State Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz has asked Oahu Democrats to dismiss a complaint that alleges he violated the party’s environmental platform by sponsoring a bill that would have encouraged development around Honolulu rail stations.
The complaint, filed by Lynn Sager, chairwoman of the party’s environmental caucus, alleges that the bill was in direct opposition to the party’s platform goal of sustaining the environment. Sager and the other activists who signed the complaint want the party to determine whether Dela Cruz should be reprimanded, censured or expelled.
Dela Cruz said his bill was intended to help guide residential, commercial and mixed-use development around Honolulu rail stations and promote transit ridership. The bill died on the last day of the legislative session in May after critics, including many in the environmental community, claimed it could shut the public out of the planning process.
Dela Cruz said the complaint does not reflect "the ‘D’ that I cherish."
"I didn’t realize that the party had a muzzle on its elected officials," said Dela Cruz (D, Kaena-Wahiawa-Pupukea), who asked Oahu Democrats in a letter on Thursday to immediately dismiss the complaint. "I didn’t realize that every time an elected official had an opinion we had to run it past the party."
Tension between party activists and elected officials has appeared to intensify as Democrats strengthen their hold on state government. With Gov. Neil Abercrombie in power at Washington Place and Democrats in complete control of the state House and Senate, there is an expectation among many party activists that the party’s platform should be honored and advanced.
Environmental activists were disappointed with several bills before the Legislature last session to lift environmental and regulatory oversight of state construction projects to help with economic recovery. Most of the bills, like Dela Cruz’s proposal on transit-oriented development, failed to become law.
At the party’s state convention in May, Democrats approved a resolution opposing environmental exemptions for state and private construction projects.
Sager described Dela Cruz as one of several Democrats who activists believe are "Democrats in name only." She acknowledged that his bill was not necessarily the most egregious last session from an environmental perspective, but noted that the senator was the only sponsor.
"There are a number of ‘Democrats in name only’ that do not follow the party platform and that really do not attend party meetings. They claim to be Democrats, and yet I don’t know them," she said.
"He claims to be a Democrat and yet he goes against the Democratic Party platform. That’s the bottom line."
Tony Gill, chairman of Oahu Democrats, said the rules committee has been assigned to review Sager’s complaint and recommend a response. Any decision Oahu Democrats make could be appealed to the party’s state central committee.
Party activists, especially on Oahu, have grown more assertive about enforcing discipline.
In 2009, state Democrats reprimanded state Sen. Mike Gabbard (D, Waikele-Ko Olina) for actively working against a civil-unions bill and undermining the party’s platform in favor of equality and civil rights. Gabbard, who opposes civil unions, said he was representing the will of his constituents.
This year, Dante Carpenter, the party’s chairman, and several Oahu Democrats have said the party should consider expelling Laura Thielen for running for the state Senate as a Democrat despite a party ruling that she is ineligible because she has not been a member in good standing for the minimum six months.
Ironically, Thielen, who was director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources under former Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican, has said she was motivated to run for office because of some of the environmental exemptions Democrats had proposed last session.
State Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kailua-Kaneohe), Thielen’s mother and an environmental attorney, was one of the most vocal critics of Dela Cruz’s bill.
Early versions of the bill — Senate Bill 2927 — would have exempted so-called exceptional planning projects around bus or rail stations from state fees on land development, school impact fees, and environmental review if the project involved state or county land.
But the bill was significantly watered down during the committee process and, by the end of session, did not contain the exemption from environmental review. The final version would have applied mainly to bus stations in Ewa, Central Oahu and the urban core and potential rail stations at East Kapolei, the University of Hawaii at West Oahu, West Loch, Waipahu, Leeward Community College and Pearl Highlands.
The bill, however, still would have exempted projects from zoning and impact fees and would have imposed 45-day time limits on planning and project review, which activists believe would have curtailed public participation.
Dela Cruz said that directing growth around bus and rail stations could help prevent urban sprawl and protect open space from development. "We really have to get back to basics," he said. "We have to represent all of Hawaii’s mainstream and the party’s mainstream. So somewhere along the way, the party’s almost like out of touch."
