The Thirty Meter Telescope contested case hearing started in Honolulu on Monday with a show of opposition from a standing-room-only group of Native Hawaiians who oppose the $1.4 billion project.
About 50 or so Hawaiians crowded the state Board of Land and Natural Resources boardroom during a pre-conference hearing called by former Circuit Judge Riki May Amano, who was chosen as the hearings officer over the objections of the Mauna Kea Hui petitioners.
Members of the crowd, some holding signs and wearing T-shirts of protest, recited chants in the boardroom before the hearing and then gathered for chants outside afterward.
During Monday’s hourlong session, Amano and the attorneys representing the petitioners and the applicant, the University of Hawaii at Hilo, talked about scheduling and other procedural matters tied to the contested case hearing originally held five years ago.
In December the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the board erred when it approved the project’s conservation district use permit before hearing the evidence that would have been presented in the contested case hearing. The high court ordered a repeat of the 2011 proceeding.
Among the issues discussed Monday was who will be allowed to participate in the hearing. About 10 parties so far have asked for a seat at the table, including at least five individuals who consider themselves Mauna Kea cultural practitioners and the TMT International Observatory Board, which wants to build and operate the cutting-edge telescope near the mountain’s 13,796-foot summit.
Amano set a May 31 deadline for applying to become a party to the case and scheduled a June 17 hearing in Hilo to determine the actual parties.
Future hearings will be held on Hawaii island, although conferences to discuss procedural matters could be held on Oahu, where the lawyers are based, she said.
“We have to take it a step at a time. This is a little unwieldy, but we can work together to get this done,” Amano said.
Richard Naiwieha Wurdeman, Mauna Kea Hui attorney, told Amano he’s strongly considering filing a motion to disqualify the state attorney general’s office from the proceeding.
Wurdeman said the motion is necessary because of the mistakes made by that office in the past and because of the position of advocacy it continues to take.
“Ultimately, it is essential to have a fair and impartial process where fair and impartial advice is given as well,” he said.
In addition, he complained that state attorneys were causing unnecessary delays by failing to respond in a timely way to a request for documents and information essential for the motion he intends to file.
He said the state is required to provide the documents in 20 days, but he has not received them even though he submitted his request April 1.
Later in the hearing, Amano offered an additional disclosure. She said she attended Saturday’s UH-Hilo commencement, where her niece graduated from the university’s Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy. Her parents hosted a graduation party that Amano also attended at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center that night.
Amano previously filed a disclosure that she and her husband were family members of the astronomy center, which is part of UH Hilo.
That fact came out only after the petitioners pointed it out, saying it created an appearance of bias in the case. They asked that she be disqualified as hearings officer, but the board ruled against the argument.
In his filings to the Land Board, Wurdeman has also objected to the way the board has handled the hearing and the selection of the hearings officer.
“We haven’t even had a hearing before the board yet,” he said.
After Monday’s hearing the attorney said he will continue to add to the record his objections to a process that will likely see extra scrutiny by a higher court.
“Really, if UH and TMT wanted a clean record and a clean permit going forward, you would think that they would go beyond what’s necessary to protect that record and make sure that everything is the way it should be, so that when it goes back up to the appellate court, the exact same thing doesn’t happen to them,” Wurdeman said.
“That’s what they are putting at risk now. And that’s fine. We’ll just make our record and we’ll just keep moving forward and doing what we need to,” he said.
Pua Case, a member of the Mauna Kea Hui from Hawaii island, attended the hearing but declined to speak about the case. She said she was otherwise feeling optimistic because of all the support “the protectors” continue to receive from people across the islands, including a group from the Waianae Coast that waves signs weekly on the side of the road.
