After threatening to go to court for months, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs finally pulled the trigger, accusing the University of Hawaii of aggressively developing the Mauna Kea summit for astronomy at the expense of its environment and cultural significance.

The complaint, filed Tuesday in Oahu circuit court, charges the university with mismanagement on the mountain and asks the state to terminate UH’s summit lease for breach of its terms.

“After 50 years of empty promises to the mauna and our community, the state needs to be held accountable,” trustee Dan Ahuna declared at a news conference Wednesday. “Mauna Kea deserves better.”

The suit ends a two-year, behind-the-scenes effort by OHA to wrest some control away from the university, a move OHA described as an attempt to improve stewardship and step up cultural protections.

But trustees said they grew tired of a halfhearted effort by the state to engage in formal mediation. When the state recently said no one with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources would be involved in negotiations, the trustees decided they had enough.

“Talking has not been a dialogue — it’s been a monologue by us, always OHA coming forward with new ideas,” OHA attorney Robert Klein said.

The suit comes as the fate of the Thirty Meter Telescope rests in the hands of the state Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in the coming months on both TMT construction permit and sublease appeals.

However, OHA officials said the complaint is separate from the $1.4 billion TMT, a project about which OHA remains neutral.

“This is not about any single telescope. This is not about Hawaiian culture versus science. This is about the state and UH failing the mauna,” said Ahuna, chairman of the board’s Ad Hoc Committee on Mauna Kea.

UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl called the accusations inaccurate and unfair. While he acknowledged shortcomings on the mountain, Meisenzahl said significant progress has been made over the last few decades.

Both the state Attorney General’s office and DLNR, which leases the summit to UH, said they were still reviewing the complaint Wednesday.

“It appears that the allegations are based on activity that occurred over multiple state and university administrations. The current state and university administrations have worked in good faith to continually improve management of the mountain. We expect to detail those efforts over the course of the litigation,” state Attorney General Douglas Chin said in a statement.

“DLNR remains committed to its stated mission of enhancing, protecting, conserving and managing Hawaii’s unique and limited natural, cultural and historic resources held in public trust … in partnership with others from the public and private sectors. We will comment further at an appropriate time,” the agency said in a statement.

The 31-page complaint identifies a handful of what it describes as failures in the university’s management of the mountain, including not collecting rent from 11 of 13 telescopes, falling short of creating an environment respectful of Mauna Kea’s cultural landscape, failing to properly manage access and inadequately implementing the mountain’s 2009 Comprehensive Management Plan.

The suit notes that four state audits have criticized the state for its management, with the first one in 1998 concluding that little was done to protect the natural resources on Mauna Kea since the first telescope was constructed in 1968. Three follow-up audits revealed that while some progress had been made, more work was needed, according to the complaint.

To further support its argument, the suit quotes both Gov. David Ige and UH President David Lassner. In 2015 Ige conceded the state has “not done right by” and “failed” the mountain, while Lassner offered that the university “has not yet met all of (its) obligations to the mountain or the expectations of the community.”

Richard Naiwieha Wurdeman, attorney for TMT litigants Mauna Kea Hui, said the suit correctly identifies the state’s “gross mismanagement,” and even the TMT environmental impact statement concedes to substantial impacts on natural and cultural resources.

But while OHA says its complaint is not about any single telescope, Wurdeman said the TMT is the elephant in the room.

“OHA needs to be fully committed in opposing the TMT project and sending the foreign partners off to the Canary Islands,” he said, referring to the TMT’s alternative site.

UH’s Meisenzahl said the criticism of UH’s management is a slap in the face to the many people on Hawaii island dedicated to protecting the summit.

He said people should read the full record, including the 2014 state auditor’s report that said, “We found that UH has developed several management plans that provide a comprehensive framework for managing and protecting Mauna Kea while balancing the competing interests of culture, conservation, scientific research and recreation.”

The 1998 state auditor report was a wake-up call that led to the creation of a completely new approach to stewardship, Meisenzahl said.

“A strong foundation is now in place,” he said, “and the university is committed to collaborative stewardship of Mauna Kea to build on this foundation with all stakeholders, especially the people of Hawaii island.”