University of Hawaii officials were in the hot seat Tuesday during a discussion about a bill that would remove the university as the managing authority for the summit lands on Maunakea.
House Bill 2024, a controversial bill that would place all Maunakea lands above the 6,500-foot level under the management of a new state entity, the Mauna a Wakea Stewardship Authority, was the subject of a Tuesday hearing by the Senate Committee on Higher Education.
Because the hearing ran long, committee chair and Oahu Sen. Donna Mercado Kim postponed the vote until today at noon.
However, there was more than enough time for committee members to grill UH representatives about whether the university should be allowed to continue to manage the mountain.
UH President David Lassner, executive director of UH’s Center for Maunakea Stewardship Greg Chun, and UH Board of Regents Vice Chair Randolph Moore bore the brunt of the committee’s inquiry.
Kim and Oahu Sen. Kurt Fevella asked Lassner and Moore how many times they had visited the summit: Lassner guessed “about five or six times,” while Moore guessed “maybe four.”
Kim zeroed in on the university’s failure to complete its administrative rules for UH-managed lands on Maunakea in a timely fashion. While work on the rules began in 2014, they were only signed into law by Gov. David Ige in 2020.
Lassner said Ige specifically told the university to suspend work on the administrative rules in 2015 during the first protests against the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Kim asked Moore why the people of Hawaii should have confidence that future UH actions will not also take the better part of a decade to complete.
“If we allow this organization to continue … what is the plan? What is the vision? What’s the future?” Kim asked, to which Moore said the current plan is to reduce the number of astronomical facilities on the summit to nine.
Following this, Fevella, evidently frustrated with Moore’s answers, went on a lengthy tirade against UH’s management of the mountain.
“The way you guys want it is not going to go down well with the people of Hawaii,” Fevella said. “I don’t care how many jobs you think you’re employing up there, everybody else knows better. You can tell us they’re getting $100,000 jobs … where were those jobs 20 years ago?
“No other state, no other country in the world, would let you guys even touch a sacred mountain,” Fevella went on. “So, the question is, in 2033, when they uprise and come to this capital to stop the lease to Maunakea, what will be your guys’ plan? Because it’s coming.”
After the UH officials commented, several other members of the public testified. Most of the testimony was in opposition to the measure, with some concerned that it would negatively affect the astronomy industry along with the state’s economy. Others expressed concern that the bill’s requirement that the Stewardship Authority’s board include several Native Hawaiian members is racial discrimination and therefore unconstitutional.
Most of the general public testimony did not elicit further follow-up discussion among committee members. Nor did the committee discuss the 356 pages of written testimony submitted to the hearing.
The committee’s final decision on the bill will be made today at noon. Should it pass the committee, it will then go before the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.