DHHL chief nominee draws disagreement

The state Senate Hawaiian Affairs Committee on Thursday decided to defer for a week a vote on the nomination of William J. Aila as Department of of Hawaiian Home Lands chairman after a nearly eight-hour-long hearing Thursday.

More than 40 people testified on Gov. David Ige’s appointment of Aila, who has served as interim chairman since May when the governor chose not to reappoint embattled former DHHL chief Jobie Masagatani. Aila had served as deputy director since 2014.

The committee Thursday also held off a decision on Ige’s nomination of Tyler I. Gomes as DHHL deputy director. Hawaiian Affairs Chairwoman Maile Shimabukuro said her committee would take up the matter again at 1:15 p.m. Thursday.

Those against Aila’s nomination outnumbered supporters by a small margin.

Some, opponents of the planned Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea, questioned Aila’s role in the state’s handling of Mauna Kea Access Road, which leads to the summit. TMT protesters occupied the road beginning in July, blocking construction of the project. Protesters have left temporarily under a two-month truce after Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim assured them no construction equipment would be moved up the mountain in the interim.

Aila told state lawmakers last year that DHHL owned the land under the road, which is under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Transportation, and was owed compensation for its taking by the state. He reiterated that position Thursday, stating that DHHL is in the process of hiring an attorney to assess the value of the property and negotiate with the DOT.

Several critics said the situation exemplified Aila’s allegiance to Ige rather than Hawaiian Home Lands beneficiaries.

Emmett Lee Loy said he opposes Aila’s nomination “because of his malicious conduct on Mauna Kea where … he had the cops up there, disrespecting the elders on Hawaiian homelands. He knew it was Hawaiian homelands, and yet he had the audacity to betray his trust responsibilities owed to the beneficiaries and their supporters.”

Bridgit Bales, a member of the Keaukaha Panaewa Farmers Association, told the committee that the DHHL chairman’s post is not like other gubernatorial appointments that go before the Senate for confirmation.

While the governor’s other appointments are accountable to him, Bales said, the DHHL chairman “serves the DHHL Land Trust and DHHL beneficiaries.”

As interim chairman, Aila “has not worked with our communities — zero collaboration, minimal communication.”

Robin Puanani Danner, who chairs the Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations, said Aila is unqualified to be DHHL chairman, has not listened to the concerns of beneficiaries and made little progress in the agency’s core mission of placing Native Hawaiians on homestead lands.

But Mahealani Cypher, a board member of the Koolau Foundation and a member with the Ko‘olaupoko Hawaiian Civic Club, said Aila has “proven to be very respectful, very helpful, very sensitive to community needs.”

She added, “He’s got a tough job. He has to serve two masters: the Hawaiian people and the governor. So that’s kind of hard. Governor, same thing. We all have to be part of the problem or part of the solution. We need to look at ourselves. Are we part of the solution?”

The bigger fight is to press the federal government for more funding to meet its obligations to the Hawaiian people, Cypher said.

Kapua Keliikoa-Kamai of the Waianae Valley Homestead Community Association said DHHL was “set up to fail the way that it’s administered by the state.” The Legislature should find a way to make the chairman accountable only to the beneficiaries and not to the governor, she said.

Aila said many of his actions have been misconstrued as serving Ige’s interest when he instead was making decisions based on “a fiduciary duty to protect the trust in the long run.”

Several of those opposing Aila’s nomination said they had nothing against Aila but didn’t like the process under which he was chosen or Ige’s policies.

If confirmed, Aila and Gomes would serve through the end of Ige’s term on Dec. 5, 2022.