OHA board to re-examine support for Big Isle telescope

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs board of trustees decided Thursday to formally reconsider its endorsement of the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope planned for the summit of Mauna Kea.

The board, which voted to support the $1.4 billion telescope in 2009, scheduled a special meeting for Thursday.

The move followed an overnight "Occupy Aloha" camp-out at the OHA headquarters by TMT foes who demanded that the trustees schedule a formal vote and reverse their position.

The OHA board is required to place a topic on an agenda before it can legally take action, and the occupiers expressed disappointment the trustees had failed to schedule the item on Thursday’s regularly scheduled board meeting. But even before the meeting began Thursday afternoon, the trustees announced that a special TMT trustees meeting would be held May 7.

Later, in the OHA boardroom, before a standing-room-only crowd, a couple of trustees argued in favor of expediting the decision-making.

"This discussion has risen to such a level that we can no longer wait," Kauai trustee Dan Ahuna declared. "It is critical that this board act immediately."

However, trustee Peter Apo warned that the board shouldn’t rush into rescinding its position. The trustees should, instead, maintain their position as long as possible, he said, to put the board in a better place for negotiating.

Apo said OHA should attempt to renegotiate the oversight of all of the state’s public trust lands, including the ceded land encompassing the Mauna Kea summit.

"We need to stay at the table for as long as we possibly can," Apo said. "I know people are anxious. We’re under a lot of pressure. It’s a big media event. But to leave the table would be a very big mistake."

But Ahuna responded, "How do you negotiate without a stance? That is a recipe for disaster."

Trustee Rowena Akana said Hawaiians have endured much over the years. "And finally when this telescope happened, it gave Hawaiians an opportunity to rally around something, to say, ‘You know what? Enough. We have a voice, and you have to listen to us.’ So I think it has been a very good thing that has happened."

She conceded, however, that a vote to rescind would only be a symbolic one, since the environmental review proc­ess has come and gone and the telescope already earned its government approvals. "Rescinding our vote will simply mean we hear our people and we support them. It doesn’t mean that we can actually change the outcome. Whether they build it or not is up to God, really, because everything is in place."

In urging an expedited vote, Ahuna said, "Now is the time to stand with the people. Don’t be afraid."

Chairman Robert K. Lindsey Jr. said Hawaiians are on both sides of the issue. "This matter is dividing our house," he said.

Hours of public testimony — both for and against the Mauna Kea project — followed the discussion and continued through the afternoon and into the night.

Also on Thursday, OHA announced that it had arranged a TMT meeting Friday for representatives of the Governor’s Office, University of Hawaii, Office of Mauna Kea Management, Mauna Kea Hui, Mauna Kea Ohana and OHA.