On Peter Young…
By Hawaii State Senator Gary L. Hooser
Our Constitution assigns the Hawaii State Senate the unique responsibility to “advise and consent” on a governor’s appointment to judgeships and administrative department heads. We know that the operations of the government, for good or ill, rest on our decisions and we take this responsibility seriously.
The question of whether to approve Peter Young as Chairman of the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) was a difficult issue. Many in our community enthusiastically supported him. Others opposed him with equal fervor.
A review of the DLNR’s performance in district #7 Kaua’i and Ni’ihau during his four year tenure constituted the tipping point for my decision making. Two standout issues were the Ka Loko dam tragedy and the management of the Kokee State Park.
• The DLNR consistently ignored its duty to inspect Ka Loko, even after the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issued a D grade in 2001 to Hawaii’s state-regulated dams, and then again in 2005 when it specifically identified 22 of our dams as deficient. On October 23, 2005, five months prior to the Ka Loko tragedy, an article in the Honolulu Advertiser highlighted the danger, followed by an editorial a week later stressing that the “safety of our dams should concern us all.” On February 22, three weeks before the catastrophe, the DLNR received public calls of alarm warning that there might be trouble at Ka Loko. They apparently fell on deaf ears.
Although DLNR did not cause the Ka Loko dam breach, it held the power to possibly prevent that terrible tragedy by the simple act of fulfilling its inspection responsibilities.
• The Kokee State Park Master Plan, effecting over 6,000 acres of Kauai’s most cherished land, remains in limbo. Thunderous protests were required to convince the department to allow increased public review and input on the draft Master Plan. While the Chairman made initial steps to accommodate public concerns, he has since dropped the ball: the hard work of numerous dedicated members of our community has been ignored.
But Ka Loko and Kokee are not the only evidence of problems that run deep and wide through the DLNR.
• The State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) is in demonstrably worse shape today than it was four years ago. SHPD has been allowed to fall into such disarray that the Society for Hawaiian Archeology wrote the governor in 2005–and sent another plea last fall–to intervene in this “severely compromised” division. Recent news reports of the bulldozing of ancient archeological sites further punctuate the problems.
• A Kauai citizen successfully took the issue of shoreline certification all the way to the Hawaii State Supreme Court, only to have the department continue to resist enforcing the higher standard that offers greater public benefits.
• Continuing delays in making repairs to small boat harbors, the proliferation of unregulated surf schools in Hanalei and the lack of proactive DLNR management in numerous areas are clear indicators that the system in place is not working.
• Additionally, an investigation into irregularities in the Bureau of Conveyances, is underway. (Its implications led the Attorney General’s office to advise the Senate to meet in executive session rather than conduct open hearings.)
The Senate is not unaware that Peter Young inherited considerable disorder in 2003 when he took over as head of the DLNR. It is an unwieldy department with more than 700 employees in 11 different divisions. However in contrast, at the confirmation hearings of the Department of Health (3,100 employees) and the Department of Transportation (2,300 employees) there was not even a murmur of opposition to the confirmation of their respective director nominees.
The Peter Young vote was not a vote driven by unhappy Unions nor disgruntled fisherman – but rather a vote driven by the clear results of inadequate management. Though both groups no doubt had concerns, neither was key to the outcome, and in my direct experience neither was excessively active in the process. We voted against the lobbying of the United Public Workers Union on the Iwalani White confirmation issue and also against the desire of many fishermen when we denied passage of HB1848.
Member’s of the Senate take their “advise and consent” responsibility very seriously. This year we reviewed over 380 of the governor’s appointments and disapproved only 3. As a rule, opposing testimony during the appointment review process is an anomaly. When it occurs in significant numbers, it causes members to pause and look closer at the process and in this case, the close look yielded a vote of no-confidence.
Peter Young is a good man who has worked hard under trying conditions. He deserves our thanks for several achievements. On balance, though, shortcomings convincingly outweighed accomplishments. He has had 4 years to make changes and turn the department around but has not been able to do so. For these reasons I was unable to support his reconfirmation to the Chairmanship of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
State Senator Gary L. Hooser, D-7th (Kaua’i and Ni’ihau), is the Majority Leader of the Hawaii State Senate.