Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0162.004 2008-2010 [J Greetings- First I want to thank the council chair Mr. Ikeda, Mr. Enriques and all the council members to let me testify today. I spoke with Mr. Enriques last night for almost an hour and I hope that we at least clarified some issues. C While I commend Mr. Enriques for his energy in evaluating my candidacy, I cannot commend his approach. The comments he made at the last council meeting were hurtful and untrue and were based on a very inadequate and flimsy investigation, in particular regarding my service at Kona Hospital and Ka'u Hospital. I am a physician and plan to reenter full time practice after my training in mental health counseling. Comments such as Mr. Enriques made can only be damaging to my reputation. He was given the opportunity by the council to defer his comments until this session, but he chose not to do so. Since the last session he has made no attempt to reach me that I am aware of. I called him yesterday at the request of Ron Whitmore. The intrusion of Mr. Enriques in the selection process of the steering committee is I feel very unhelpful and has I feel politicize the selection process and potentially will polarized the community regarding the CDP process. I hardly think anyone would not question whether the appearance of Mr. Manfredi before this V committee to ask for a seat on the steering committee for the large landowners was not related to Mr. Enrique's attacks on my qualifications. Mr. Enriques did not identify the groups he contacted during your last meeting. I was able to find out which groups these were from Jim Quirk who had first talked to Mr. Enriques. Mr. Quirk unfortunately had only a few days here before he left for a new position in Pennsylvania, and thought that the issues at question were too complex for him to address in the time he had. He indicated that he would review the story with his editor Mr. Flickenger but thought it likely that the story would be turned over to his replacement. In regard to Naalehu Main Street I addressed that issue in my communication to the council sent yesterday. Mr. Enriques said he talked with two individuals connected to Naalehu Main Street. Theresa Alderdyce, who is vice-president of Naalehu Main Street, and who was on the selection committee for the steering committee told me that she had not spoken to Mr. Enriques. I can only surmise that Mrs. Marge Elwell was one of those he spoke to. As Mr. Enriques has not shared with the council the names 9 of the individuals he spoke to or documented what they said, nor have they come forward with written or oral testimony, I can also only surmise what was said. I believe Mrs. Elwell was upset when I was selected as President of Naalehu Main Street as she wanted to be president herself. She may also have been miffed when the large group of individuals resigned after we saw the financial records, or lack thereof. In regard to the Ka'u Agricultural Water Cooperative, now called the Ka'u Agricultural Water Cooperative District, Mr. Enriques shared with me last night that he had spoken to three individuals. Comm. No. Ref. To: ~teaen403 Cey~l Ref. Date APR 0 8 2003 m Again he did not identify the individuals, nor did he tell me what they said. Those individuals also have not come forward with written or oral testimony. I started my involvement with the Ka'u Agricultural Water Cooperative with energy and enthusiasm. Issues regarding land and water are paramount, especially in a rural and agricultural area such as Ka'u. I was a member of the general steering committee and also the by-laws committee. Over time what seemed strange to me was that there was no discussion of agriculture. When I would suggest discussing reservoirs or water transportation projects I was told: The important thing is to get control of the water before a developer comes in and tries to take it. While the group put a reference in their documents to Hawaiian rights, the rights of Hawaiians were mocked by at least one prominent member of the group. This individual stated "The Hawaiians may m have rights to the water, but we don't have give them easements". There appeared to be an effort to keep the project under the radar of Hawaiian activist groups. The water sources in question are tunnels that were developed by the sugar plantation for Pluming cane ' down from the upper fields. Sugar cane has not to my knowledge ever been irrigated with that water. The switch to other means of transporting the cane led to abandonment of most of the tunnels. Exceptions were Mountain House Tunnel and Ha'ao Springs which provide the water to Naalehu and Discovery Harbor and nearby areas, the Ali'i Tunnel that provides water to Pahala, and the Noguchi Tunnel which provides potable water to Wood Valley. The Olsen trust fought for and obtained a percentage of the yield from that tunnel as well. The Hawaii Department of Water Supply has indicated their intention to abandon these sources except for a backup role as the EPA considers these to be a surface source. Surface sources need to be treated by filtering before chlorination and the Dept. of Water Supply determined that it would be easier and i perhaps less expensive to switch to wells. Currently the water flows from these tunnels to the customers using gravity. "Except for times of drought the back-up wells are not used. DWS is the largest user of power in Hawaii County. Their power bill I have read is over fifty million dollars per year. Given that I think it certainly would behoove the CDP steering committee to look at the possibility of having an independent Ka'u water system that retained the gravity flow sources, and perhaps Would integrate the highly productive Noguchi Tunnel into the system. As is well known Hawaiian Ocean View does not have water. The well that is in development will provide a limited supply of water and will depend on expensive pumping. The Kona to Ka'u Water plan, done in 2005, had as one of its recommendations that Mountain Tunnel provide water to Ocean View. Loren Heck had even spoken to the National Park about running a water line from Mountain House Tunnel across the national park and they had no objections and apparently thought it would be very feasible and beneficial. I even brought Loren Heck to one or two meetings of KAWCD but the members would not change their geographic restrictions Another concern that developed was that these water sources are almost all on ceded lands. They are currently administered by the DLNR. DLNR will issue permits to use the water at essentially no cost but these permits have for some time been on a 30 day revocable basis. To get a longer control of these water sources an auction would have to be held. Now, at auction these water sources might be worth a 9 considerable amount. At least one entity or individual has indicated an interest in bottling the excellent water from the Noguchi Tunnel. A scheme was therefore developed that would obtain the water with long term leases, twenty years with an option to renew for a second twenty years were the terms I heard discussed with the head of ADC. That is two generations. The plan was that DLNR would transfer the tunnels and surrounding lands to the ADC and the ADC would enter into long term leases with KAWCD. The leases for ADC do not have the regulations that DLNR have. They do not go up for auction, and the past history of ADC at least in Kauai is that the lease rights are essentially given away. Now, OHA and the Hawaiian people receive 20% of the proceeds from DLNR leases. These proceed could be substantial if the leases were auctioned. If the leases were obtained from ADC the Hawaiian people would receive 20%, but 20% of almost nothing. That appeared to me to be a very devious and unfair way to obtain the water, one that certainly would 0 defraud the Hawaiian people of their rightful benefit. A second issue that I disagreed with was that the KAWCD was dominated by the large landowners and lease holders. Wood Valley was also a player. It became increasingly apparent to me that while the claims were that this water was needed for agriculture that the real driving force was to obtain Mountain House Tunnel and Noguchi Tunnel to provide potable water for land subdivision and development. Wood Valley is currently zoned Ag-20. Without long term approved water sources they could not rezone their parcels to allow smaller pieces, and this appeared to be the motive to involve the ADC. The Olsen Trusts, I believe are planning to use the water for subdivisions, possibly as agricultural project districts. That may be one reason Mr. Olsen and his wife each donated $2,000.00 to Mr. Enriques. I spoke with an individual that worked with Mr. Olsen who indicated that it was an open secret that these subdivisions were planned. This individual also indicated that when he/she raised the issue he/she was 9 told to stop asking questions in what he/she seemed to feel was a threatening way, with the implication of retribution if questions continued to be asked. I took my concerns to Bob Jacobson, and he suggested that the county council could make a non-binding resolution asking the state to not transfer any ceded land and water rights until the Ka'u CDP could review the issue and make its recommendations. I indicated that Mr. Jacobson had made this suggestion at a large meeting regarding Punalu'u in the context or also recommending that the question of what should be done at Punalu'u would be an ideal issue to be discussed during the CDP process. Mr. Manfredi and Ms Galabad were at that meeting. Q 0 I spoke out at a community meeting in Na'alehu with my concerns about how KAWCD was proceeding. It is no surprise, then, that Mr. Enriques would not receive enthusiastic reviews from those he spoke to at KAWCD. It is clear to me that Mr. Manfredi would like to replace me on the steering committee. What is not clear to me is if Mr. Enriques efforts to discredit me are related to the unprecedented amount of money his campaign received for his successful effort to obtain a council seat. I am sure it has not escaped the notice of the large land owners that having a councilperson beholden to their interests would make the passing of an Agricultural project District much easier. o Despite the unpleasantness of these proceedings, I am enthusiastic about being a member of the Ka'u CDP steering committee. I would hope that the council would see the wisdom of not allowing Mr. Enriques undocumented accusations to derail my nomination and potentially the CDP process in Ka'u. 4 0