The performance of the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in providing leases to Native Hawaiians has been disgraceful for decades — and strong oversight, federal and state, is needed to put it squarely on the right track. U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz is right in prodding the U.S. Interior Department to exercise its badly needed oversight authority and the Abercrombie administration must take strong action to revamp the state agency’s poor performance.
Over three days this week, the Star-Advertiser’s Rob Perez exposed malpractice in rendering monthly land leases, the latest revelation of mismanagement that has plagued DHHL and been cited in five critical reports by the state auditor over the past 20 years. But the department, chronically, has neglected to respond as it should — as it must — on behalf of the Native Hawaiians it is supposed to be helping. Since a federal task force critique in 1983, the DHHL continues to ignore criticism for failing to ensure land permits in a fair and uniform process.
In a word: Shame.
Renwick Tassill, one DHHL commissioner who is pushing for reforms, has more disturbing words: "It is, in fact, part of government corruption."
More than 26,000 Native Hawaiians with at least 50 percent blood quantum are on the waiting list for general homestead leases. However, dozens of tenants lease more than 38,000 acres of mostly undeveloped land for as low as pennies a month — month-to-month revocable permits for acreage intended for uses such as ranching or farming — and only one-third are Native Hawaiians, and some have insider advantage. Those include a state senator, two former DHHL employees and a former Department Land and Natural Resources administrator, such as:
» Retired airline worker Stuart Hanchett, who built an unauthorized home on 316 acres to raise livestock and host youth groups on Kauai ranch land worth more than $8 million a year before he became a DHHL commissioner in 2005. When Native Hawaiian homesteader Robin Danner and then two commissioners complained, the department neglected to investigate.
» State Sen. Malama Solomon, who is paying 99 cents an acre a month for 106 acres of green rolling hills and ocean views in Waimea on Hawaii island. Solomon said she was offered the permit because the property was landlocked by an adjacent 125-acre pastoral homestead lot issued to her mother, who moved to the lot in 1997.
Incredibly, there are no administrative rules governing how DHHL awards and administers its month-to-month revocable permits, one of the programs under the 200,000-acre federally established Hawaiian Home Lands trust. As a result, Schatz expressed appropriate concern about "a system that is clearly falling short in helping (Native Hawaiian) beneficiaries" and is demanding that DHHL’s rules, procedures and processes "be transparent, accountable, understandable and consistent."
In a commentary Thursday in this section, Jobie Masagatani, DHHL director and commission chairwoman — who was DHHL deputy director from 1995 to 2002 but declined response in Perez’s series — acknowledged ongoing problems and complained of underfunding. She cited the department’s "enormous challenges" handling an inventory of lands and generation of revenue from commercial ground leases that "are handled by the same small division made up of five land agents and a division administrator" who are "overwhelmed." Then she voiced hope in the additional millions of dollars just budgeted to DHHL.
But unless the agency fixes its operational dysfunctions and creates a fair and open structure, with policies clear to all, the extra millions will be money poorly spent.
The department has no public inventory detailing what lands are available for the month-to-month revocable permits, which has allowed insiders to get in on leasing. In fact, it was only a year ago that permit applications for these privately negotiated deals started seeing any openness; they now undergo a 30-day posting period for input.
"This isn’t even a broken system," lamented Kahaunani Mahoe-Thoene, a trust beneficiary advocate. "There’s no system."
DHHL has shown a tradition of responding to justified criticism with public hand-wringing and lip service for improvement. Then the flare of publicity fades and here it is, decades later, with mismanagement remaining as entrenched as ever.
Until and unless consequences of inaction come to bear, the same is likely to happen for years. People should be outraged — and not allow that to occur. Star-Advertiser editorials, for one, will keep on top of DHHL’s progress.
In response to this week’s series, Schatz has met with Rhea Suh, the assistant interior secretary for policy, management and budget, to ask her involvement in ensuring that Interior exercises its oversight authority with the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust, enacted by Congress in 1921 and leading to DHHL’s administration of the program.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie, meanwhile, issued a statement that he is committed to reviewing DHHL and "where applicable, altering its existing policies."
What a weak response from the state’s top executive, given the many years that the state auditor has found DHHL’s failure to carry out its basic function. The department has been cozy and insular for too long — and the threat of forceful federal oversight could be the most promising first step in a long time to finally make this system work.
