Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 10, 1 October 2012 — STATE SENATE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STATE SENATE

1) ln recent years, the Legislature has wrestled with providing exemptions to regulatory, environmental and cultural review requirements to support Hawai'i's eeonomie growth. How would you halanee cultural and environmental protections, and the community's opportunity for input with support for the state's economy?

As a successful businessman who has also been a strong environmentalist, I have found that eeonomie progress ean go hand in hand with environmental stewardship. The same must be true for Hawaiian cultural concerns. We must insist that developments benefit the community, not harm it. I oppose any bypassing of EISand appropriate community land-use planning. The EIS process identifies environmental and cultural impacts so planners and the eommunity ean weigh benefits vs. costs.

Because we live in Hawai'i where the culture and environment are important to the indigenous people of this land, itshouldnever be sacrificed for eeonomie gain

Hawai'i's greatest treasures are its people, its environment and its diverse cultural heritage. Although we may face eeonomie challenges, we must consider carefully before taking short cuts that might compromise these treasures for short-term eeonomie gains. Instead we must build an economy that respects and preserves our heritage, that includes everyone in our prosperity, and that responsibly uses our greatest eeonomie assets: our unigue environment, our diverse culture and the spirit of our people.

My position is clear, while eeonomie growth is a very important component to the health of our economy, I do not support an attempt of loeal or state agencies to circumvent rules we must all live by. I cannot condone reckless disregard for violation of environmental, historical or cultural protections. Government must adhere to the same rules we all must follow to preserve and protect our community from careless abuse. I oppose PLDC.

The best ideas regularly eome from community input. All too often eeonomie decisions have conseguences that alter the true essence of who we are, ending up costing in real value. My focus will be on maintaining who we are, insisting development adhere to our unigue setting and society. I oppose light rail for that reason - it will be obsolete in the 20-30 years it takes to build. Opportunity to create needed infrastructure wasted, environment shredded.

For generations, my family has been a paramount advocate for the preservation of our Hawaiian culture. We have strived to protect the environment where we gather the materialswhicharetheheartofhula. These thoughts and our state's motto, "Ua Mau Ke Ea 0 Ka 'Aina I Ka Pono," have always influenced my decisions on land use and policies. Working together we will move Hawai'i into a new day

I don't believe supporting Hawai'i's eeonomie growth necessarily conflicts with adhering to important environmental, cultural, community input reguirements. Perhaps the guestion should be: ean regulatory schemes maintain integrity if streamlined or expedited in spedfied situations? Are the real issues laek of staffing, expertise, or are there systemic concerns needing review to ensure effective protection and effident process? That is the balance we need to strike with all stakeholders at the table to craft a plan.

The old adage "Strike while theironishot!"isnevertruerthan in matters of eeonomie growth. Successful eeonomie growth reguires accurate assessments and timely action. Cultural and environmental costs must be measured against the value the growth will provideto our overall guality of life. A eollahoration of community, business and government would create an eeonomie master plan that respects culture, protects our environment and provides eeonomie flexibility with built-in periodic review.

I support all efforts to enhanee eeonomie growth in Hawai'i, including public-private partnerships, and redudng burdensome regulatory barriers to growth. However, I oppose those legislative initiatives that exempt only the state from the reguirements on the private sector and those whieh limit or remove community hearings and input. The recent Supreme Court ruling involving iwi, against the city's illegal rail project, is a good example why we cannot ignore existing legal process.

Currentlegislators havedone a dismal and even totalitarian job of usurping environmental and cultural laws for their crony government projects such as rail and Abercrombie's Monolithic Monstrosity in Kaka'ako. Being raised going to Wai'anae and Nānāikapono elementary schools, I know firsthand the unfair treatment Hawaiians get living in undeveloped areas. I will confront the wealthy power mongering Democrat Oligarchy that seeks to hold down eeonomie growth and the input of the poor and needy.

I would tend to consider cultural and environmental protections more important than potential eeonomie growth. I do not disagree that eeonomie growth is necessary and that the application of some of our regulations may be misplaced or an unreasonable obstruction. However, I believe that the intent of our cultural and environmental protections are for the long term and for our future generations and should generally be complied with.

All decisions affecting the people of Hawai'i should balance the cultural, economicand environmental factors affected and desired by those dedsions. These issues need to be thoroughly discussed in an open and collaborative manner prior to making a final dedsion. In order to meet these objectives, regulations should allow for public participation and the sharing of mana'o, promote predictability and reduce uncertainty, account for benefits and costs, and be easy to understand and implement.

This represents one of the clearest policy differences between myself and the ineumbent. I am opposed to Act 55, whieh authorizes the Public Land Development Corp. Mr. Galuteria was one of its strongest supporters. This bill would sabotage the achievements of both environmentalists and Native Hawaiians who have fought to preserve our cultural heritage and protect our precious 'ohana. If elected, one of my first initiatives will be tosponsor the repeal of this legislation.

The State of Hawai'i should not be exempted from any environmental laws or regulations. This includes the need for Environmental lmpact and Cultural Surveys prior to construction of the rail. Generally, government should never have spedal privileges or be exempted from laws whieh private citizens and corporations are held to. I would not support exempting the State of Hawai'i from any regulatory review unless the exemption covers private citizens and corporations as well.

Hawai'i is a special plaee, onee cultural or environmental treasures are lost, we will never get them back. We must use eommon sense in determining projects that have minimal impact on cultural and environmental assets, and allow those to proceed on an expedited basis. This session, we focused on expediting repairs and maintenance of existing state fadlities (schools, colleges, office buildings), including spedfic bridges. New projects or development should receive full cultural and environmental review.

The recent Hawai'i Supreme Court decision against the city rail project is indicative of the general arrogance of politidans in our State of Hawai'i. The dty pulled a "bait and switch" on the public, then failed to show any cultural respect for the Hawaiian people. We need to take a step back and slow the over-development paee. We need to repeal Act 55, whieh is the most corrupt act ever in our state's history.

As Senate Energy and Environment Committee ehaip l've been concerned about efforts to fast-track construction at the expense of proper environmental and cultural review and community input. I've instead been advocating for legislation, such as Act 172 (2012), whieh allowsapplicants and agendes to bypass an environmental assessment and proceed diredly to an environmental impact statement (EIS) if the proposed project is likely to reguire an EIS anyway. This saves time/money without eompromising necessary safeguards.

I propose OHA immediately survey all Hawaiian Home lands into parcels whether there are roads, or infrastructure, put names of all eligible Hawaiians into a database, and the eomputer assign a lot to eaeh eligible person. That person could trade that parcel with any other eligible Hawaiian on the list regardless of whieh island the lot is on. He could move or build any type structure he desired on that pieee of land.

LEGISLATURE

I MANA KA LEO | EMP0WER Y0UR V0ICE

DISTRICT 2 PUNA RUSSELL RUDERMAN (D)

DARYL LEE SMITH (R)

DISTRICT 3 NĀ'ĀLEHU-KAILUA-KONA JOSH GREEN (D) *

JEFF LaFRANCE (R)

DISTRICT 4 KA'ŪPŪLEHU-WAIMEA-NORTH HILO KELLY GREENWELL (G)

MALAMA SOLOMON (D) **

DISTRICT 6 WEST MAUI, S0UTH MAUI ROZ BAKER (D) *

DISTRICT 9 0IAM0N0 HEAO-KĀHAIA-HAWAI'I KAI KURT LAJALA (D)

SAM SLOM (R) *

DISTRICT 10 ERIC MARSHALL (R)

DISTRICT 11 MAKIKI-TANTALUS-MĀNOA BRAIN TANIGUCHI (D) *

DISTRICT 12 KAKA'AKO-MCCULLY-WAIKlKl BRICKWOOD GALUTERIA (D) *

LIZ LARSON (R)

DISTRICT 16 PEARL HARBOR-PEARL CITY-AIEA MIKE GRECO (R)

DAVID IGE (D) *

DISTRICT 20 KAPOLEI-MAKAKILO DEAN KALANI CAPELOUTO (R)

MIKE GABBARD (D) *

DISTRICT 21 KALAELOA-WA'IANAE-MĀKAHA DICKYJ JOHNSON (R)

Generally l'm opposed to lifting environmental and cultural protection laws. We could try to balance the need to preserve with supporting our economy by pladng all state and ceded lands into a trust. This trust would be run like DHHL, where only longterm leases could be given out. Our state's current policy, whieh allows state and ceded land to be sold and transferred via resolution, is causing this precious resource to be gradually lost forever.

Providing additional exemptions for cultural and environmental regulatory review will only serve special interest groups andviolates publictrust. It will also diminish public input and awareness. The (newly created) Public Land Development Corp. is currently exempt regardless of public opposition and disdain. Act 55 and the PLDC needs to be repealed. It is evident that albeit legal and conforming within the law it isn't right and continued public eoncerns will be ignored and dismissed.

The cultural and environmental protections must supersede all efforts to streamline and expedite development. The best examples of this are the Supreme Court decisions regarding the Native Hawaiian cultural impacts reguiring a complete archaeological study regarding the building of the rail system, reguiring an EIS for the Hawai'i Superferry and EIS update for Turtle Bay Resort expansion. The law is eleap the Hawai'i Supreme Court has ruled in the three examples pointed out above.

Our environment is our economy and our economy is our environment. The 2012 Legislature tried to recalibrate this sensitive balance but went overboard in favor of suspending permitting and many environmental and cultural review reguirements. If elected to the state Senate, I pledge to keep the planning process as a reflection of our community's values and will use the Superferry and halted rail project as well as the 2012 Legislature as lessons learned.

I support a diversified economy that provides living wage jobs, respects our heritage and guality of life Unregulated development hurts residents' guality of life, damages resources, disrespects our heritage, and doesn't diversify our economy. I oppose bypassing land-use and zoning lawsandsupportrepealingthePublicLands Development Corp. for these reasons. Building a stronger economy reguires improving K-12 student achievement, higher education that produces graduates, and government support forsmallandstart-upbusinesses.

*Denotes incumbent ** Appointed by governor in December 2010 to fill the seat left vacant by Dwight Taka mine.

DISTRICT 21 KALAELOA-WA'IANAE-MĀKAHA MAILE SHIMABUKURO (D) *

DISTRICT 22 WAH I AWĀ- WH ITMORE-MILILANI MAUKA CHARLES 'BO' AKI (R)

DISTRICT 23 HE'EIA-LĀ'IE-WAIALUA CLAYTON HEE (D) *

COLLEEN MEYER (R)

DISTRICT 25 HAWAI'I KAI-WAIMĀNALU-KAILUA LAURA ĪHIELEN (D)