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<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Charles Flaherty <br /> <br /> From: Charles Flaherty foneheart@aloha.net] <br /> Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 2:56 PM <br /> To: 'counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us' <br /> <br /> Cc: 'Ford, Brenda'; 'Hoffmann, Pete';'Donald Ikeda';'jjaco@co.hawaii.hi.us';'shiga@co.hawaii.hi.us'; <br /> 'enaeole@oo.hawaii.hi.us'; 'KAPILAGO@co.hawaii.hi.us'; 'Dominic Yagong'; <br /> 'jyoshimoto@co. hawai i. h i. us' <br /> Subject: Testimony conditionally supporting Bill 167 <br /> Aloha mai, <br /> <br /> I am testifying in support of banning "superstores" in the County of Hawai'i, including Department of Hawaiian <br /> Home Lands as amended by Council member Angel Pilago. I also support Council member Brenda Ford's <br /> amendment as introduced on October 3, 2007 closing loopholes that would allow superstores to be built on our <br /> island. <br /> Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation has filed a lawsuit to challenge the state's failure to adequately fund the <br /> Hawaiian Homes Program, as it pledged to do as a condition of statehood. Instead, the Hawaiian Homes <br /> Commission is embarking on a program to commercially lease its trust lands to raise revenue, in contravention of <br /> the specific constitutional provisions under Art. XII, sec. 1 requiring the Legislature to provide "sufficient sums" <br /> to the DHHL for all of its operations: <br /> <br /> "The legislature shall make sufficient sums available for the following purposes: <br /> I ) development of home, agriculture, farm and ranch lots; <br /> 2) home, agriculture, aquaculture, farm and ranch loans; <br /> 3) rehabilitation projects to include, but not limited to, educational, economic, political, social and cultural <br /> processes by which the general welfare and conditions of native Hawaiians are thereby improved; <br /> 4) the administration and operating budget of the department of Hawaiian home lands; in furtherance of (1), (2), <br /> (3) and (4) herein, by appropriating the same in the manner provided by law." <br /> The Lingle Administration through Micah Kane, the former Chair of the State Republican Party, is acting against <br /> the constitution by using Hawaiian Home Lands instead of using privately-owned land for commercial <br /> development. <br /> With the State Historic Preservation Division in a shambles and constitutionally-protected Native Hawaiian <br /> historic and cultural sites being wiped out on a massive scale, it is clear that the Lingle Administration is <br /> implementing a policy of cultural genocide to destroy what few resources the Native Hawaiian people possess. <br /> Please vote to ban all non-agricultural commercial development on Department of Hawaiian Home Lands <br /> property. It's the constitutional thing to do! <br /> <br /> Mahalo nui, <br /> Charles Flaherty <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 2/20/2008 <br />