Dawn Chang endorsed to head Department of Land and Natural Resources

Gov. Josh Green’s pick to lead the state Department of Land and Natural Resources received a unanimous Senate committee endorsement during a Friday public hearing with relatively little turbulence.

The Committee on Water and Land voted 5-0 to recommend that the 25-member Senate confirm Dawn Chang as DLNR’s director and chair of the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

Chang received written testimony in opposition to her confirmation from about 50 people, including some who faulted her for representing developers as a consultant during her career that also includes public service. But it was outweighed fourfold by about 200 submissions from people and organizations supporting Chang.

Chang’s positive recommendation followed three setbacks for Green in establishing his Cabinet after being elected governor in November.

The new governor’s first nominee to lead the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Ikaika Anderson, withdrew after a negative committee vote in March. Then, last week the full Senate rejected Chris Sadayasu to head the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism on an 8-15 vote, while also not confirming Scott Glenn to run the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development in a 12-12 vote.

Six state department directors appointed by Green have been confirmed, including three on Friday with unanimous 25-0 votes: Sharon Hurd to lead the Department of Agriculture, Kenneth Hara as adjutant general for the state Department of Defense and Jordan Lowe to head the Department of Law Enforcement.

The hearing on Chang’s nomination was expected to be somewhat contentious given her work from 2001 to 2022 as the principal of Ku‘iwalu Consulting, a company she founded that specialized in part on helping navigate culturally sensitive issues. But such concerns did not sway votes from committee members.

Chang, who shut down Ku‘iwalu around the time she was appointed by Green, told the committee that she wanted the committee to evaluate her “not on what others may have said I’ve done or may not have done, but on what I’ve done at DLNR over the last 90 days.”

Chang highlighted some of the work she’s done since being appointed, including having a grounded yacht towed off a reef on Maui, working to transfer DLNR pasture land to the Department of Agriculture, and adjusting a management principal for nearshore waters.

She also said committee members shouldn’t conclude that because she represented developers, she doesn’t care for the environment.

“My work with the developers was not to advocate for their project, but to design a community engagement project that ensured that communities that have historically been disenfranchised, including rural and Native Hawaiians, could participate in a meaningful way,” she said. “I do not regret working on any of those projects, as I believe the process that I designed enhanced their projects and the community’s experience.”

Supporters of Chang included two former and one current BLNR member, the director and a member of the state Land Use Commission where Chang was a member for seven years, many state agency administrators, the Hawaii Farm Bureau, the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation, three construction industry organizations and the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs.

Chang’s mother, two sons and a daughter, all of whom attended the hearing, also offered supportive comments about Chang, who is part Native Hawaiian and was a deputy state attorney general from 1987 to 2001. If confirmed, she would be the first Hawaiian woman to head DLNR.

Laura Ka‘akua, a former president and CEO of the nonprofit land preservation organization Hawai‘i Land Trust who was confirmed by the Senate last week on a 25-0 vote as DLNR deputy director, told the committee that Chang is the first one to arrive and the last one to leave the office.

“Her work ethic is really extraordinary,” Ka‘akua said. “She takes this kuleana (responsibility) very seriously.”

Several detractors of the nominee mentioned in their written testimony Chang’s work as a consultant for Kawaiaha‘o Church, where burials were unearthed to make way for a multipurpose building project that was later abandoned.

David Kimo Frankel, a former Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. attorney, told the committee that Chang recommended that the church pursue archaeological monitoring instead of a more intensive survey, and he included in his written testimony emails from Chang over the matter that led to litigation.

“She recommended a process that excluded Hawaiians from a meaningful participation process,” he said. “Dawn Chang is smooth, but I don’t believe she has the integrity to run the Board of Land and Natural Resources.”

Chang let the committee know before Frankel testified that her recommen­dation to the church was based on a revised church plan to not include a parking structure in its project that would have disturbed more of the ground.

Choon James opposed Chang for helping clients that included the owner of Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu’s North Shore.

“Based on Dawn Chang’s record, consenting this nominee would be like allowing the fox to guard the henhouse,” James told the committee. “She is just not the right fit for this job.”

About 40 people testified at the hearing, which lasted a little over two hours and started with only two committee members present.

Committee members did ask some tough questions.

Sen. Angus McKelvey (D, West Maui-Maalaea-South Maui), who joined the hearing about 20 minutes in, said DLNR needs to greatly improve enforcing its rules and laws, and said some of its divisions including the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation run rogue operations.

Chang acknowledged such issues and said one change she is pursuing is to give back jurisdiction of small boat harbors to the Department of Transportation, which turned over such responsibility to DLNR in 1994.

McKelvey, who also encouraged Chang to institute regime change at DLNR, voted to endorse her confirmation with reservations but credited Chang for tackling tough issues and progressing on the job.

Sen. Brandon Elefante (D, Aiea-Pacific Palisades-Pearl City) brought up the issue of the head of DLNR’s Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation, Ed Underwood, recently settling a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a secretary.

Chang said she is seeking guidance from human resource officials and intends to hold personnel accountable in part by using performance evaluations.

Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Ocean Pointe- Iroquois Point) arrived about 10 minutes after the hearing started and pressed Chang on dealing with land lessees, including businesses and the military, trying to hold onto use of land that should return to the state at the end of a lease.

Sen. Stanley Chang (D, Hawaii Kai-Kahala-Diamond Head) was the last member to join the hearing about 35 minutes after it started and wanted to know about potential for using DLNR land for affordable housing.

Committee Chair Sen. Lorraine Inouye (D, Hilo- Pepeekeo) offered praise for the nominee and partially discounted an online petition submitted as written testimony with nearly 1,000 names opposing Chang’s confirmation by noting that a large number of petitioners listed out-of-state addresses.

“The nominee certainly has demonstrated extraordinary leadership and leadership skills during her brief time as DLNR chairperson,” Inouye said.

A full Senate vote on Chang’s confirmation has not yet been scheduled. Senators are often lobbied up until the vote, and committee members in the past have reversed positions on nominees, as was illustrated last week when McKelvey and Chang voted in committee to recommend Glenn’s confirmation but then voted against it on the Senate floor.