A list of nominees for two board seats on a state agency regulating development in Kakaako will be used by Gov. David Ige despite complaints by some citizens that the list from the City Council unfairly excluded one candidate.

A spokeswoman for Ige said the governor can’t reject the list for filling the board seats on the Hawaii Community Development Authority.

“The process was followed and certified by the city clerk, so the governor will have to make his selection from the list of nominees sent to him by the City Council,” Cindy McMillan said in an email Wednesday following a legal review.

Ige received a letter from more than 100 citizens and several community organizations Tuesday asking him to reject the list because they felt that incumbent HCDA board member Steve Scott was unfairly excluded despite being nominated by Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who represents Kakaako.

Councilwoman Kymberly Pine also rebutted allegations in the letter Wednesday and described more of what led up to how the list was formed. As chairwoman of the Council’s Zoning and Housing Committee, Pine was in charge of collecting nominations for the two HCDA board seats.

Pine said all other nominated candidates except Scott arranged to talk with her in person or by phone. This, she said, gave some other Council members the impression that Scott wasn’t too interested in continuing on the board, though she said she didn’t hold this against Scott.

Scott said he emailed a Pine staffer indicating he wanted to meet before a March 9 meeting of the Zoning and Housing Committee, but didn’t receive a response before the meeting. He attended the meeting, expecting it would serve as an interview, though he said he was asked only one question and it had to do with rail. “That was the extent of the committee’s interest in my positions,” he said in an email.

Another factor, according to Pine, was that no Kakaako community groups endorsing Scott called her, and that fellow Council members didn’t tell her he was an important candidate before a March 22 meeting during which Pine sought to leave Scott off a list of three nominees for one seat.

During the meeting, Pine advocated for a list that didn’t include Scott because she said he was nominated by only one Council member while three other candidates were nominated by two Council members.

The three other candidates were Jay Kadowaki, Phillip Hasha and Nani Medeiros. Critics of the process have noted that all three have ties to developers while Scott, who owns Kakaako-based slipper company Scott Hawaii, has been critical of developers.

Scott’s HCDA term expires June 30 and must be filled by an owner of a small business in Kakaako.

Another seat expiring June 30 is held by Jason Okuhama and must be held by a Kakaako resident.

Pine said a three-person list for the resident seat was short one candidate before the March 22 meeting, so she added Diane Georgene Fujio to the list that also includes Okuhama and Jonathan L.W. Ching.

Authors of the letter to Ige accused Pine of moving Hasha, who lives in Kakaako and owns a business there, from the resident seat list to the business seat list to displace Scott.

Pine said she didn’t do that and couldn’t have because she doesn’t have that authority. She said Councilman Trevor Ozawa nominated Hasha for the business seat.

In a move to amend the nominee list on March 22, five other Council members joined Pine to drop Scott and add Fujio. They were Chairman Ron Menor, Ikaika Anderson, Brandon Elefante, Joey Manahan and Ozawa. Opposing the move were Kobayashi, Ernest Martin and Carol Fukunaga, though Kobayashi, who nominated Scott, voted with reservations to adopt the final resolution sent to Ige.