Head of embattled Historic Preservation Division resigns

Pua Aiu, administrator of the embattled state Historic Preservation Division, has resigned, the Department of Land and Natural Resources announced this afternoon.

The announcement follows a National Parks Service report, released Thursday, that criticized the division’s efforts under a two-year corrective action plan to address operational problems that jeopardize continued federal funding, DLNR said in an email.

Aiu has served as the division administrator for five years.

DLNR Chairman William Aila said in a written statement, “We believe that SHPD has made progress in a number of areas, including hiring of qualified staff and addressing a backlog of review and compliance tasks. However, we take this report seriously, and given the importance of SHPD to the state, we need to change the leadership in order to move forward to implement the recommendations.”

DLNR is working to select a new administrator in the next three months, Aila said.