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Murashige, Laura <br /> From: Melissa Fleming [mfleming@co.hawaii.hi.us] <br /> Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 10:26 AM <br /> To: counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us <br /> Subject: FW: FW: FC Agenda for September 18, 2007 meeting <br /> ,.:J~ ~C~ <br /> -----Original Message----- ~ <br /> From: KA'U Preservation [mailto:danny@kaupreservation.org] <br /> Sent: Monday, September 17, 2007 9:43 AM <br /> To: Fleming, Melissa <br /> Subject: Re: FW: FC Agenda for September 18, 2007 meeting <br /> Melissa, <br /> Please distribute to your all your contacts: <br /> PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE <br /> KA~U PRESERVATION RESPONDS TO MAYOR'S LISTENING PROJECT REPORT <br /> Sept. 17th, 2007 <br /> REPORT CONFIRMS THAT COI~IUNITY IS AGAINST THE SEA MOUNTAIN PROJECT OFFERS NO NEW <br /> INFORMATION ATTEMPTS TO DESTROY GRASS ROOTS MOVEMENT <br /> At a cost of over $40,000 per page, the "The Ka'u Listening Project Report Summary" <br /> prepared by James Kent and Associates confirmed that the Ka'u Community does not support <br /> the Sea Mountain Development that includes a shopping center, two resorts and over 1,000 <br /> luxury homes that would damage the sacred sites and fragile springs of Punalu'u. County <br /> tax payers have spent over $80,000 on a poorly written and misleading two page report that <br /> provides no new conclusions and even attempts to defame the leadereship of Kau <br /> Preservation that has been recently recognized and honored by the County of Hawaii, the <br /> Hawaii State Legislature and the Gov. of Hawaii for their important work in protecting the <br /> sacred lands of Ka'u. <br /> Most of the language in the report is verbatim "cookie cutter" statements from the James <br /> Kent And Associates Website <br /> (http://www.naturalborders.com) that could be applied to every situation. <br /> The James Kent Website promotes a wide range of options for finding "solutions" for <br /> corporate interests and "reducing or eliminating" grassroots efforts. In one of the case <br /> studies listed on their Website where a community successfully stopped a dangerous mining <br /> operation, they decry the lost opportunities for the corporation. In another, they <br /> describe how they helped a lumber company clear land that according to concerned citizens <br /> would, "cause soil erosion and damage the habitat for the elk and deer." The report reads: <br /> "The formal opposition who had wanted to stop the cutting for their own narrow and vested <br /> reasons lost their grass roots support and were unable to overcome the company's technical <br /> arguments once emotionalism was removed." And in another, they even ridicule the <br /> establishment of 1976 National Forest Management Act that helped stopped dangerous clear <br /> cutting of our National Forests. Luckily in this case, James Kent and Associates <br /> underhanded methods did not work and the forest was saved and the case resulted in the <br /> establishment of the <br /> 1976 act. In this report it reads: "However, the issue could have been resolved at the <br /> emerging stage while numerous options remained open, eliminating the need for the 1976 <br /> <br /> Act." The goals of James Kent and Associates is to find ways to "Implement Projects <br /> Successfully" including projects such as the Sea Mountain Five Project even if it <br /> damages the fragile ecosystem at Punalu'u and destroys the cultural legacy of Ka'u. <br /> In the report summary, they claim Kau residents fear for their safety due to the tactics <br /> of Kau Preservation leadership, but offer no facts to back this statement up. Now even <br /> our local Newspapers are printing this false statement and helping Sea Mountain~prpponents <br /> 1 Comm. ~~'LL~t ~rjjµ <br /> Ref. To: <br /> ~zef. Bate cCp ~ g <br /> d~ <br /> <br />