2016-03-03 Hearing Transcript - Update Puna Pono Alliance et al GAF Claim

Home

FUJIYOSHI: Good morning, Chairman Charlie Heaukulani, Members of the Commission. I’ll try to direct my comments to you. My name is Ronald Fujiyoshi. I—I’m, my family moved here about 60 years ago now. I married a girl who’s lived here. Our family has been here for a few generations but still not as long as the host people. I’ve been listening to—forgive me if I say things, repeat things that have been said before because I know it’s redundant, but I think I need to say it. Listening to staff from the Planning Department and Corporation Counsel report kind of seems to have us focusing on the things like procurement laws, and I think my understanding of the context of this issue is different from that. And I want to explain that. I think we need to understand clearly the background of this study, and as Katarina said, it’s not on the agenda correctly because it’s supposed to be the Native Hawaiian Psycho-Social Impact and Community Well-Being Study, which I will call the Edelstein study. Now, the, in August, the—of 15, 2013, I attended a meeting in Puna, in Pāhoa of the geothermal public health assessment study group which I call the so-called Adler study because Mr. Peter Adler facilitated that study group. And, in that meeting, I heard quite a few Native Hawaiians voice their disapproval of a study that did not take seriously the impact geothermal had on the health of Native Hawaiians because it did not spell out the violation to their cultural and religious traditional beliefs, traditions and beliefs. Now, as you should know, those Native Hawaiians that were supposed to be in the study weren’t there, and so the impact of those Hawaiian voices at that meeting, I think, was crucial to that study and came out in some people’s comments in the way the study came out. Now, this study that we’re talking about, the Edelstein study, as Jim Albertini pointed out, is long overdue. Now, why do I say this? This study comes closest to showing whether the rights guaranteed to Native Hawaiians in Article 12, Section 7 of the Constitution of the State of Hawaiʽi, on protecting their traditional and customary rights are being violated. Can I say that again? This study comes closest to showing whether the rights guaranteed to Native Hawaiians in Article 12, Section 7 of your Constitution of the State of Hawaiʽi on protecting their traditional and customary rights are being violated. This study should have been done a long time ago. th So, let’s recap what happened on the study. In my recap, on January 8, 2015, I testified and heard testimony from various members of the public strongly in favor of the Native Hawaiian Psycho-Social Impact and Community Well-Being Study. There was no opposition voiced from the public. After listening to the credentials of Dr. Michael Edelstein, all of us in the room seemed convinced of his expertise. As I recall, the vote from the Windward Planning Commission members present was unanimously in favor of funding the study from the Geothermal Asset Fund to the tune of $293,760. The staff did not voice any problem with this decision as I recall. Then, a strange thing happened. One Commissioner moved in the February Commission th meeting to place on the agenda a motion to reconsider the decision. At the March 5, 2015, meeting in which I testified, the said Commissioner explained that the motion for consideration \[sic\] was to direct the staff of the Planning Department to add the name of Dr. Michael Edelstein to the list of those who can contract with the Department to conduct a study, thereby, speeding 23 EXHIBIT E