NELHA News, Part I: Ronald Baird, administrator since 2005 of the state’s Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i Authority, has announced he will be leaving. On December 31, Baird sent a letter out to some NELHA board members and tenants stating that he would be stepping down but would continue serving “at the board’s pleasure” and would work with the Legislature this session on bills affecting NELHA.
In recent months, Baird has come under increasing fire from some board members over his administration of NELHA, which, despite its name, has become a center of aquaculture and desalinated water bottling facilities, with little in the way of ongoing energy research.
On Tuesday, January 11, Baird cancelled a meeting that had been scheduled for a week later. NELHA board chairman John DeLong agreed, saying in an email to another board member that the only agenda item was “to establish the ED [executive director] search committee and this can be done without a meeting.” The establishment of such a committee outside of an open meeting, however, would violate the state’s Sunshine Law. DeLong’s suggestion prompted deputy attorney general Bryan Yee, assigned to advise NELHA, to issue a memo to the board members, reminding them of the open-meeting requirements.
When the meeting was rescheduled, on February 16, the formation of a board search committee for Baird’s successor was the chief item on the agenda, along with “discussion and possible action regarding the Executive Director and the Executive Director’s … resignation letter.” After a committee was formed in open session, the “possible action” on Baird was considered in executive session.
NELHA News, Part II: During the NELHA board’s discussions on February 16, administrator Ron Baird described some of the bills introduced in the 2011 Legislature that could have an impact on NELHA. Most of them were introduced by Rep. Cindy Evans, whose district includes NELHA.
The most drastic bills call for reconfiguring the NELHA board and its Research Advisory Committee (excluding representation from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the University of Hawai`i at Manoa) and giving NELHA ownership of the land it occupies (now vested in the DLNR).
Russell Tsuji, representing the DLNR, and Don Thomas, representing UH, have been two of the most troublesome board members, from Baird’s perspective. Still, Baird emphatically denied having anything to do with the drafting of the bills. When asked if Evans prepared them independent of any NELHA involvement, Baird replied, “until we read the bills, we didn’t know” what was in them.
However, in an email to DeLong on January 12, Baird, referring to Tsuji, wrote, “For the sake of the organization it would be absolutely best that he [Tsuji] not be representing DLNR at NELHA, he has created enough damage. You and I need to meet with the new Chair of Land and discuss the matter as quickly as we can.”
None of Evans’ bills made it to crossover. However, a companion Senate bill (1390) to restructure the NELHA board was still alive at press time.
NELHA News, Part III: One of the ongoing sources of friction at NELHA has been the lack of an operational master plan to guide development and siting of new facilities. In 2007, however, Baird signed a contract with Group 70, the Honolulu planning firm, calling for it to prepare a master plan (including strategic plan, infrastructure and financial analyses, drainage systems, traffic plans, and design guidelines) for $250,974. The notice to proceed was signed on December 3 of that year, with work to be completed by December 2, 2008.
Now, more than two years after the completion date, there’s still no master plan. George Atta of Group 70 said that the document has been subject to “multiple edits,” and while it has been “adopted in concept,” his company has yet to receive any payment on the contract.
The contract requires any time extension to be specified by written notice. When Environment Hawai`i inquired, however, NELHA personnel could find no such notice.
Volume 21 Number 8, March 2011
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