{"id":11803,"date":"2019-10-01T19:03:08","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T19:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=11803"},"modified":"2021-11-03T19:04:42","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T19:04:42","slug":"fishery-council-struggles-to-justify-expenses-for-208-meeting-at-maui-resort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=11803","title":{"rendered":"Fishery Council Struggles to Justify Expenses for 2018 Meeting at Maui Resort"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In articles published in February<\/a> and June<\/a>, Environment Hawai\u2018i <\/em>reported on expenses related to the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council\u2019s meetings held at the Wailea Beach Resort – Marriott on Maui in June 2018. We found that the cost to taxpayers came to around $300,000, and council costs alone were about $200,000 above the norm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our June article, we pointed out several questionable expenses that council staff had not explained by press time. After the article came out, council communications officer Sylvia Spalding emailed the council\u2019s explanations. Follow-up questions were, again, not answered by press time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family Perks: <\/strong>EH <\/em>noted that Roy\nMorioka, an O\u2018ahu-based bottomfish\nfisherman and a former council chair and\ncommittee member, had his airfare and\nlodging paid for by the council.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spalding admitted that Morioka was\nnot a current member of any council\ncommittee or panel, but was a member of\na working group that assisted the federal\nPacific Islands Fisheries Science Center\nin preparing its Main Hawaiian Islands\nbottomfish stock assessment.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis working group provided scientific\nadvice to the council at its June meeting\nrelating to the council\u2019s action on the MHI\nbottomfish,\u201d Spalding wrote.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawai\u2018i Pacific University professor\nSamuel Kahng was also an O\u2018ahu-based\nmember of the group and attended the\ncouncil meeting on Maui. The council\ndid not foot his bills, however.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Passing Ships: <\/strong>In addition to holding its meeting at the Wailea resort, the council chose to hold its Scientific and Statistical Committee meeting there, as well. Nearly a dozen committee members \u2014 most of whom are from the U.S. mainland or abroad \u2014 attended the committee meeting, held June 6-8, 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spalding didn\u2019t offer much of an explanation why the SSC had to meet on Maui. She stated simply, \u201cThe SSC convened on Maui because the council convened on Maui to discuss the Hawaii bottomfish action, and the SSC provides scientific advice to the council relating to its fishery management actions.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even when both the committee and the council meet on O\u2018ahu, SSC members \u2014 except for the committee chair \u2014 don\u2019t cross paths with the council, since committee meetings are held the week before the council meets. The committee chair, currently Seattle attorney Jim Lynch, holds a seat on the council and is tasked with relaying the committee\u2019s recommendations at each council meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to Lynch, the only SSC member to actually attend the Maui council meeting was David Itano and none of the council members attended the SSC meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, the council has never held SSC meetings in American Samoa, Guam, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in advance of council meetings there. As we reported in February, the council has, however, held SSC meetings on Kaua\u2018i and Hawai\u2018i island in the weeks before the council met in Pacific Island territories. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Double Pay: <\/strong>We reported that SSC\nand AP members received double the\ncompensation they normally receive when\ntheir meetings are held in Honolulu. Three\nAP members received $800 each and eight\nSSC members received $1,500 and SSC\nchair Lynch received $2,000.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The compensation summary provided to Environment Hawai\u2018i <\/em>by the council states only that the payments to the AP members and Lynch was for their participation in the 173rd council meeting, and the payments to the rest of the SSC members were for their participation in the 129th SSC meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spalding, however, stated that they received additional compensation because they \u201cparticipated in planning sessions, which included interviews with members on future research and changes to management regimes.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSSC and AP members are paid compensation in accordance with NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] guidelines for all approved meetings at which they are providing assistance to the council in carrying out its fishery management functions,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environment Hawai\u2018i <\/em>asked her for more detail on these sessions: Were they noticed in the Federal Register? <\/em>Where were they held and when? With whom? Is there a record of who exactly participated? What were the subjects covered? Is there a record of the outcome of these sessions? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spalding replied only that all advisory body meetings are publicized. None of these sessions, however, were listed on the council website or noticed in the Federal Register, <\/em>which is where council and committee meetings are formally publicized. She referred the questions to council staffer Mark Mitsuyasu, who did not provide a response. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more, the Advisory Panel did\nnot have a regular meeting on Maui, so\nit is unclear why three of its members\nwould be paid double what they\u2019re paid\nwhen they actually do meet, and the rest\nwho attended the Maui council meeting\nweren\u2019t paid at all.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the 12 SSC or AP members who\nreceived compensation for their attendance\nat the Maui meetings, only one responded\nto questions about whether or to what\nextent they participated in any planning\nsessions held in addition to their normal\nduties. SSC member Ray Hilborn of the\nUniversity of Washington, replied, \u201cI don\u2019t\nknow of any other meetings other than the\nregular SSC sessions.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moral Support: <\/strong>Our June article noted\nthat the council paid to fly in several\nAdvisory Panel members from outside\nof Maui, even though the panel did not\nhave a scheduled meeting there. Spalding\npointed out that AP members contributed\nsignificantly to the process leading to an\nincreased Annual Catch Limit (ACL) for\nMain Hawaiian Islands bottomfish, which\nwas voted on by the council at the June\n2018 meeting.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaui Nui has historically been the center of Hawai\u2018i\u2019s bottomfish fishery for its extensive bottomfish habitat and sheltered waters. For this reason, Maui was the appropriate location for [the council] to take action on the Hawai\u2018i bottomfish ACL because the majority of the fishermen to be affected by the council\u2019s action at this meeting are based in Maui. The council relied on the AP members\u2019 reports and recommendations to inform its decision on this action. Thus, the council benefitted from the presence of the full AP at the June meeting,\u201d Spalding wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staycation? <\/strong>As we reported in June, the council paid for Advisory Panel member and bottomfish fisher Layne Nakagawa to stay at the Marriott, even though he lives on the island. Spalding explained that the council paid for one night for Nakagawa \u201cas he was requested to participate in an evening meeting regarding the bottomfish fishery. This minimized disruption and allowed him to return to normal fishing operations in a timely manner.\u201d \u2014Teresa Dawson <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In articles published in February and June, Environment Hawai‘i reported on expenses related to the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council’s meetings held at the Wailea Beach Resort – Marriott on Maui in June 2018. We found that the cost to … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[459],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-october-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}