The legislative process has been described as "sausage-making." Lawmakers themselves use that self-deprecating term as an admission that the wheeling and dealing it takes to get a bill through is not a pretty process to watch.

The Hawaii State Legislature is wrapping up another session May 1, and its final week of upheaval hardly resembled any kind of process, pretty or otherwise. The tendency toward last-minute shenanigans was on full display.

There were several examples, including the back-and-forth over funding the hard-won plan to preserve areas adjacent to the North Shore’s Turtle Bay Resort. There was also eleventh-hour drama over the bill to increase the minimum wage; the working poor can’t afford to wait any longer for a boost in household income.

But nothing demonstrates the lack of responsiveness to the public more than the sudden reversals over development of the Kakaako Makai district, part of the area otherwise under the direction of the Hawaii Community Development Authority.

The HCDA has come under considerable flak for its own shortcomings in giving the public enough of a voice, resulting in a set of other reforms to govern the agency. But lawmakers’ sudden maneuvers to settle the dispute over residential use of the area made the authority’s failings pale by comparison.

At issue was the proposal, backed by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, to amend state law so that OHA would have rights to develop residential units on at least some of its Kakaako property. The land had been deeded to the agency in partial fulfillment of past debts over revenue payments owed by state government.

But years before that deal was inked, and prompted by a grassroots coalition of residents and environmentalists, the Legislature had passed a ban on residential development in the Kakaako area oceanside of Ala Moana Boulevard. Passage of that bill in 2006 enacted a wise policy aimed at keeping the waterfront accessible to the public.

Late last week, however, as the conference committee wrangled over OHA’s Kakaako amendment, state Rep. Cindy Evans proposed that the residential zone expand a block past Ala Moana Boulevard, enabling 400-foot-high residential development of not only two OHA parcels but also four owned by Kamehameha Schools and two owned by the state.

This version of the bill represented nothing less than a repeal of the entire 2006 law, and all without conducting a single hearing before the public. The Legislature should stick by its 2006 decision to keep the waterfront from becoming a private enclave.

On the issue of the conservation easement preserving Kawela Bay and reducing the extent of Turtle Bay Resort expansion, there is no reason that settlement shouldn’t be finalized during the current legislative session. House Speaker Joseph Souki had suggested postponing it for a year, but that kind of delay could put the whole deal at risk.

The Legislature has been aware for more than a year that the toll on the state budget was likely to reach $40 million. It is a sizeable outlay, but a long-sought and worthwhile investment in keeping some of the island’s shoreline undeveloped for use as a scenic and recreational resource.

A fair review of the entire legislative session would have to acknowledge some of the work that did follow a more regular order:

» House Bill 1671 Lawmakers appear to have heard the counties’ plea for a larger share of the transient accommodations tax. Given the pressures counties are absorbing from tourist traffic and the need for more revenues, it’s long past time for raising the cap on their share of revenues.

» Senate Bill 3064 With passage of this bill, the state could begin to plan the transition of the deficit-plagued Hawaii Health Services Corp., which runs the state’s public hospitals, to a more sustainable health-care management system.

» HB 2276 This legislation will expand access to early education for lower-income children with birthdays late in the year; they are the ones affected by the end of junior kindergarten. Further expansion of the state’s early-education program will take more planning and must be tackled in future legislative sessions.

The work of self-governance is grueling, moving in fits and starts from year to year, unfolding at an excruciatingly slow pace. But it does need to happen in the public arena, without major changes being driven, unseen, by forces the public can’t control or even identify.

The final assessment of the session will have to wait until all the votes are in later this week. Whatever kind of sausage lawmakers have been grinding out in the latter days, some of it is pretty hard to stomach.