The Office of Hawaiian Affairs criticized state House of Representatives leadership Tuesday for not hearing a bill appropriating $65 million to repair harbor infrastructure on land in Kakaako the Legislature gave OHA in 2012 to settle a $200 million debt.

Carmen Hulu Lindsey, chair of OHA’s board of trustees, expressed frustration over the bill’s demise at a news conference outside OHA’s headquarters in Iwilei as she was flanked by four other trustees and the top two executives of the agency benefiting Native Hawaiians.

Lindsey said House Speaker Scott Saiki (D, Ala Moana-Kakaako-Downtown) has prevented a hearing on a bill passed by the Senate earlier this month to fund bulkhead and revetment repairs at Kewalo Harbor fronting a prime piece of land that OHA owns and was long home to the Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant.

“One lawmaker can decide if a bill lives or dies,” she said. “Does that sound right to you? It doesn’t to us. It’s an affront to our democracy, and it undermines our ability as Native Hawaiians to make our case before our elected representatives.”

OHA claims that 31 acres of Kakaako real estate, which the agency accepted to settle $200 million in unpaid ceded-land revenue from the state, is worth less than $50 million based on a recent appraisal by Washington, D.C.-based FTI Consulting Inc. that OHA said was more thorough than an appraisal the agency received from another firm under time constraints in 2012.

The revised value of OHA’s land, Lindsey said, was presented to Saiki and other lawmakers. Casey Brown, OHA’s chief operating officer, said the recent $65 million repair estimate was a big factor in the reduced value and that deferred-maintenance issues with the wharf infrastructure should have been disclosed to OHA prior to the state’s settlement offer.

“Clearly, Native Hawaiians were seriously shortchanged,” Lindsey said.

Without money for the repairs, OHA cannot proceed with commercial development on a prime piece of its Kakaako lands, according to Brown.

“It’s a massive safety issue,” he said in an interview. “We don’t want the lands to stay fallow. We want these lands to come alive.”

OHA has indicated it intends to move forward developing commercial and cultural elements in a conceptual plan for the area it has named Hakuone, including a Hawaiian cultural center, while preserving future redevelopment options for three parcels targeted for residential use out of 10 parcels it owns there.

The legislation at issue is Senate Bill 1235, which became a vehicle to keep the proposed $65 million appropriation alive after an original bill it was in, SB 736, died in the Senate over opposition to that bill’s main objective of allowing residential development on the 31 acres of largely industrial land OHA owns in Kakaako makai of Ala Moana Boulevard between Kewalo Harbor and Honolulu Harbor.

Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Mililani-Wahiawa-­Whitmore Village) proposed adding the $65 million appropriation to SB 1235, which originally focused on an OHA working group, during a Feb. 28 hearing of the Senate Ways and Means Committee he chairs. The amended bill passed the full Senate on a 24-1 vote March 7.

The bill was referred to three committees in the House, but the initial referral to the Water and Land Committee led to no hearing. A deadline for the bill to advance from this first committee assignment by Thursday was not met.

Committee Chair Rep. Linda Ichiyama (D, Fort Shafter Flats-Salt Lake-Pearl Harbor) did not respond to a request for comment on the bill Tuesday.

Saiki also could not be reached for comment on the bill or OHA’s criticism.

Lindsey held out hope that perhaps the $65 million appropriation, along with $6 million that got added to SB 1235 to produce an environmental study for OHA’s Kakaako Makai land, might be added to the state budget bill, but also asked Saiki to revive the appropriation in some other acceptable way if possible.

“We continue to believe that there is still time for justice to roll down like a river,” she said.