Former North Shore Convalescent Home May Soon Shelter Sex Trafficking Victims<\/b><\/p>\n
It was a difficult choice: Provide a home for a few dozen underage sex trafficking victims or a campus for a new intermediate school for as many as 200 North Shore kids.<\/p>\n
In the end, it came down to which organization seemed better prepared.<\/p>\n
On July 25, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources unanimously supported a recommendation from the Department of Land and Natural Resources\u2019 Land Division to approve, in concept, a 30-year lease to the non-profit Ho`ola Na Pua, which provides housing and therapy to young people who have escaped the sex trade. The lease would be for nearly 13 acres of agriculturally zoned land in Waiale`e on O`ahu\u2019s North Shore, the site of the 100-year-old, burned-out ruins of the Boys Industrial School and the Crawford convalescent home. The board also approved a right-of-entry to allow the organization to conduct due diligence work.<\/p>\n
If and when the Land Board approves the lease, Ho`ola Na Pua will need to conduct an environmental assessment.<\/p>\n
North Shore Middle School, which had filed a competing application to use the property, requested a contested case hearing on the matter. The school group and its supporters have complained that North Shore students must attend either Kahuku Intermediate and High School or Waialua Intermediate and High School. Both schools are as much as an hour\u2019s drive away for some students and force kids as young as 12 to attend school with those much older, they told the board. Although the state Board of Education has not yet approved the groups\u2019 second application to establish a charter school, students from the area and their parents testified in favor of its request for the land.<\/p>\n
The Land Division noted in a report to the Land Board that the property had been vandalized since its last tenant left last year and needs much repair.<\/p>\n
Representatives from the North Shore Middle School estimated it would cost only $80,000 to turn the former convalescent home into a school and said that the community, which includes expert fundraisers, supported their cause.<\/p>\n
Ho`ola Na Pua\u2019s developer, on the other hand, told the Land Board that it would cost $2 million to restore the property to meet its needs and that the organization already has financial commitments and foundations lined up to fund the project. She added that Honolulu City Council member Ernie Martin, state legislators and family court judges supported the non-profit.<\/p>\n
Jessica Williams, president and founder of Ho`ola Na Pua, told the board that sex trafficking is growing problem for the state, with victims as young as 11 or 12 years old being raped, beaten and forced into a life of abuse.<\/p>\n
The state Department of Human Services, the Department of Health, the Department of Education, and family court judges are all struggling with the problem of child trafficking, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no residential facility that will meet their needs. Currently these girls are being locked up in detention facilities or put in foster homes or sent to the mainland. This site allows us to meet a statewide need,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Hawai`i island Land Board member Stanley Roehrig asked whether Ho`ola Na Pua and the intermediate school could co-exist on the same piece of land.<\/p>\n
Williams said that the state Department of Health would allow only one organization to be on site.<\/p>\n
Maui Land Board member Jimmy Gomes moved to approve the Land Division\u2019s recommendation to go with Ho`ola Na Pua, which would allow the group to seek more public input on its project.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not an easy thing for me. Hearing the testimonies from both sides, I\u2019m totally torn,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the only way I think I can see more clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Board members Roehrig and Chris Yuen were also torn, but supported Gomes\u2019 motion.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I\u2019m choosing between the desperate and the really desperate,\u201d Roehrig said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe only have one facility,\u201d Yuen added. \u201cHad this been brought to the board with either one of them, we would have had a short, easy meeting.\u201d But in the end, he said he thought Ho`ola Na Pua had a more realistic idea of the funding needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very much a concern to me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The board unanimously approved the motion, adding that the decision would be stayed pending the outcome of the contested case hearing process.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Land Board has unanimously denied all of the recent contested case hearing requests regarding the University of Hawai`i\u2019s sublease for the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea.<\/p>\n
The board conditionally approved the sublease on June 27, pending the outcome of the contested case hearing requests from various parties, including Dan Purcell, the Flores-Case `Ohana, Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, Paul K. Neves, Clarence Ching, Kealoha Pisciotta, and Harry Fergerstrom.<\/p>\n
The Department of the Attorney General advised the Land Board that no due process rights, or statutes or rules required it to grant a contested case to any of them.<\/p>\n
At the board\u2019s July 25 meeting, E. Kalani Flores argued that the decision to grant the sublease was \u201cnull and void\u201d because former member Rob Pacheco had participated in the vote. Flores argued that Pacheco, who owns the tour company Hawai`i Forest and Trail and has a permit to conduct tours on Mauna Kea, should have recused himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Pacheco failed to disclose that as owner for Hawai`i Forest and Trail he has an interest and association with UH,\u201d Flores said. \u201cHe has an extraordinary relationship with the applicant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flores asked that the Land Board defer deciding on his contested case request until the Department of the Attorney General and the Ethics Commission rendered an opinion on the Pacheco matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s inconsistencies of how things are done,\u201d he said. He also noted that the Hawai`i Supreme Court\u2019s decision in the Kilakila `O Haleakala case regarding telescope development on Maui requires the Land Board to deal with contested case hearing requests before taking action on an item.<\/p>\n
After an executive session, Hawai`i island member Stanley Roehrig moved to accept the DLNR\u2019s recommendation to deny the contested case hearing requests.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not for me and my children, but the human race,\u201d Roehrig said.<\/p>\n
The board unanimously approved the motion.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On July 25, the DLNR\u2019s Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands brought yet another enforcement case to the Land Board regarding illegal shoreline hardening during the severe storm swells that devastated North Shore properties in January.<\/p>\n
The landowner this time was Sutton family partners, whose properties abut Grand View Apt., Inc.. In April, the OCCL recommended fining Grand View $31,000 for illegal shoreline construction, but the matter was deferred. Grand View\u2019s properties abut a parcel owned by Kathryn and Morris Mitsunaga, whom the board fined $10,500 for illegal shoreline hardening. (See our June 2014 \u201cBoard Talk\u201d for more on these cases.)<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one in a series of problems we\u2019re experiencing in this area. We picked up this case out visiting others,\u201d OCCL administrator Sam Lemmo told the Land Board of the Sutton case.<\/p>\n
Lemmo said the shoreline structures along these properties were heavily damaged by last winter\u2019s storm swells. Like the Mitsunagas and Grand View, \u201cthey came in and unilaterally made the decision to armor the area \u2026 by adding additional structures, mostly large boulders in this case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The DLNR coastal lands program\u2019s job is to protect and preserve the states beaches and the Land Board has adopted a \u201cno tolerance\u201d policy regarding illegal shoreline structures, Lemmo said.<\/p>\n
He recommended fining the Sutton family partners $15,000 for illegal construction in the Conservation District and $1,000 in administrative costs, and ordering the removal of the unauthorized materials within 120 days of the Land Board\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
Sutton consultant Laurie Clegg, however, argued to keep the boulders in place and noted that the state Legislature had passed a resolution directing the DLNR to grant an easement to several North Shore landowners whose shoreline structures sit on what is now considered to be state land. What\u2019s more, Clegg asked that the Land Board amend its map for the proposed easement to include what\u2019s there now.<\/p>\n
Lemmo, however, pointed out that the Legislature approved only a portion of the Suttons\u2019 seawall and a small rock pile that existed prior to the illegal rock dump last winter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our judgment, they created a much larger rock apron than was contemplated under the easement approved by the board, the Legislature, and approved by the governor,\u201d Lemmo said.<\/p>\n
Clegg told the Land Board that nobody could have anticipated last winter\u2019s storm and that what the Suttons did was an emergency action. The waves had caused sinkholes to form behind the seawall, which was starting to lean toward the ocean, she said.<\/p>\n
She added that when the Suttons placed the rocks on the beach, they did it to match the footing of the property to the west, creating a more uniform shoreline.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just an isolated problem. There needs to be a solution \u2026 for the whole coastline. \u2026 Otherwise, we\u2019re just patching and patching,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Christopher Moreland, Sutton\u2019s tenant on the property and the one who supervised the construction, described how bad the sink holes and flooding were during the January storm.<\/p>\n
To Moreland\u2019s decision to \u201cplay cowboy,\u201d Hawai`i island Land Board member Stanley Roehrig said, \u201cIf we don\u2019t punish you, the next guy is gonna do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roerhrig also wanted to ensure that the problem isn\u2019t exacerbated by any order to remove rocks.<\/p>\n
Moreland said that if the Suttons were forced to remove what it had installed, the seawall approved by the Land Board and Legislature would fall.<\/p>\n
Clegg added that the Suttons do not deny that the work was unauthorized. \u201cWe want to know what to do with it,\u0094 she said.<\/p>\n
At-large member Chris Yuen said he thought the Land Board would have to impose a fine for the construction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not saying walk the plank into a pool of piranhas, [but] I have problem with people just doing stuff and then saying it\u2019s not so bad, we did it, can\u2019t we just do it,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want it to be much easer than to go dump a bunch a rocks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaua`i Land Board member Tommy Oi suggested that the area owners work together on a solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, it\u2019s every man is for himself. This isn\u2019t the wild west,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI seen homes go into the ocean on Kaua`i. They couldn\u2019t do anything because they couldn\u2019t harden the shorelines like you guys,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Roehrig seemed to think the state might be responsible for damages if it required the Suttons to remove the encroachment. The board discussed the matter in executive session.<\/p>\n
During public testimony, Dan Purcell reminded the Land Board of the public\u2019s loss in these cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say in front of these properties there was nice sandy beach. The public had a nice sandy beach,\u201d he said. \u201cAs waters started to rise \u2026 the public began losing property. [Government agencies] didn\u2019t say, cut your wall back, move your house back. \u2026 We\u2019ve lost tangible property. \u2026 Now we\u2019ve got a bunch of boulders there. Now the public has been completely cut off.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI continue to make the case that Hawaiians cannot walk on water,\u201d he said, adding that he foresaw the need for another legislative fix.<\/p>\n
Maui Land Board member Jimmy Gomes moved to accept the OCCL\u2019s recommendations. Oi seconded the motion and Yuen reiterated the need to get a permit before undertaking such construction.<\/p>\n
Roehrig, however, said, \u201cI have strong reservations about telling somebody to take the rocks out unless you can get a Superman to put them back if the waves come.\u201d He suggested that since the state has the responsibility for everything below the shoreline, it could face some liability for damages.<\/p>\n
Still, he voted with the rest of the board, hoping it would foster an opportunity for area landowners to work with the OCCL to resolve the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a possibility you could mediate a dispute,\u201d he said, but added, \u201cif you keep singing the same song \u2013 \u2018emergency, emergency \u2013 these guys in the state have heard it a million times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s gonna be a beef, they get free lawyers. Nobody quits. They stay there forever,\u201d he said, referring to the state\u2019s attorneys.<\/p>\n
The deputy attorney general advising the Land Board noted that in light of the contested case request by the Suttons, the vote would be suspended pending a decision on that request.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The `Ahihi-Kina`u Natural Area Reserve on Maui will remain closed at least until July 2016. On July 25, the Land Board approved a recommendation from the DLNR\u2019s Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) to extend the closure, in effect since 2008, because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has concluded that the unexploded ordinance (UXO) throughout the reserve poses a serious public safety hazard. The Natural Area Reserves System Commission and the `Ahihi-Kina`u advisory group both support the decision.<\/p>\n
The reserve was formerly part of the Kanahena bombing range and was used by the U.S. military for target practice during World War II, a DOFAW report states.<\/p>\n
Volume 25, Number 3 September 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former North Shore Convalescent Home May Soon Shelter Sex Trafficking Victims It was a difficult choice: Provide a home for a few dozen underage sex trafficking victims or a campus for a new intermediate school for as many as 200 … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,318],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-6052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-board-talk","category-september-2014","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052","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=6052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}