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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-01-09 Transcript VICENTE (PL-INT-2025-011330)_draft BOARD OF APPEALS COUNTY OF HAWAI`I DRAFT TRANSCRIPT January 9, 2026 The County of Hawai`i Board of Appeals took up the petition for DWIGHT VICENTE (PL- INT-2025-011330)at 9:33 a.m.This was a hybrid meeting held in person at the Hawai`i County Council Chambers, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, Hawai`i 96720 and via the Zoom online platform. This petition was called to order with Chair Cathy Lewis presiding. MEMBERS PRESENT IN PERSON: Cathy Lewis (Chair), John Kimura, and Maci Wilson. MEMBERS PRESENT ON ZOOM: Rachel Able (Vice Chair). MEMBERS EXCUSED: Scott Martin. ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: Sylvia Wan, Esq. (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Board), Bethany Morrison (Staff to the Board), and Ashley DeVera (Board Secretary). DWIGHT VICENTE (PL-INT-2025-011330) DEFECTIVE PETITION Appeal of Decision by the Planning Director, Date Unknown. Location: Ainaola Drive, Hilo, HI 96720 TMK: (3) 2-4-050:037 PARTIES PRESENT: Dwight Vicente (appellant). [There were no members of the public in attendance.] LEWIS: Bethany, are there any public testifiers on this particular agenda item? MORRISON: No public testifiers, Chair. LEWIS: Okay. And I see Mr. Vicente, you're here in the audience and you're just representing yourself today, correct? Okay. And there are no other parties or representatives app—appearing today. All right. So, we are here to address the defective petition filed in this case and the Board will now hear any statements that you want to make Mr. Vicente. I'm going to keep—ask you to keep your presentation to five minutes and at one minute, Ms. Wan will give you a signal to let you know to wrap it up. VICENTE: Good morning. My name is Dwight Vicente making a special appearance representing the Hawaiian Kingdom under the 1840 constitution and the 1848 Mahele, which is a Kanaka Land Trust, which is still in effect today. So, the lands prior to the 1848 Mahele was leased out by at least three hundred Ali`i's in their name. Mahele did one thing, it changed it over to Hawaiian Kingdom and the lands became crown and government lands. The lands in question today is crown lands. These lands were leased out under King Kalakaua for thirty years,from 1890 to 1920 to Waiakea Sugar Company. In 1917,the Waiakea Sugar Company sold the lands as homestead. They had no authority because the leases were under common law under the 1840 constitution for the Hawaiian Kingdom. So, under common law it's very strict. They are only leasing the lands like everybody else's, over 2.2 million acres of crown and government lands was leased out for thirty years. Not to mention there was the Kuleana lands for ninety-nine years, which ended in the 1980s somewhere. So those lands are still in effect. You got some problems with those Kuleana lands too. So, the plantations were leasing the lands for—to plant sugar cane. That was all part of their scheme behind the colonization program, which started out under President Monroe 1820, when he sent over the missionary families to colonize his kingdom under the U.S. Constitution. It was the program was under the Northwest Ordinance of July seven—July 1787. That is a pre- constitutional. Constitution was adopted September 17, 1787. So, in the U.S. Constitution, Northwest Ordinance became article four, section three, clause one and two. And if you read article two, it says past tense one territory, Northwest Ordinance of Ohio River Valley Indian Reserve and other Indian lands that was stolen prior to September 17, 1787. There was no amendment to the Northwest Ordinance, no amendment to the U.S. Constitution to add any new lands, whether it be the Louisiana Purchase, purchase of California or taking over other lands, Philippines, Guam, Cuba, Virgin Isles. So, you can see the—the U.S. is doing things not under the U.S. Constitution. So, it raises constitutional questions, one Hawaiian Kingdom constitutional questions, the limits of the U.S. Constitution and the limits of the Northwest Ordinance, which has a history going back to the Revolutionary War and the Continental Congress. So, there's a lot of issues that this Board can address. Even the State Sup—State courts being that the State is covered under the Northwest Ordinance, they're illegitimate. The courts become illegitimate. They cannot answer all those questions. They cannot get into um, U.S. Supreme Court cannot even get into um because the U.S. Supreme Court is limited by the Constitution. They cannot go into the Declaration of Independence. They cannot go into the Northwest Ordinance, the Articles of Confederation. They only can deal with rules and regulation. WAN: One minute remaining. VICENTE: So,there's alot of constitutional questions that still out there. There's even the Queen's protest of January 17, 1893, against U.S. Minister Stevens. That has yet to go to the U.S. Supreme Court. Article three, section two, clause two. So, there's a lot of constitutional issues that—divided by jurisdiction or limited by jurisdiction. So that's very problematic, but we're here in the Hawaiian Kingdom. So, it's Hawaiian Kingdom jurisdiction that counts. The only other part is the U.S. gotta restrain itself by its own constitution, whether it be President Monroe or the missionary families or any other foreign nationals that aided the U.S. in colonization of this kingdom. And there's many. It's not only the Hawai—the—missionary families. The Japanese got involved—in 1893 by in agreement. Draft Transcript for Vicente (PL-INT-2025-011330) BOARD OF APPEALS January 9, 2026 Page 2 WAN: Your time has lapsed. VICENTE: So, all rights reserve. Thank you. LEWIS: All right. Thank you, Mr. Vicente. What is it that—why did you choose this body to bring your whatever, I don't know what to call, what you're asking for—why is it that you chose this Board for— VICENTE: Well it's part of the—your illegitimate procedure that I'm following. LEWIS: But— VICENTE: So from here it'll go to— LEWIS: Did something happen to you that— VICENTE: The— LEWIS: Did the—did the—is this under the Plan—did the Planning Department have some kind of action against you that— VICENTE: A little bit history about the—how the State of Hawai`i. LEWIS: Well, no. I'm—I'm going to ask you a very specific question, okay? Is there something that the Planning Department has done in recent times that prompted this? VICENTE: Well, they're acting under the—the Planning Commission. LEWIS: Okay. VICENTE: The Planning Commission is acting under the State Land Use Commission. The State jurisdiction is limited. LEWIS: I—I hate to keep interrupting you, but you know, we can't spend a lot of time on this matter. So, you didn't apply for a permit, were denied a permit or—or something of that nature. VICENTE: Well, we were given notice that the—that the—illegal corporation is trying to develop the crownlands in their name. LEWIS: Is it your land that they're trying to— VICENTE: I have rights to the land under the 1848 Mahele. LEWIS: Okay Draft Transcript for Vicente (PL-INT-2025-011330) BOARD OF APPEALS January 9, 2026 Page 3 VICENTE: It's a land trust. LEWIS: Did—did anybody send you personally anything from the Planning Department that you're objecting to? Did you get— VICENTE: Well, I got the notice on the—they posted a sign and that's what the notice is based on. LEWIS: All right. Does anybody else on the Board have any questions for Mr. Vicente? Okay. Well, Mr. Vicente, you probably are not going to be surprised to hear me say that we have very limited jurisdiction here. We don't have any power to address your grievance. I'm—I don't mean to discount it or—or anything of that nature, but we're just a very lowly Board here that gets to hear permits or—you know, zoning and things of that nature. We—we have no way to help you with your grievance. VICENTE: Well, the—it's—it's part of the procedure that—I'm—I'm— LEWIS: I do understand that. I mean, it's just that—that's our procedure and so, we don't have the power to declare it legal, illegal, or anything of that nature. We just don't have that. You're not in the right spot for your grievance, but I appreciate the—your efforts and I'm going to at this point take a vote on—oh we'll call for a motion, right? Thank you. We'll call for a motion about whether to accept the petition or reject it as—as not under our jurisdiction, under what is the word we use? Defective petition. So, I'm looking for a motion of some sort. ABLE: I'll—I'll make a motion to call the petition defective. LEWIS: Okay, can I get a second? KIMURA: I'll second that, John Kimura. LEWIS: Okay, any discussion on this? WAN: Deputy Corporation Counsel. Rachel, if you could please provide a few statements as to the reasoning behind calling this particular defect—petition defective. I will just also note for the record, the Board did provide a letter to Mr. Vicente outlining the Board staff's ideas as to what would make this defective. ABLE: Okay, so do you want me to make the full motion, Sylvia? WAN: No, no, you already made the motion. This is just discussion. This is just your reasonings to support your motion. Draft Transcript for Vicente (PL-INT-2025-011330) BOARD OF APPEALS January 9, 2026 Page 4 ABLE: Yeah, I believe this is outside of the County's jurisdiction. Supporting what Cathy Lewis said. We have—this Board functions within the County zoning and planning laws and his particular petition falls outside of our jurisdiction. WAN: Thank you. KIMURA: I second that and I agree with that. LEWIS: I—I'm also going to add to the discussion that I don't see any kind of final agency action from which we can make a decision on, so it's really our only way of—of making decisions here. So, I'll just call for a vote then. Why don't we have a roll call vote. MORRISON: Okay. LEWIS: On the motion. MORRISON: On the motion for the defective petition. Rachel Able. ABLE: Aye. MORRISON: Board Member John Kimura. KIMURA: Aye. MORRISON: Board Member Maci Wilson. WILSON: Aye. MORRISON: And Chair Cathy Lewis. LEWIS: Aye. MORRISON: Chair, you have four ayes. LEWIS: Okay. So with that, I'm going to feel it's probably not a surprise to you, but—but your petition has been rejected, and we won't be taking any further action on your petition,but we thank you for your time, Mr. Vicente. VICENTE: I'd like to make a—a statement after the—this proceeding. LEWIS: I'll let you have one minute and that's—because we just can't help you. So, but you can make a statement. VICENTE: Dwight Vicente representing Hawaiian Kingdom. The jurisdiction question was raised and procedurally it has to be dealt with. In this case, it wasn't dealt with. The State and County's Draft Transcript for Vicente (PL-INT-2025-011330) BOARD OF APPEALS January 9, 2026 Page 5 claiming jurisdiction through the State, the Land Use Commission, the County through the Planning Commission. It's not part of the ceded land in 1898. The ceded land is 1,750,000 acres of crown and government lands that had no lease contract on. King Kalakaua did a thirty-year lease contract for a reason and these are the lands that were not ceded in 1898, so they still fall under the jurisdiction of the Hawaiian Kingdom since the State of Hawai`i relies on the 1898 joint resolution. So, it's very problematic when you see— WAN: Fifteen seconds remaining. VICENTE: What's—what's historically been happening, the brewing case in 2022 is a good example. They went by history and you got to look at the history. You got the Hawaiian Kingdom history, the U.S. Constitutional history, Northwest Ordinance history, and never the [indecipherable] shall meet. LEWIS: Okay, Mr. Vicente. I'm sorry. I know you could probably go on for quite a while on this, but unfortunately, we're going to move on to something else and we—we do appreciate your time. VICENTE: Thank you. Will I get a written WAN: Yeah, so—Chair, Deputy Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan, I'll just note for the Board, because this is the Board's motion, I'll prepare the form of the order that will be placed on the next— VICENTE: It's a—it's a order. I will be appealing. WAN: Yes, so—so the Board has to adopt the order and then you'll have thirty days after the— after the order is adopted— VICENTE: And sent to me. WAN: Yes. You will get a copy. VICENTE: So, I will be appealing. That's my notice to you guys. LEWIS: And then you can appeal it to the court if you decide. VICENTE: Which has no jurisdiction. These are the lease lands now. LEWIS: We wish you the best. WAN: Thank you. VICENTE: Thank you. Draft Transcript for Vicente (PL-INT-2025-011330) BOARD OF APPEALS January 9, 2026 Page 6 [This matter concluded at 9:48 a.m.] Respectfully submitted, Ashley DeVera, Board Secretary Draft Transcript for Vicente (PL-INT-2025-011330) BOARD OF APPEALS January 9, 2026 Page 7