceannews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}