DLNR program controversy echoes flaws found at DHHL

Three years ago, then-Gov. Neil Abercrombie formed a task force that recommended sweeping changes to a state agency’s controversial month-to-month land leasing program.

The three-member advisory group was formed in response to a Honolulu Star-Advertiser series that exposed major flaws in the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands’ revocable permit program.

The newspaper revealed a system that operated with lax oversight, no administrative rules, a first-come, first-served tenant-selection process and permit renewals that were largely automatic, allowing the “temporary” agreements to stretch for years or even decades.

A former DHHL policymaker even built a residence on his revocable permit parcel and lived there the entire time he served on the agency’s board. Residential use is prohibited.

The newspaper coverage prompted the former policymaker to dismantle his home and DHHL to put a moratorium on issuing new permits while it pursued improvements.

Recognizing the need for reform, the Hawaiian Homes Commission in December 2014 largely adopted the task force recommendations, including a plan to develop rules and establish a selection process based on competitive bids. The move was designed to make the program fairer and more transparent.

Now critics are taking aim at another revocable permit system, this time at the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The controversy has a familiar ring.

DLNR’s system has no administrative rules, does not use competitive bids, can at times be a first-come, first-served process and has permits that have been in place for decades.

State law restricts DLNR’s revocable permits to temporary occupation of state land. It gives the agency’s board the authority to approve month-to-month permits for up to one year but doesn’t specify a limit on how many times the agreements can be extended.

The current controversy shares another link to the DHHL brouhaha.

One of the task force members Abercrombie appointed in 2013 was William Aila Jr., who was DLNR director at the time. He now is deputy to the chairwoman at DHHL, part of the management team tasked with the still-pending restructuring of the permit program.

Critics of the way the DLNR program is being run say Aila should have applied some of the same recommendations his group made for DHHL to the program he oversaw until last year, when he left the land agency to join DHHL.

Aila did not respond to the Star-Advertiser’s requests for an interview.

The critics say administrative rules would bring more uniformity and fairness to the program, while competitive bids would help ensure better deals.

Summer Sylva, an attorney for the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., which represents Maui taro farmers in a lawsuit against DLNR and Alexander & Baldwin Inc. that is linked to several revocable permits, said the absence of administrative rules is a big problem, reflecting broader shortcomings at DLNR.

“I don’t think they have managed their resources in any rational, reliable, consistent manner,” she said.

Current DLNR officials say the revocable permit program is managed effectively under the statutory provision and don’t believe administrative rules are necessary.

They said competitive bidding may not be possible for parcels that are landlocked. And at sites where legal access is available, the long-term plan is to terminate the revocable permits and issue leases at public auction, officials from the land division, which oversees the permit program, said in written responses to the Star-Advertiser.

Blossom Feiteira, president of the Association of Hawaiians for Homestead Lands, said poor management of the DLNR and DHHL programs underscores a broader problem that must be addressed.

“The entire land-disposition program for the state needs to be overhauled,” Feiteira said.