Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 2, 1 February 2009 — OHA submits bills on ceded land moratorium, past-due revenue [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA submits bills on ceded land moratorium, past-due revenue

Hee says he wants a moratorium law in plaee before Supreme Court's Feb. 25 review By Usa Asatū Public lnfurmatiun Specialist With less than a month to go before the U.S. Supreme Court hears opening arguments in a ceded lands case that pits the Lingle administration against Native Hawaiian interests, attention is turning to the Legislature to take action. Several bills circulating at the Legislature, including one by OHA, would impose a moratorium on the sale of ceded lands, said Sen. Clayton Hee, Chairman of the Water, Land, Agriculture and

Hawaiian Affairs Committee, as the session got underway. He said he would like for a hill to be passed ahead of the Feb. 25 U.S. Supreme Court review of the ceded lands case over the state's right to sell those lands while Native Hawaiian claims to the lands are pending. "The sooner the better," said Hee (D, Kahuku-Ka'a'awa-Kāne'ohe). "We'd like to send the Supreme Court a message that's swift, strong

and an unequivocal message of solidarity with having the land reconciliation before any land is disconnected from Hawaiian people in the general puhlie." OHA's hill would impose a moratorium on the sale or transfer of ceded lands until the unrelinquished claims of Native Hawaiians to those lands are settled. The measure echoes a unanimous Hawai'i Supreme Court rul-

ing that found in favor of OHA and four plaintiffs who sued the state in 1994 as it prepared to sell 1,500 acres of ceded lands in Maui and Hawai'i Island. "We continue to believe that the justices of the Hawai'i Supreme Court ruled correctly, and this hill is the legislative vehicle to implement the decision of the state's highest court," OHA Chairperson Haunani Apoliona said at a lan. 12 news conference. "This legislation is a means of maintaining the status quo and ensuring that the Puhlie Land Trust is preserved in order to ensure a fair and just settlement leading to reconciliation with Native Hawaiian people." The hill would prohibit the state from the fee-simple sale of lands in the Puhlie Land Trust that were: • ceded to the United States by the Republic of Hawai'i in 1898 • acquired in exchange for lands so ceded, and granted to the State of Hawai'i by the Admission Act of 1959 • retained by the United States See OHA BILLS on page Ū7

AUPUNI MOKU'ĀINA ■ STATE GDVERNMENT

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OHA BILLS Cūntinued fram page 03 under the Admission Aet of 1959 and later eonveyed to the state in 1964. The bill would also bar the state from exchanging these lands for private lands, but it would allow for transfer of lands between state agencies and allow for the state to lease the lands, for a true puhhe purpose. Another major OHA hill offers a revamped version of last year's past-due revenue proposal. The new measure aims to provide a way for the state to pay OHA outstanding ineome and proceeds from the Puhlie Land Trust for the period Nov. 7, 1978, to July 1, 2008, for a value of $200 million to be paid to OHA in two phases. Recognizing the harsh eeonomie realities the state is facing, OHA would receive the payment in land only - a difference from last year's mixture of cash and land. "It's clearer now than it was last year that cash is going to be a real challenge for the Legislature, so the hill envisions complete satisfaction based on conveyance of real estate and no money," OHA Administrator Clyde Nāmu'o said at a news conference lan. 15. Under the hill, OHA would receive this year property valued at more than $127.2 million and next year receive ahnost $72.8 million in land that is yet to be decided. The parcels for the first year are: • In Kaka'ako Makai in Honolulu. • Along the Banyan Drive resort area in Hilo. These parcels include the Country Club Condo Hotel, Reed's Bay Resort Hotel, Unele Billy's Hilo Bay Hotel, the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel and the Naniloa Hotel and Golf Course. These are the same parcels as in last year's proposal. The third parcel identified from last year's proposal, the Kalaeloa Makai property, was pulled from consideration by the state Deparhnent of Land and Natural Resources because it was deemed too valuable, Nāmu'o said. "This hill is a thoughtful effort that represents a renewed attempt to pay what is due to OHA on behalf of Native Hawaiians and is based on the results of negotiations and extensive beneficiary and legislative feedback from 2008," Apoliona said. "We held

over 45 meetings in the eommunity statewide last year and spent the last seven months addressing the conunents we received from those meetings." Beneficiary input remains important. "We're going to be meeting with various homestead eommunity leaders to get their sense (about) this proposal ... and their reaction," Nāmu'o said, adding that beneficiary input will be gathered through community meetings, through Ka Wai Ola newspaper, and by phone, mail and email. In response to concerns raised over last year's measure, OHA is doing full due diligence on the lands, including addressing eoncerns about the Hilo property being in the tsunami inundation zone. "Our consultants are really looking at whether there would be ways of addressing that risk . . . They're also looking at the Kaka'ako property and giving us some analysis in tenns of how the property might be used given zoning and other legal limitations," Nāmu'o said. Also to address concerns, the new bill also does not try to resolve future claims. OHA expects to receive annual payments of $15.1 milhon. Hee said he had not reviewed the past-due revenue hill and was unahle to comment. But he was up to speed on the moratorium hill and the pending U.S. Supreme Court case, whieh was up for discussion lan. 22 before the Native Hawaiian Caucus. There, state Attorney General Mark Bennett said that, "If the Legislature passes the OHA statute, it puts the state in breach of the Admissions Act," whieh directs that the Puhlie Land Tmst be used for the puhlie good. He said that would open the state up to lawsuits. The next day, Hee said he disagreed. "The fact of the matter is people ean sue for any reason at any time on any day," Hee said. "So the suggestion that the moratorium will attract lawsuits, it means nothing to me. It's a sad day, in my opinion, when the attorney general resorts to fear tactics as a means to prevent lawmakers from genuinely considering a moratorium on ceded lands until reconciliation takes plaee. "Mark Bennett forgets that he's not the governor's attorney; he's everybody's attorney, whieh includes Hawaiian people." S