HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0488.053 2008-2010
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Aloha Chairman Yoshimoto and esteemed Council Members,
My name is Bob Williams. I am President of Prudential Orchid Isle Properties in Hilo. I
am a past President for the Hawaii Island Board of Realtors and the Hawaii Island
Chamber of Commerce. I come to you today testifying in opposition to Bill 132. As I
have testified previously, Bill 132 does not create transparency in government. The
current open bid or sealed bid process is fair for all bidders and all the information
required in Bill 132, save the bidder's intended uses, is provided for in the current law.
In reality, Bill 132 has two purposes. One is to take away the Administration's authority
to'complete a sale after an auction and the other is to set up a procedure that will make it
difficult to sell the County's Hamakua lands.
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Regarding the Bill's first purpose, it is already true that no land can be sold by the County
of Hawaii without the County Council passing a resolution approving of the intended
sale. At that point, the County Council can impose any restrictions on the land sale it sees
fit. If that is true, why is it necessary to go back to the Council for additional approval?
The Bill's supporters say that the Council and the public need to know who the buyer is,
and what their intent is prior to the sale being approved. This sounds reasonable, but the
effect is to make the buyer go through the kind of examination and possibly exactions or
restrictions normally involved with zoning changes. How many buyers will be interested
in purchasing real estate from the County when they are required to pay at least appraised
value for the property and go through the uncertainty of public hearings about their
worthiness?
This leads to the second purpose of Bill 132, which is the delay or blocking of the sale of
the County's Hamakua lands. Under Bill 132, it will be extremely difficult to find a buyer
for these properties. If these properties were given to the County of Hawaii as a gift with
a provision that the beneficiary would be the people of the Hamakua District, I would be
strongly in favor of the lands not being sold. However, this is not the case, the lands were
payment for rollback real estate taxes owed, and the beneficiary should be the people of
the entire Island of Hawaii. As an analogy, if the South Kohala and North Kona Districts
were able to segregate their real property taxes just for their own districts, the County of
Hawaii would not be able to deliver the same services currently offered to much of the
Island. Is that what we, the people of Hawaii Island really want?
Thank you,
Bob Williams
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