The University of Hawaii Board of Regents once again postponed action on a proposed new internal management structure for governance of Maunakea.
The proposed plan would combine the Office of Maunakea Management and Maunakea Support Services into a single entity called the Center for Maunakea Stewardship, in an effort to streamline the management structure of the UH-managed lands on Maunakea.
While the plan was first brought to the Board of Regents in May, the board voted at that meeting to postpone the decision until the board’s June meeting, which was held last Thursday.
However, Chairman Benjamin Kudo said at Thursday’s meeting that a determination about the plan would once again be delayed to give affected parties more time to discuss its ramifications, moving the matter to the board’s August meeting.
That decision, Kudo said, came after meetings with the Office of Maunakea Management and Maunakea Support Services earlier this month, after which the matter was removed from Thursday’s agenda.
“There are still some questions and concerns with some of our stakeholder groups,” said university spokesman Dan Meisenzahl, who added that the proposed restructuring plan has been the subject of several public hearings and other discussions, which he hopes will be the norm for other UH decisions going forward.
“It’s one part of our commitment to greater accountability and transparency,” Meisenzahl said.
Meisenzahl said there is no deadline requiring the board to come to a decision at the August meeting.
The restructuring plan came in accordance with a resolution passed by the board last year, which required the board to discuss possible reorganizations of the university’s Maunakea management structure.
The plan is separate from another item on that resolution: consideration of governance models that could shift management of the mountain away from UH entirely.
Those models have not been discussed at any Board of Regents meeting, because the board does not have the authority to implement such widespread changes.
However, the restructuring plan and the theoretical new governance models have been controversial among opponents of the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope, which is slated to be built on Maunakea.
Last week, a group called the Mauna Kea Protectors issued a statement accusing the university of using the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to railroad through policy changes without public opposition.
Meisenzahl pointed out that the restructuring plan has been in the works since well before the COVID-19 crisis began.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
