...AND THE UGLY: There’s good news and bad news on the Lepeuli- aka Larsen’s Beach- front.
The good news is that the appeal of the Bruce Laymon’s CDUA permit- filed by Sierra Club- along with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (HLC) and the Surfrider Foundation and supported by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has been granted.
The bad news is that it will be heard in Honolulu on the May 13th meeting of the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR).
According to Hope Kallai of Malama Moloa`a (MM) Laymon has clearcut the beach and shredded coral and apparently no agency seems to care. And there’s still no usable access while the various “stakeholder” parties wrangle over whether or not to honor the traditional Alaloa or make believe it never existed with the later seemingly being the one thing they all agree upon.
For those who are uninitiated in the debacle, follow the links above for our past posts.
Apparently the best Kaua`i people who can’t afford airfare can do is to write to various people and agencies.
Here’s a primer in preparing testimony from MM.
----
Lepeuli CDUA appeal will be discussed at the BLNR meeting May 13 in Honolulu
According to (Tiger) Kimberly K. Tiger Mills, Staff Planner for the State of Hawaii Department of Land & Natural Resources (DLNR) Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands (OCCL), the appeal of the approval of the Paradise Ranch Conservation District Use Application to convert shorefront coastal scrub into commercial cattle pasture will be considered by the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) on THURSDAY, May 13, 2010. Meetings begin at 9 am at the
Kalanimoku Building1151 Punchbowl St.Honolulu , HI 96813www.hawaii.gov/dlnr/occl
dlnr@hawaii.gov
The agenda is not available yet, but Lepeuli as an agenda item has been confirmed. Book flights now!
The BLNR meeting agenda for May 13th will appear on our website one week prior on May 6th: http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/chair/meeting
· There are many reasons for considering the appeal of this CDUA. There has been seriously inadequate community involvement. Repeated requests from the public as well as 3 requests from Senator Gary Hooser (even offering to fund the DLNR trip to Kauai for the meeting) have been refused.
-There are inadequate agency comments. Three federally listed species will potentially be negatively impacted by this project, yet there is no Habitat Conservation Plan (as required under HRS 195D-21) for these species. Federal funds are being used for pasture conversion of a native habitat with potential impacts to endangered species.
-There must be a current shoreline certification. There has not been a state survey since 1978. Project applicant states “property boundary is makai of shoreline.” He manages the coral cobble and sand with a BrushHog. This is PUBLIC LAND in the Conservation District. Applicant has removed the debris line with machinery.
-Ancient Alaloa has NEVER been closed off. It is a significant trail with important cultural and PASH access needs. It has been in continual use for many hundreds of years. All ancient roads and trails are state land. The cultural comments of segment of the Alaloa (Arch siste 1034) managed by the Na Ala Hele trail system document the importance of this trail system and the antiquity of it. The Lepeuli must be recognized as an Archaeological Site and offered state protection.
-There must be a Cultural Impact Assessment of the ahupua`a of Lepeuli before any more mechanized manipulation of cultural sites present.
DLNR never contacted any harvesters or user groups of the most important limu kohu resources in Hawaii .
-Agriculture (cattle operations) will not benefit the reef. This statement is ridiculous.
-There has never been an estimate at the usage and visitation of the Alaloa or the County Right-Of-Way. The user groups must be defined and consulted before any new trail is designed. Traditional gathers must be consulted about trail access.
-Any new trail configuration must be designed to PASH and ADA Standards. The Ancient Alaloa falls under Historic Trail standards; the County Right of Way must adhere to ADA Trail standards.
-Impact to protected species of Alaloa closure (and subsequent increase in beach travel) has not been considered.
-Native plant communities and indigenous wildlife are protected under HRS 195.
-Beach access is protected by Hawaii state laws including the right of safe transit along the shorelines. HRS 115-5 offers the public a 6’ transit corridor in areas where there are rocky shorelines or cliffs. Blocking any public access with fences or gates to the shoreline is a misdemeanor and punishable by fines.
Letters can be written to the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) at
Adaline Cummings, SecretaryBoard of Land & Natural Resources1151 Punchbowl Street, Suite 130Honolulu, Hawaii 96813Phone: 808-587-0404Fax: 808-587-0390
adaline.f.cummings@hawaii.gov
Comments should also be sent to Tiger Mills of the Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands
Kimberly K. (Tiger) Mills, Staff PlannerState of HawaiiDepartment of Land & Natural ResourcesOffice of Conservation and Coastal LandsP.O. Box 621Honolulu, Hawaii 96809
kimberly.mills@hawaii.gov
Request a current Shoreline Certification from the State Land Survey Division
Reid K. Siarot, State Land Surveyor
Department of Accounting & General Services
Land Survey Division
1151 Punchbowl St., Rm 210
Honolulu Hawaii 96813
(808) 586-0390
(808) 586-0383 fax
reid.k.siarot@hawaii.gov
and
Christopher L. Conger, Shoreline Specialist
University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program
Department of Land and Natural Resources
1151 Punchbowl St., Rm 131
Honolulu Hawaii 96813
(808) 587-0049 work
(808) 520-4892 work cell
(808) 587-0322 fax
Chris.L.Conger@hawaii.gov
Request a Cultural Impact Assessment (CIA) and Archaeological Inventory/Assessment from
Puaalaokalani Aiu, Administrator
State Historic Preservation Division
Kakuhihewa Building,
601 Kamokila Blvd., Suite 555,
Kapolei, Hawai`i , 96707Ph: (808) 692-8015Fax: (808) 692-8020
Pua.Aiu@hawaii.gov
nancy.a.mcmahon@hawaii.gov
And
Clyde Namu`o
OHA
711 Kapi'olani Blvd., Ste. 500
Honolulu, HI 96813
Phone: (808) 594-1835
Fax: (808) 594-1865
clydenamuo@oha.org
OHA Washington, D.C., Bureau50 F St. NW, Ste. 3300Washington, D.C. 20001 Ph: (202) 454-0920 Fax: (202) 789-1758 timjohnson@ohadc.org
OHA Kaua'i & Ni'ihau2970 Kele Street, Ste. 113Lihu'e, HI 96766Phone: (808) 241-3390Fax: (808) 241-3508 kalikos@oha.org
kaim@oha.org
Comments should also be sent to the county at
mayor@kauai.gov;openspace@kauai.gov; councilmembers@kauai.gov; CouncilTestimony@kauai.gov; csimao@kauai.gov;
State emails:
dlnr@hawaii.gov; adaline.f.cummings@hawaii.gov; kimberly.mills@hawaii.gov; reid.k.siarot@hawaii.gov; Chris.L.Conger@hawaii.gov; Pua.Aiu@hawaii.gov;
nancy.a.mcmahon@hawaii.gov; clydenamuo@oha.org; timjohnson@ohadc.org; kalikos@oha.org
kaim@oha.org
Showing posts with label OHA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OHA. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Thursday, May 7, 2009
NOT EVEN A BONE
NOT EVEN A BONE: It’s never easy to fight city hall but in Hawai`i it’s usually downright impossible.
Trying to accomplish anything in the public interest is an exercise in frustration as officials simply stonewall and deny, deny, deny, often in defiance of the law, telling citizens “if you don’t like it, sue us”.
But even if you had the money for a lawsuit just try to finding a lawyer willing to buck the system, take on the deep pockets of government and developers and risk never getting a hand into those pockets with one of those well-paying “special counsel” or corporate gigs in a state where revenge is the top coin of the realm.
So your average Joe Activist ends up depending on a dwindling handful of attorneys and organizations to defend our rights by going though the often interminable process that leads to the little victories that uphold the law in what should be no-brainer cases.
The problem is that when we put ourselves at the mercy of those who filed the suit, when they get paid off or when their self-interest wins out over principle not only are we left on the losing side with little or no recourse but a precedent is set that makes re-filing the case all but impossible.
Once again the people have been sold down the river with an unfathomable “settlement” by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) and a string of litigants, after they were hoodwinked into signing away all rights to pursue the stolen lands case that was recently returned to the state courts by the US Supreme Court.
After reading the settlement agreement it’s apparent that we got exactly nothing and in addition the plaintiffs are forbidden from ever again pursuing any legal action the case.
OHA’s press release makes a big deal out of what they supposedly did get- the settlement is dependant on the about-to-become law requiring a 2/3 vote of the legislature to dispose of any of the so-called “ceded lands”- an Orwellian construction that wrongly presumes anyone ever did any ceding.
And that and $10 billion will get you onto the Honolulu elevated subway because what the legislature giveth, the legislature taketh away.
The agreement says that
Senate Bill 1677 Conference Draft 1 is condition precedent to this Settlement Agreement, and if it does not become law, this Settlement Agreement shall be of no force and effect.
But sly Attorney General Mark Bennett, in the ignominious American tradition of genocide by pen, got them to sign without any “out” if the law is repealed or even “amended” by a future legislature- something that would only take a majority vote.
We all remember how effective HRS 343 was in stopping Act 2 when the state’s environmental protection act was “amended” to give it absolutely no effect on the Hawai`i Superferry’s illegal exemption from completing an environmental assessment as a “condition precedent” to operation.
It was only a constitutional provision having nothing to do with environmental law that saved us here on Kaua`i from the invasion of thousands of cars and tens of thousands of campers descending on our fragile environment and underfunded and inadequate infrastructure.
The law- which will apparently become law with or without the settlement after passing through conference committee- is not just subject to repeal but subject to the same kind of “act”, “amending” it to allow Hawaiian land to be sold by the state.
But one thing that OHA did get is a paragraph saying that
Nothing in this Settlement Agreement shall prohibit OHA plaintiffs from seeking payments as set forth in Act 318 (SLH 1992) should the Hawai`i State Legislature hereafter approve the sale of Act 318 lands to third parties.
Act 318 of course is designed to comply with the one condition of the transfer of the stolen lands from the USA to the State that list five purposes the lands can be used for, one of which is to benefit the kanaka maoli or “native Hawaiians”.
Although one plaintiff, UH Professor Jonathan Kamakawiwo`ole Oshiro, refused to sign- perhaps seeing that it was nothing but another con job from shyster Attorney General Mark Bennett, the agreement actually asks the court to dismiss his case too... and even if they don’t Oshiro certainly doesn’t have the resources to pursue a case that the attorneys involved don’t want to pursue any more.
In her post today Joan Conrow relates the story of a young kanaka who was harassed away from his traditional fishing hole in a river his family has fished for generations by a rich, illegal-vacation-rental owner who treated him as an “outlaw”, threatening to have him arrested despite his constitutionally protected right to fish there as a kanaka maoli.
When it comes to American genocide some things never change.
As Woody Guthrie wrote in the 1939 Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd
Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun
And some with a fountain pen.
And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.
Trying to accomplish anything in the public interest is an exercise in frustration as officials simply stonewall and deny, deny, deny, often in defiance of the law, telling citizens “if you don’t like it, sue us”.
But even if you had the money for a lawsuit just try to finding a lawyer willing to buck the system, take on the deep pockets of government and developers and risk never getting a hand into those pockets with one of those well-paying “special counsel” or corporate gigs in a state where revenge is the top coin of the realm.
So your average Joe Activist ends up depending on a dwindling handful of attorneys and organizations to defend our rights by going though the often interminable process that leads to the little victories that uphold the law in what should be no-brainer cases.
The problem is that when we put ourselves at the mercy of those who filed the suit, when they get paid off or when their self-interest wins out over principle not only are we left on the losing side with little or no recourse but a precedent is set that makes re-filing the case all but impossible.
Once again the people have been sold down the river with an unfathomable “settlement” by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) and a string of litigants, after they were hoodwinked into signing away all rights to pursue the stolen lands case that was recently returned to the state courts by the US Supreme Court.
After reading the settlement agreement it’s apparent that we got exactly nothing and in addition the plaintiffs are forbidden from ever again pursuing any legal action the case.
OHA’s press release makes a big deal out of what they supposedly did get- the settlement is dependant on the about-to-become law requiring a 2/3 vote of the legislature to dispose of any of the so-called “ceded lands”- an Orwellian construction that wrongly presumes anyone ever did any ceding.
And that and $10 billion will get you onto the Honolulu elevated subway because what the legislature giveth, the legislature taketh away.
The agreement says that
Senate Bill 1677 Conference Draft 1 is condition precedent to this Settlement Agreement, and if it does not become law, this Settlement Agreement shall be of no force and effect.
But sly Attorney General Mark Bennett, in the ignominious American tradition of genocide by pen, got them to sign without any “out” if the law is repealed or even “amended” by a future legislature- something that would only take a majority vote.
We all remember how effective HRS 343 was in stopping Act 2 when the state’s environmental protection act was “amended” to give it absolutely no effect on the Hawai`i Superferry’s illegal exemption from completing an environmental assessment as a “condition precedent” to operation.
It was only a constitutional provision having nothing to do with environmental law that saved us here on Kaua`i from the invasion of thousands of cars and tens of thousands of campers descending on our fragile environment and underfunded and inadequate infrastructure.
The law- which will apparently become law with or without the settlement after passing through conference committee- is not just subject to repeal but subject to the same kind of “act”, “amending” it to allow Hawaiian land to be sold by the state.
But one thing that OHA did get is a paragraph saying that
Nothing in this Settlement Agreement shall prohibit OHA plaintiffs from seeking payments as set forth in Act 318 (SLH 1992) should the Hawai`i State Legislature hereafter approve the sale of Act 318 lands to third parties.
Act 318 of course is designed to comply with the one condition of the transfer of the stolen lands from the USA to the State that list five purposes the lands can be used for, one of which is to benefit the kanaka maoli or “native Hawaiians”.
Although one plaintiff, UH Professor Jonathan Kamakawiwo`ole Oshiro, refused to sign- perhaps seeing that it was nothing but another con job from shyster Attorney General Mark Bennett, the agreement actually asks the court to dismiss his case too... and even if they don’t Oshiro certainly doesn’t have the resources to pursue a case that the attorneys involved don’t want to pursue any more.
In her post today Joan Conrow relates the story of a young kanaka who was harassed away from his traditional fishing hole in a river his family has fished for generations by a rich, illegal-vacation-rental owner who treated him as an “outlaw”, threatening to have him arrested despite his constitutionally protected right to fish there as a kanaka maoli.
When it comes to American genocide some things never change.
As Woody Guthrie wrote in the 1939 Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd
Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun
And some with a fountain pen.
And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
THE OLD SWITCH-A-ROO
THE OLD SWITCH-A-ROO: This is the time of year in Hawai`i when the mausoleum for dreams of social economic and environmental justice and good governance is open for business.
The legislature is in session and no good idea is too good to be tortured into a bizarro-world semblance of its original virtue.
Sometimes it’s because troglodytic pitchfork and torch-wielding bumpkins, whipped into a frenzy, descend on the decision makers- as they are doing as we write- because they don’t want to let others be as or more miserable than they are in their abusive and loveless marriages where they abuse their children by sending them to church to learn how to hate.
But most of the time it’s those “leaders” who sell the rest of us down the river by compromising away what both they and their followers wanted in the first place, selling us a “diamonelle” and calling it a gem..
Even though we spent yesterday ridiculing the bible-thumping bigots, we have to remember that the civil union bill HB 444 is already a mockery of the civil rights that those who support it really envisioned.
Before the red-shirted, wide-eyed handful of dogmatic hypocrites descended on the capitol we had already lost the battle because those who would protect the rights of same-gender couples had already given up on the true equality that only a repeal of the legislature’s ban on equal marriage rights for all can provide.
Now mind you we don’t really understand the need people have for obtaining paperwork to prove they love someone else- it’s a remnant of medieval society that really has no place in the 21st century.
If the government is going to grant licenses for anything the only important thing is that they be subject to equal protection under the law. Yet our own progressive leaders have already given up before we began by telling the rest of us to sit down shut up and support their poor substitution for social justice.
But this isn’t the only issue that’s had it’s heart torn out by our supposed allies.
A bloggers’ battle royal is brewing over Ian Lind’s usual bent toward losing the battle before it has begun- especially on issues like campaign finance reform- after Disappeared News’ Larry Geller dared to expose the shibai Lind has been promoting lately supporting a series of bills that would actually cause a flood of corporate money to fill politician coffers by repealing restrictions that are in place now.
The “that is better than this and we’ll never get that so we should settle for something else” pap has been a theme of Lind’s on this and many other issues for years but never more than in his apparent longstanding opposition to meaningful public financing of elections.
Recently he’s even not just been campaigning against fully eliminating corporate contributions to political campaigns he’s actually supporting a bill to increase corporate cash
Lind, the self professed progressive who actually headed Common Cause Hawai`i in the early 80’s, has somehow become a leading voice in whittling away at reforms before they even get started by accepting unacceptable compromises.
He’s been keeping up a cockamamie thread for over a year now about how the pilot program of full public financing of elections on the Big Island violates a somewhat unrelated U.S. Supreme Court ruling even after we pointed out the differences between the Big Island law and those that were struck down.
(The ones struck down all restrict the amounts non-participants can collect while the local measure only increases the amount publicly financed participants get based on what the others collect)
We finally gave up on challenging him- as we did last year- when he reinstated his bafflingly devoid-of-reality rant again recently but when Geller sort of called him out- without even mentioning his name or blog- Lind apparently blew a gasket.
Geller reiterated his stance today which somehow didn’t rise to Lind’s snooty Honolulu-kama`aina-family standards or bow to his usual mainstream corporate journalism embrace.
He attacked Geller for writing a “diatribe” that “abandoned any pretense of thoughtful analysis of campaign finance issues and instead waded into a swamp of name calling and crudely overstated political stereotypes.”
What the heck Lind is referring to is anyone’s guess. Geller’s original piece is well researched and simply rightly ridicules those in the legislature who want to pad their campaign coffers and increase corporate influence.
Lind’s personal and passive-aggressive attack on Geller was the only thing in all of it that could be called name calling but is typical of the lack of depth he exhibits every day, usually substituting a quick google search for substance and analysis.
Geller, as usual, beat us to the punch in his articulation of what kind of crap the legislature is pulling, calling it their “own stimulus bill” but apparently the somewhat prissy and proper Lind has some weird kind of axe to grind that causes him to be one of those who lose our battles before they commence.
And besides- if Ian’s characterization of Larry’s piece were accurate we’d be the first to complain...name calling, diatribes are our kuleana.
Another well known compromiser of rights- as usual the rights of the very people it purports to represent- the Office of Hawaiian affairs was also torn another new one today by Dave Shapiro
In his blog he asks what the heck OHA is doing supporting bills that are held out to stop the state’s “ceded land” grab but actually do so by acknowledging the very principle of ownership-by theft by giving the legislature the right to approve, by a 2/3 margin, the sale of the lands
Another bit of bitter baloney is how the anti-GMO groups have joined those with this kind of unfathomable need to abandon-the-war-to-fight-a-skirmish by dropping efforts to ban frankenfoods- or even restrict or label them- but rather jumping on the bandwagon to ban only GMO taro.
That leaves active measures in the legislature- like the bills that would not just protect corporate interests in despoiling what we eat but even possibly ban the counties from prohibiting them as some have contemplated- orphans that could stealthily slip through to passage.
We have met the enemy and he is, if not us certainly a close approximation.
The legislature is in session and no good idea is too good to be tortured into a bizarro-world semblance of its original virtue.
Sometimes it’s because troglodytic pitchfork and torch-wielding bumpkins, whipped into a frenzy, descend on the decision makers- as they are doing as we write- because they don’t want to let others be as or more miserable than they are in their abusive and loveless marriages where they abuse their children by sending them to church to learn how to hate.
But most of the time it’s those “leaders” who sell the rest of us down the river by compromising away what both they and their followers wanted in the first place, selling us a “diamonelle” and calling it a gem..
Even though we spent yesterday ridiculing the bible-thumping bigots, we have to remember that the civil union bill HB 444 is already a mockery of the civil rights that those who support it really envisioned.
Before the red-shirted, wide-eyed handful of dogmatic hypocrites descended on the capitol we had already lost the battle because those who would protect the rights of same-gender couples had already given up on the true equality that only a repeal of the legislature’s ban on equal marriage rights for all can provide.
Now mind you we don’t really understand the need people have for obtaining paperwork to prove they love someone else- it’s a remnant of medieval society that really has no place in the 21st century.
If the government is going to grant licenses for anything the only important thing is that they be subject to equal protection under the law. Yet our own progressive leaders have already given up before we began by telling the rest of us to sit down shut up and support their poor substitution for social justice.
But this isn’t the only issue that’s had it’s heart torn out by our supposed allies.
A bloggers’ battle royal is brewing over Ian Lind’s usual bent toward losing the battle before it has begun- especially on issues like campaign finance reform- after Disappeared News’ Larry Geller dared to expose the shibai Lind has been promoting lately supporting a series of bills that would actually cause a flood of corporate money to fill politician coffers by repealing restrictions that are in place now.
The “that is better than this and we’ll never get that so we should settle for something else” pap has been a theme of Lind’s on this and many other issues for years but never more than in his apparent longstanding opposition to meaningful public financing of elections.
Recently he’s even not just been campaigning against fully eliminating corporate contributions to political campaigns he’s actually supporting a bill to increase corporate cash
Lind, the self professed progressive who actually headed Common Cause Hawai`i in the early 80’s, has somehow become a leading voice in whittling away at reforms before they even get started by accepting unacceptable compromises.
He’s been keeping up a cockamamie thread for over a year now about how the pilot program of full public financing of elections on the Big Island violates a somewhat unrelated U.S. Supreme Court ruling even after we pointed out the differences between the Big Island law and those that were struck down.
(The ones struck down all restrict the amounts non-participants can collect while the local measure only increases the amount publicly financed participants get based on what the others collect)
We finally gave up on challenging him- as we did last year- when he reinstated his bafflingly devoid-of-reality rant again recently but when Geller sort of called him out- without even mentioning his name or blog- Lind apparently blew a gasket.
Geller reiterated his stance today which somehow didn’t rise to Lind’s snooty Honolulu-kama`aina-family standards or bow to his usual mainstream corporate journalism embrace.
He attacked Geller for writing a “diatribe” that “abandoned any pretense of thoughtful analysis of campaign finance issues and instead waded into a swamp of name calling and crudely overstated political stereotypes.”
What the heck Lind is referring to is anyone’s guess. Geller’s original piece is well researched and simply rightly ridicules those in the legislature who want to pad their campaign coffers and increase corporate influence.
Lind’s personal and passive-aggressive attack on Geller was the only thing in all of it that could be called name calling but is typical of the lack of depth he exhibits every day, usually substituting a quick google search for substance and analysis.
Geller, as usual, beat us to the punch in his articulation of what kind of crap the legislature is pulling, calling it their “own stimulus bill” but apparently the somewhat prissy and proper Lind has some weird kind of axe to grind that causes him to be one of those who lose our battles before they commence.
And besides- if Ian’s characterization of Larry’s piece were accurate we’d be the first to complain...name calling, diatribes are our kuleana.
Another well known compromiser of rights- as usual the rights of the very people it purports to represent- the Office of Hawaiian affairs was also torn another new one today by Dave Shapiro
In his blog he asks what the heck OHA is doing supporting bills that are held out to stop the state’s “ceded land” grab but actually do so by acknowledging the very principle of ownership-by theft by giving the legislature the right to approve, by a 2/3 margin, the sale of the lands
Another bit of bitter baloney is how the anti-GMO groups have joined those with this kind of unfathomable need to abandon-the-war-to-fight-a-skirmish by dropping efforts to ban frankenfoods- or even restrict or label them- but rather jumping on the bandwagon to ban only GMO taro.
That leaves active measures in the legislature- like the bills that would not just protect corporate interests in despoiling what we eat but even possibly ban the counties from prohibiting them as some have contemplated- orphans that could stealthily slip through to passage.
We have met the enemy and he is, if not us certainly a close approximation.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
DEM BONZ:
DEM BONZ: In a yet another somewhat stunning development in the case of the desecration of kanaka maoli burials at Ha`ena point the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) Tuesday requested that the attorney general’s office send a cease and desist order to halt all construction there.
The letter questions not only the legitimacy of the state burial council’s administrative rules under state constitution and statues but details how the State Archeologist Nancy McMahon and the developer’s attorney’s Walton Hong lied to both the Kaua`i Planning Commission and the Burial Council.
The highly legally notated letter, available only in a pdf file for now, first cites HRS 6E-13 and 6E-13(b) allowing the attorney general or any citizen to file suit “for the protection of an historic site or burial site and public trust therein or improper demolition alteration or transfer of property or burial site”
Then it cites 10(4)4 and 10 1(b) which essentially requires state agencies to assist OHA saying “(i)t shall be the duty and responsibility of all state departments ... to actively work toward (OHA’s) goals”.
But the heart of the request is based on Article Vii Section 7 of the State Constitution which says the state “shall protect all rights customarily and traditionally exercised for substance cultural and religious purposes”.
Then citing HRS 6E and Chapter 13-300 of Hawaii Administrative rules which regulate the Burial Council it quotes McMahon and Hong misrepresenting the law to the two citizen panels.
At the heart of the claim is the state’s contention that the burial councils, as they have been told, have no right to have any say over burials other than to say either remove them or let them sit where they are.
OHA goes on to show that this is not true when the actual laws and rules are read, claiming that the burial council also has the right to say “no- you’ can’t build there” or other appropriate actions.
It questions the legitimacy of the process and says because the process was abused that the current decision allowing Joe Brescia to build a house on top of the numerous burials, both discovered and undiscovered at the north shore parcel at Naue in Ha`ena must be revisited and the decision of the burial council be considered void and illegitimate.
The letter includes many other specific details of and objections to the way the Burial Council, under the State Historic Preservation Department (SHPD) has violated the constitution and state laws and presents the transcripts of the misrepresentation by SHPD head McMahon, and Brescia’s attorney Hong before both the Kaua`i Planning Commission and the Burial Council.
What’s most surprising is that it took so long for OHA to start going through this process. But the confluence of events brought to light by Ka`iulani Edens Huff, Nani Rogers Louise Marston and a host of others over the last month or so has perhaps spurred them to action
And perhaps the very adamancy of the right wing wacko property rights crowd in supporting Brescia’s “right to desecrate” because he “followed all the rules” was just the thing needed to spur action by OHA,
OHA outrages their own community with regularity in its state-lap-dog habit of fighting against its own beneficiaries on so many occasions that it has become a joke to most kanaka in light of its mission.
And the fact that Chief Darryl Perry on Kaua`i brought up the state law against desecration- even though it is written separately from the laws protecting the traditional cultural and religious rights of the descendent of pre-western contact islanders- might have been contributory enough to finally provoke the ever conservative OHA to finally stand up for the rights of the people they represent.
It is an election year- for OHA too- and this story has been getting statewide media attention of late and has gotten to the point where not just many but most, in the Kaua`i community agree that something is wrong as typified by a letter in today’s local paper .
The one problem may be that the person who OHA is requesting/demanding write the cease and desist letter is allegedly the most corrupt of the hacks in the Linda Lingle administration Attorney General Mark Bennett who is responsible for the Superferry debacle and various other gubernatorial sleazy ploys, using blatantly unethical if not illegal secrecy ploys to cover-up alleged crimes by administration personnel.
How he answers the letter will be most interesting but it is apparent that asking him to do it is only OHA’s first move and that if he refuses, OHA makes it most clear that they will proceed on their own.
We leave you with the words of Nani Rogers on the current situation written this week when the corrupt pols in the AG’s and the local Kaua`i Prosecutor Craig Decosta’s office refused to back up Police Chief Perry ’s assertion that Bescia’s and Hong’s actions were desacratory.
I pray all is maita`i with you and your loved ones. Auwe! Auwe! Auwe! Kaua`i na po`e are crying over the unbelievable disrespect and denial of State and County agencies. For their disrespect of sacred burials and their denial of the truth and cultural and natural laws that protect graveyards from desecration. It is a criminal act, in anybody's law book, to desecrate burials; the Naue burials date back to the 13th century and are of great significance to our na po`e that are lineal descendants ofna iwi at Naue and to all na po`e and supporters that have been camping near by to protect them from harm for the last three months. It has been a long and hard battle but we will go on, we will continue to be there and to stand up to any challenges they may throw at us.
We urge na kanaka to come to Naue and be eye witnesses to the desecration so you can go home and tell your ohana and children. They need to learn our ways.
Ka`iu, myself, and others will be at Naue this afternoon to camp overnight again. We made a vow to protect our na po`e buried there, we must keep our promise to do all we can to do so.
To Mr. Joseph Brescia, who says he owns the `aina, to Mr. Walton Hong, his lawyer, to Mr. Galante, the contractor, to Pua Aiu, SHPD Director, to the Police Dept., the Attorney General and to Governor Lingle, et al, we say, BEWARE! get ready for the grave (pardon the pun) spiritual consequences your actions will cause. Remember that you will have brought it all upon yourselves, nobody else is to be blamed but you for anything that may happen to you and your family. Can you see that?
We pray that our na Akua, na Aumakua and na Tupuna continue to surround and protect us at Naue. We pray that our na po`e; men, women and children; buried there may continue to rest in peace. Mahalo!
The letter questions not only the legitimacy of the state burial council’s administrative rules under state constitution and statues but details how the State Archeologist Nancy McMahon and the developer’s attorney’s Walton Hong lied to both the Kaua`i Planning Commission and the Burial Council.
The highly legally notated letter, available only in a pdf file for now, first cites HRS 6E-13 and 6E-13(b) allowing the attorney general or any citizen to file suit “for the protection of an historic site or burial site and public trust therein or improper demolition alteration or transfer of property or burial site”
Then it cites 10(4)4 and 10 1(b) which essentially requires state agencies to assist OHA saying “(i)t shall be the duty and responsibility of all state departments ... to actively work toward (OHA’s) goals”.
But the heart of the request is based on Article Vii Section 7 of the State Constitution which says the state “shall protect all rights customarily and traditionally exercised for substance cultural and religious purposes”.
Then citing HRS 6E and Chapter 13-300 of Hawaii Administrative rules which regulate the Burial Council it quotes McMahon and Hong misrepresenting the law to the two citizen panels.
At the heart of the claim is the state’s contention that the burial councils, as they have been told, have no right to have any say over burials other than to say either remove them or let them sit where they are.
OHA goes on to show that this is not true when the actual laws and rules are read, claiming that the burial council also has the right to say “no- you’ can’t build there” or other appropriate actions.
It questions the legitimacy of the process and says because the process was abused that the current decision allowing Joe Brescia to build a house on top of the numerous burials, both discovered and undiscovered at the north shore parcel at Naue in Ha`ena must be revisited and the decision of the burial council be considered void and illegitimate.
The letter includes many other specific details of and objections to the way the Burial Council, under the State Historic Preservation Department (SHPD) has violated the constitution and state laws and presents the transcripts of the misrepresentation by SHPD head McMahon, and Brescia’s attorney Hong before both the Kaua`i Planning Commission and the Burial Council.
What’s most surprising is that it took so long for OHA to start going through this process. But the confluence of events brought to light by Ka`iulani Edens Huff, Nani Rogers Louise Marston and a host of others over the last month or so has perhaps spurred them to action
And perhaps the very adamancy of the right wing wacko property rights crowd in supporting Brescia’s “right to desecrate” because he “followed all the rules” was just the thing needed to spur action by OHA,
OHA outrages their own community with regularity in its state-lap-dog habit of fighting against its own beneficiaries on so many occasions that it has become a joke to most kanaka in light of its mission.
And the fact that Chief Darryl Perry on Kaua`i brought up the state law against desecration- even though it is written separately from the laws protecting the traditional cultural and religious rights of the descendent of pre-western contact islanders- might have been contributory enough to finally provoke the ever conservative OHA to finally stand up for the rights of the people they represent.
It is an election year- for OHA too- and this story has been getting statewide media attention of late and has gotten to the point where not just many but most, in the Kaua`i community agree that something is wrong as typified by a letter in today’s local paper .
The one problem may be that the person who OHA is requesting/demanding write the cease and desist letter is allegedly the most corrupt of the hacks in the Linda Lingle administration Attorney General Mark Bennett who is responsible for the Superferry debacle and various other gubernatorial sleazy ploys, using blatantly unethical if not illegal secrecy ploys to cover-up alleged crimes by administration personnel.
How he answers the letter will be most interesting but it is apparent that asking him to do it is only OHA’s first move and that if he refuses, OHA makes it most clear that they will proceed on their own.
We leave you with the words of Nani Rogers on the current situation written this week when the corrupt pols in the AG’s and the local Kaua`i Prosecutor Craig Decosta’s office refused to back up Police Chief Perry ’s assertion that Bescia’s and Hong’s actions were desacratory.
I pray all is maita`i with you and your loved ones. Auwe! Auwe! Auwe! Kaua`i na po`e are crying over the unbelievable disrespect and denial of State and County agencies. For their disrespect of sacred burials and their denial of the truth and cultural and natural laws that protect graveyards from desecration. It is a criminal act, in anybody's law book, to desecrate burials; the Naue burials date back to the 13th century and are of great significance to our na po`e that are lineal descendants ofna iwi at Naue and to all na po`e and supporters that have been camping near by to protect them from harm for the last three months. It has been a long and hard battle but we will go on, we will continue to be there and to stand up to any challenges they may throw at us.
We urge na kanaka to come to Naue and be eye witnesses to the desecration so you can go home and tell your ohana and children. They need to learn our ways.
Ka`iu, myself, and others will be at Naue this afternoon to camp overnight again. We made a vow to protect our na po`e buried there, we must keep our promise to do all we can to do so.
To Mr. Joseph Brescia, who says he owns the `aina, to Mr. Walton Hong, his lawyer, to Mr. Galante, the contractor, to Pua Aiu, SHPD Director, to the Police Dept., the Attorney General and to Governor Lingle, et al, we say, BEWARE! get ready for the grave (pardon the pun) spiritual consequences your actions will cause. Remember that you will have brought it all upon yourselves, nobody else is to be blamed but you for anything that may happen to you and your family. Can you see that?
We pray that our na Akua, na Aumakua and na Tupuna continue to surround and protect us at Naue. We pray that our na po`e; men, women and children; buried there may continue to rest in peace. Mahalo!
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