The transition of control over the summit of Maunakea has been slow going over the past year, but could speed up soon.
In 2022, then-Gov. David Ige signed into law a measure creating the Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority, a new state body that would take over management of the mountain’s summit region from its current steward, the University of Hawaii, in five years.
One year after forming, the MKSOA board has made slow progress toward that transition, but Chair John Komeiji is optimistic that the pace should pick up later this year.
“The entire focus of the last year has been building internal capacity,” Komeiji said, explaining that for most of 2023, the MKSOA has had no actual employees, leaving the body’s volunteer board to manage every aspect of the authority. “The board members have had to do things like drafting documents on their own.”
In September 2023, the MKSOA hired its first employee, an executive assistant. And on Thursday, the board approved the nomination of John De Fries as the agency’s first executive director, which Komeiji said should speed up the hiring process for additional employees.
“We did get $14 million from the state Legislature,” Komeiji said. “So, we do have resources, but the challenge has been understanding how the state system works and getting to where we can actually get that money.”
However, Komeiji acknowledged the board is well aware of the July 2028 deadline to complete the transition — although he noted that the five-year transition period didn’t actually begin until July 2023 — and initiated three projects to inform future decisions well before the appointment of De Fries.
Those projects, he said, include the formation of a joint committee of both MKSOA board members and UH regents to adjudicate potential disputes between the two organizations about how the mountain should be co-managed during the transition period.
“That committee hasn’t been needed yet,” Komeiji said.
Another project is a full inventory of UH assets that eventually will be transferred to MKSOA in 2028, ranging from vehicles to the midlevel facility at Halepohaku.
Included in that inventory will be minutiae regarding what funding strings are attached to each asset — for example, if a vehicle was awarded to UH by a federal grant, there might be conditions regarding the vehicle’s future use that MKSOA will have to navigate, Komeiji said.
“It’s going to be tedious work, but it will be necessary,” he said.
The final, and most substantial, project currently being conducted is the development of a new Maunakea Master Plan. Komeiji said the new plan is in its early stages of development, but hopes that initial public outreach to shape the plan could begin before the end of the year.
Komeiji added the MKSOA does not intend to “recreate the wheel,” but will instead review UH’s own master plan and make amendments where necessary.
In the meantime, Komeiji said MKSOA has opted to not get involved in the day-to-day operations on the mountain and only requests to be kept in the loop regarding new developments in the area.
Consequently, Greg Chun, executive director of UH’s Center for Maunakea Stewardship, presents monthly updates about the status of the summit to the MKSOA board, but summit operations are largely unchanged from before the authority’s formation.
However, some clouds loom on the authority’s horizon. In January, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court against the MKSOA, arguing it is structured to “works towards complete privatization of Maunakea lands to the sole benefit of the UH astronomy program and to the detriment of other trust purposes and other beneficiaries of the ceded lands trust,” according to an OHA statement at the time.
The lawsuit, which aims to dissolve the authority, has not progressed since its filing.
A brief statement by OHA Board counsel Justice Robert Klein stated that OHA does not agree the MKSOA “legally exists or is properly constituted.”
Komeiji said he is not able to comment about ongoing legal actions.
Kealoha Pisciotta, president of activist group Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, said she feels the Big Island community is generally not well-informed about what the authority is doing, but said people likely will become more aware of efforts to make the organization less transparent: A measure in the state Legislature, House Bill 2692, would make the MKSOA exempt from the state “Sunshine Law,” which requires government organizations to hold open meetings.
“The community needs to be clear on what they’re doing,” Pisciotta said. “What wrong with doing things in the light?”
Meanwhile, the authority is still racing against a clock. UH currently leases the summit land from the state, with that lease set to expire in 2033. Upon the creation of the MKSOA, UH ceased work toward renewing the master lease or any of the subleases held by the various Maunakea observatories.
Komeiji said he believes the authority will have enough time to complete the lengthy bureaucratic work needed to renew those leases, but added that any lease renewals will be contingent upon how the final Master Plan envisions the state of Maunakea astronomy.
UH representatives declined to comment on the matter, although Doug Simons, director of UH’s Institute for Astronomy, briefly said he understands that “everybody’s just trying their hardest to speed this process along.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
