Last August, the Board of Land and Natural Resources approved the continuation of all the revocable permits issued by the Department of Land and Natural Resources\u2019 Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation, except those for the Honokohau small boat harbor in West Hawai`i.<\/p>\n
On January 27, DOBOR planning and development manager Dana Yoshimura once again presented those permits to the board for approval. The division had proposed increasing the rent for all of them, including those for three non-profit organizations: the Hawai`i Big Game Fishing Club, the Kona Sailing Club, and the Hawai`i Island Paddle Board Association.<\/p>\n
Land Board member Stanley Roehrig, a longtime member of the state\u2019s paddling community (his online bio states that he\u2019s paddled for the Keaukaha Canoe Club since the 1980s), bristled at the notion of the increased rents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Hawai`i Island Paddle Board Association is the one-man paddlers at the harbor. They have a halau there and they store their canoes. They\u2019re all volunteers. \u2026 I\u2019m not particularly enthusiastic about tripling their rent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
State law allows the DLNR to charge non-profits nominal rent for leases. There may also be some leeway with regard to revocable permits, rent for which must \u201cserve the best interests of the state.\u201d Yoshimura said that within DOBOR, however, there is no policy directing the division on how to deal with non-profits.<\/p>\n
Roehrig said that he would be fine if, at least at Honokohau, DOBOR wanted to charge all three of the community service groups the same reduced rent, but he would not agree to charging them at the same rates paid by retail operations.<\/p>\n
Yoshimura said he appreciated Roehrig\u2019s concern about the non-profits at Honokohau, but then noted that his division has issued permits to at least a dozen other non-profits whose rents the board approved without question last year. Those non-profits range from small paddling clubs that rent 800 square feet to the Waikiki Yacht Club.<\/p>\n
While Roehrig continued to insist that the one-man paddler group, which works with children to make them better paddlers, was worthy of a rent discount, Land Board member Chris Yuen expressed some skepticism about the worthiness of the Kona Sailing Club.<\/p>\n
\u201cGenerally, I\u2019m super in favor of helping out the non-profits,\u201d he said. But with regard to the Kona Sailing Club, he noted that the bulk of the property covered by its permit is \u201cbeing used to store people\u2019s very nice sailing boats. That\u2019s fine, but you gotta pay money to store your sailboat next to a harbor. Just because you and a group of people make a non-profit and then get a RP (revocable permit) or lease on state land and do some nice public [services] \u2026\u201d Yuen trailed off. \u201cThe fact that the bulk of it is used to store boats suggests we ought to charge a commercial rate to store boats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Land Board chair and DLNR director Suzanne Case added that the Hawai`i Big Game Fishing Club is making money from renting out space, and so is the paddle board group, which rents out lockers. She also questioned how much the paddle board group\u2019s work involved working with children.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be carful what\u2019s the public purpose here. These are basically benefitting the users. You mentioned the Waikiki Yacht Club. Do we not charge them rent because they\u2019re a non-profit?\u201d she asked. \u201cIf the benefit is primarily the user group \u2026 it does not fall into the category of a public purpose,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When it comes to charging rent to non-profits, she said, \u201cwe need a consistent policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the end, the Land Board approved the permits, with the rent increases intact, but gave the non-profits three months to offer an explanation to the board of why their rents should not increase to market rates. Case said that the explanation should include proof of the organization\u2019s non-profit status, an income statement, its charter, and a statement about its public benefits, as opposed to benefits for their own members.<\/p>\n
Such an approach may be applied in the future to those non-profits with permits outside of Honokohau, Yuen said.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Teresa Dawson<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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