The state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has begun long-awaited and welcome reforms to one of its most problematic land-management programs, one that recently has drawn fire for its unfairness to beneficiaries of the Native Hawaiian trust that is almost a century old.
For too long DHHL has escaped adequate public scrutiny. It was an agency with a federally authorized mandate to award homesteads to a prescribed class: people of half or more Native Hawaiian ancestry.
But since the investigative work by Honolulu Star-Advertiser writer Rob Perez started uncovering irregularities in how that mission is fulfilled, it’s become abundantly clear that DHHL has fallen short in ways that leave its beneficiaries and the general public questioning the evenhandedness and the professionalism of its administration.
With that recent history as the backdrop, it is gratifying to see a step taken to reverse direction with the reform to its process for approving and overseeing what it called "revocable permits."
They comprise about 190 permits, intended as short-term arrangements. Some, however, have been extended, with little oversight or challenge, for 20 to 30 years. This program drew criticism from beneficiaries for the way tenants, many non-Hawaiians among them, got lowered rents.
Last week the Hawaiian Homes Commission approved a basic framework for a significantly overhauled permit process in the month-to-month leases for some of the homesteading agency’s land.
That improvement would be accomplished by requiring competitive bids, making the whole program fairer and more transparent. It’s a move that should have been obvious long ago, but at least it’s being made now, shifting away from the first-come, first-served approach DHHL used for decades. The operation of that program had been generating complaints about favoritism, mismanagement and inconsistent enforcement.
The work is far from finished. What the Hawaiian Homes Commission approved last week was just the basic framework of changes first recommended by an advisory committee appointed by then-Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
The new governor, David Ige, should ride herd on the process to see that these changes are properly implemented. That’s especially important because implementation is likely to be phased over years, so the staff can manage the conversion of the lots to a new permitting regimen.
In the meantime, meetings will be scheduled statewide to draw feedback from the beneficiaries, tenants and the public before final rules can return to the commission for approval. Robust participation at these sessions would help refine the needed reforms.
Ultimately, the changes must include a strategy for ongoing enforcement of the rules as well. The status quo is a system in which the terms of the leases have been loosely enforced, at best. One noncompliant structure built on a Kauai parcel designated for ranching was allowed to remain until the Star-Advertiser exposed the deal. The unauthorized building, erected by a former commissioner, had to be taken down.
Michael Kahikina, a member of the current commission, urged DHHL staff to find ways the program could better accommodate Native Hawaiians who have revocable-permit lots behind their homes. He’s right that the emphasis should be on serving the intended beneficiary class, especially in the case of rural lots that otherwise would not be used or tended.
DHHL has custody of valuable property in trust for Native Hawaiians, who deserve to have competent management of that resource. Its recent efforts to correct course are laudable, and now the state administration, elected officials and the public have to keep the pressure on to see that the changes are delivered as promised.
