The Thirty Meter Telescope isn’t even on the agenda, but Thursday’s meeting of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs board of trustees likely will be overwhelmed by the controversial $1.4 billion project.
While a contingent of pro-TMT supporters is expected to testify during the 12:30 p.m. meeting, the opposition began "occupying" the OHA offices Wednesday afternoon in anticipation of an all-night vigil that will last "until positive results for the protection of Mauna Kea are achieved," occupiers said.
"Despite weeks of testimony and calls to the board over Mauna Kea, it’s entirely absent from this week’s agenda," said Andre Perez of MANA, Movement for Aloha No ka Aina. "OHA cannot continue to sit and ignore the most important and volatile Hawaiian issue of the decade. It is their responsibility to support their beneficiaries."
Concerned community members were asked to bring sleeping bags, toothbrushes, flags and banners to the Iwilei headquarters at the former Gentry Pacific Design Center on Nimitz Highway and camp out until the meeting begins Thursday afternoon.
"We’re standing in solidarity with the folks on the mountain," Perez said.
OHA spokesman Garett Kamemoto said any campers will be allowed to stay overnight at the OHA-owned retail center.
Perez said the group plans to demand that the trustees put the TMT issue on the first available agenda, a move that will allow the board to formally reconsider its position.
In 2009 the OHA board voted to support the TMT project, which has a lease that will eventually funnel more than $200,000 a year to OHA.
The TMT lease is currently $300,000 a year. It will rise incrementally to $1.08 million when it becomes operational in 2024, with 80 percent going to the Office of Mauna Kea Management and 20 percent to OHA. TMT has also committed $1 million for education on Hawaii island.
Phil Whitney, a longtime member of the Friends of the (University of Hawaii) Institute for Astronomy, said the OHA trustees should consider that the project has undergone seven years of careful planning and environmental review.
"They should do what is really right for the Hawaiian people and support great science and jobs and money for the education of Hawaiian children," he said.
As the movement to stop the TMT has continued to escalate, the other side is also starting to raise its voice. TMT Observatory Corp. has hired Honolulu public relations firm Becker Communications to serve as the TMT voice on Oahu and has launched a website, maunakeaandtmt.org, which is designed for use in "fact-checking any misinformation that is being proliferated via social media."
Last week Hawaii Preparatory Academy student Mailani Neal launched a pro-TMT petition that has more than 5,300 signatures. The petition is at gopetition.com/ petitions/wesupporttmt. html.
Meanwhile, anti-TMT troops earned a shot in the arm when Abigail Kawananakoa, an heiress to the Campbell Estate and a member of Hawaii’s royal family, donated $25,000 to the cause, including expenses for transportation, water and clothing for the "protectors" on the mountain.
Kawananakoa, 89, a well-known philanthropist and great-grandniece of King Kalakaua and Queen Kapiolani, is expected to provide additional funding if the situation escalates but, according to terms of the donation, the protest must remain peaceful.
"Princess Abigail Kinoiki Kekaulike Kawananakoa has long recognized, like other ali‘i before her, that Mauna Kea is a storied and sacred Hawaiian national monument. The plight of the Hawaiians is her plight," Kamanaha Kealoha of the Sacred Mauna Kea Fund said in an email.
In a statement, Kawananakoa said the state auditor pointed out deficiencies in the way UH has managed Mauna Kea. She called for a professional independent review of the situation.
However, a summary of the latest auditor’s report in 2014 indicates that UH has made progress in implementing recommendations and has taken steps to ensure adequate land management.
"UH encourages everyone to read all three auditor reports," UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said in a statement. "It really charts the progress that the university has made when it comes to proper stewardship of the mountain. We know that there is a lot more work to do but we hope everyone takes the time to really look at the work that has been done, and is being done, to properly care for the cultural and natural resources along with making sure there is safe, public access for all."
