Gov. David Ige indicated Wednesday he may support legislation to remove the University of Hawaii as manager of the Maunakea summit area.
During a livestreamed interview, Ige said he is “certainly open” to language within House Bill 2024, which passed final reading in the Legislature on Tuesday and would establish a new state entity — the Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority — to take over management of the land, which is home to 13 telescopes, after five years.
“I’ve always supported some change in how Maunakea is managed,” Ige said. “The final bill introduces the notion of ‘mutual stewardship,’ which I think is a real good concept to implement.
“There’s a lot of details that we’ll go through,” Ige continued. “Anytime you’re dealing with management of lands and public lands, it is a complex issue. So, we’ll be be going through the final bill carefully once session is over and before I have to make a decision on a veto or not.”
Ige said he believes the bill still allows the state’s astronomy industry to continue, but added that his signature on the bill will be contingent on whether it is legally airtight, because he predicts that the bill will inevitably be the subject of a lawsuit.
The final draft of the measure shifts responsibility for the summit area to the Authority by 2028 and would establish an 11-person board to set policy.
That board’s members would include the Hawaii County mayor, the chair of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, and the chair of UH’s Board of Regents.
The remaining members would be appointed by the governor, and would include representatives from the Maunakea Observatories, recognized cultural practitioners, recognized descendants of cultural practitioners, and people with education, land management expertise and business expertise. The UH-Hilo chancellor would also serve as a nonvoting member.
After the five-year transition plan — during which the Authority and UH would jointly manage the summit lands — the Authority would retain sole responsibility for the summit lands and would develop a comprehensive plan for the area.
According to the bill, that plan could — but wouldn’t necessarily — include limits on astronomical facilities, restrictions on commercial and recreational access to the mountain such as mandatory fees or orientation. The plan also could establish procedures for decommissioning observatories and returning their sites to a natural state when they “no longer have research or educational value.”
The Authority also would fully take over UH’s role in administering the Maunakea Observatories’ current and future leases, which has been a contentious part of the legislation.
Sen. Lorraine Inouye (D-Hilo, Hamakua, Kohala, Waimea, Waikoloa, Kona) was one of only three senators to oppose the bill at final reading Tuesday, repeating fears by astronomers that the bill will lead to the termination of observatory leases.
Citing concerns by Doug Simons, UH’s Institute for Astronomy director, Inouye addressed the Senate Tuesday, saying that, with UH’s master lease running out in 2033, observatories are already gearing up to negotiate lease extensions through UH, but will face an uncertain future if those negotiations shift to a new entity midway through.
“After UH loses their original lease in 2033, upon which (the Thirty Meter Telescope) and the other observatories are sublessees, astronomy will be back at square one, starting all over again,” Inouye said. “The costly setback for astronomy, Hawaii’s economy and jobs related to the industry will probably be too much to bear.”
Although the bill professes that support of astronomy would be “a policy of the state,” Inouye questioned that commitment, calling the bill a “Trojan Horse” attempting to drive out astronomy.
Inouye on Wednesday clarified that because the bill sets a moratorium on granting or renewing any subleases until the end of the five-year transition period, it leaves observatories too little time to do the work necessary to renew before the master lease — which the bill specifies will remain in effect until 2033 under the responsibility of the Authority — expires.
“But, as far as I’m concerned, I have no problems with (UH)’s current management,” Inouye said Wednesday.
Sen. Laura Acasio (D-Hilo) — who is running against Inouye for the Senate District 1 seat this year — also voted against the bill Tuesday, although she did not give specific reasons for her opposition.
“While I truly believe that the process that has brought this bill to us to decide on is valuable, and has huge implications for healing and shifting our state policy and issues surrounding land management into the future and in a direction that considers the needs of the stakeholders and rightholders in our entire community … it’s not as simple as a yes or a no,” Acasio said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, a member of the Mauna Kea Working Group whose recommendations shaped the initial draft of the bill, said she was largely pleased with its final form.
“I’m optimistic about it, even if it doesn’t have all the requests of the working group,” Wong-Wilson said Wednesday.
Wong-Wilson added that the purpose of the Authority would be to protect Maunakea for future generations, which she said could include “good astronomy.” As for TMT, she declined to speculate on that project’s future in Hawaii, although she noted that it “has it’s own set of problems, namely funding.”
Kealoha Pisciotta, speaking for Native Hawaiian advocacy group Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, said the latest version of the bill is, against all odds, worse than the earlier drafts.
“It’s been pitched as a Hawaiian bill, but it’s never been that,” Pisciotta said. “The Authority would be taking the Maunakea land out of the body corpus of the ceded lands trust … but it has now developed into this whole thing where they’re establishing astronomy as a state policy.”
Pisciotta said the current management model badly needs reform, but added that the consolidation of the summit lands into an astronomy-focused area directly run by the state is a “complete capture of industry.”
“Those lands have been leased for 60 years, and that’s going to end in 2033,” Pisciotta said. “By making astronomy a state policy, when is that going to end?”
A UH spokesman on Wednesday was unable to provide comments about the bill.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
