Who knows if the full story of Senate Bill 667 will ever be known? But what happened to the bill in the 1989 legislative session set the stage for many of the problems that occurred this past session. The animosity between Sen. Donna Ikeda and Rep. Mark Andrews seems to have gotten its start with a dispute over the bill. If for no other reason than that, the bill merits some attention.
The bill began as a measure to require public hearings on lands added to or removed from the Natural Area Reserve System.
A conference report emerged, allowing for the public hearing, setting up a permanent NARS fund (although not providing any money), and calling for annual reports to the Legislature on NARS management. Ikeda says Andrews had told her he’d go along with it, but, at the last minute, Andrews recommitted the bill – that is, he referred it back to committee rather than allowing it to come to a vote on the House floor. The result was a public exchange of vitriolic charges.
This year, early in the session, The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii began quietly pressing for the bill’s rehabilitation. One of the bill’s provisions would have allowed funds for a “Heritage Program” natural resource data base.
Up until the closing days of the session, TNC’s efforts bore no visible fruit. Then suddenly the bill was in the limelight, with Andrews evidently pushing hard for passage.
According to one report, Andrews’ clerk was sent out to collect signatures from members of the Planning, Energy and Environmental Protection Committee on what was ostensibly a committee report. At least one member protested that there had been no hearing on the bill this session, and after that, the committee report seems to have vanished. Andrews’ aide Curt Cottrell, says that there was an effort to arrive at consensus and call a conference, and that, for this purpose, a proposed conference draft report and bill were circulated. But those efforts came to naught.
In any event, a curious rumor links S.B. 667 to S.B. 3109, the Superfund bill. One source has said that a trade – possibly instigated by industry – was proposed to Ikeda by emissaries from Andrews’ office: If Ikeda would reinstate her objections to S.B. 3109, Andrews would publicly take the heat for killing the “flawed” Superfund bill. The hook: Ikeda would go along with Andrews on the NARS bill, and everyone could come out claiming to be champions of the environment.
Andrews’ office denies knowing anything about this. And it would be difficult to prove if such an offer was made.
Still, where does that leave NARS? Michael Buck, head of the Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Department of Land and Natural Resources, feels pretty good about things. Despite 1990 being a supplemental budget year, DLNR got five permanent new positions for natural areas (and six more for Na Ala Hele, the statewide Hawaiian trails system). With a NARS management plan nearly complete, he’s optimistic that the administration’s biennium budget for the next legislative session will include sufficient funds to give NARS and DOFAW’s other natural areas the attention they deserve.
Volume 1, Number 1 July 1990