A battle between a group of Puna residents and a Puna retreat is delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Kalani Oceanside Retreat in lower Puna, more commonly called Kalani Honua, has sought a $100,000 grant to convert cesspools on the retreat into septic systems for the better part of two years, to the consternation of a group of Puna residents opposed to the high traffic drawn to the retreat.
However, Lily Cash, board president of Kalani Honua Inc., said the grant is still pending and likely will be delayed even further thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re waiting to see if it’s possible to get an extension,” Cash said. “But for now, we’re still going through the motions. There’s a lot of things that need to get turned in and we’re trying to get a lot of our old permits straightened out.”
The grant has already been a long time coming. In 2018, state Rep. Joy San Buenaventura supported the $100,000 grant to convert 11 cesspools at the retreat into 12 septic systems. However, the existence of that grant has been uncertain since then, after the Kilauea eruption forced Kalani Honua Inc. to close the retreat down and put it up for sale.
Cash and her fellow board members took control of the retreat from the previous board in 2019 and has said the grant is still on the table for the retreat.
However, San Buenaventura said the point is moot thanks to the massive strain on the state budget caused by the pandemic.
“There’s no grant funding at all this session, for anybody,” San Buenaventura said.
Cash said the retreat has been closed due to the pandemic, but added that the board is looking into ways to reopen in a limited capacity.
With the retreat closed and the grant unlikely to materialize soon, a group of Puna residents called the Puna Coastal Alliance may be mollified for now. Earlier this year, the group, frustrated by the noisy events being regularly held at the retreat, attempted to file an ethics complaint against San Buenaventura for her support of the grant, claiming that she was aware that the retreat was operating without valid building permits.
“Representative San Buenaventura championed funding an organization that was notoriously out of compliance with local codes, does not pay taxes, and simply capitalized on the area’s natural beauty for the benefit of a few,” wrote Coastal Alliance member John DuBois in an email. “Meanwhile, qualified organizations, that do comply, that do pay taxes, were not funded. We believe that is unethical.”
However, the Hawaii State Ethics Commission rejected that complaint outright, telling the Coastal Alliance that the issue did not fall under its purview.
San Buenaventura said the abortive complaint was a nonissue and added that the Coastal Alliance has made no attempts to contact her office since then.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.