Legislation seeking to create a quasi-independent agency to manage Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve was shelved by a Honolulu City Council committee Tuesday to allow the Parks and Recreation Department time to provide specific financial information to Council members and others who want to know where up to $6 million in annual revenue from the popular attraction is being used.

The nonprofit Friends of Hanauma Bay has for years been frustrated by the lack of transparency about the fund and said $6 million collected from entry fees, parking and concessions is being used to fund other parks rather than make needed improvements at the nature preserve.

The city began charging fees to enter the nature preserve and upper bay parking lot in 1996, and set up the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve Fund for money collected to be used exclusively for the facility. A federal judge, while shooting down a constitutional challenge to the fee, ordered that $3 million in funds used to pay for maintenance and services at other park facilities be repaid to the fund.

The Council Executive Matters and Legislative Affairs Committee deferred Resolution 14-192, which urges Mayor Kirk Caldwell to set up a semiautonomous panel to oversee Hanauma Bay after receiving assurances from Parks and Recreation Director Michele Nekota that she intends to find the financial paper trail of the Hanauma Bay funds.

Executive Matters Chairman Ron Menor asked Nekota to respond specifically to recommendations made in a 2007 audit of Hanauma Bay’s operations and what progress has been made on them.

Nekota, who has been on the job less than six months, said her main objective is "the preservation and conservation of the bay."

She said she recognizes there are "significant improvements" that need to be made at the bay.

Creating a semiautonomous agency to run the bay would only add another layer of bureaucracy and unnecessary costs, she said. Instead, Nekota proposed an independent, external audit and then meeting with stakeholders to come up with an implementation plan and timeline.

Several Council members pointed out that in 2007, then-city Auditor Les Tanaka took the city to task for not updating a 1992 master plan and not planning well.

Nekota acknowledged not reading the audit, but said she’s hopeful a master plan now in draft stages will help provide some guidance.

Councilman Stanley Chang, who represents East Honolulu, said, "It’s a persistent and chronic issue that these funds are not spent for necessary capital and operating projects. This is an issue that transcends administrations and directors."

Sid McWhirter, Friends of Hanauma Bay president, insists that the vague responses he has received, as well anecdotal remarks from park workers, lead him to believe that money from the fund continues to be used at other facilities.

Nekota denied any co-mingling of funds under questioning from committee members.

A semiautonomous entity may not be the best solution for Hanauma Bay, McWhirter said, but "there is an absolute need to break it off and operate it separately in some manner."