Members of an advisory group set up to guide ongoing land lease negotiations with the Army say they feel like they’ve been sidelined by Gov. Josh Green just weeks after he created the group.
Green sent a letter to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll on Dec. 2 proposing to push back the deadline to negotiate military leases of state lands.
The Army leases more than 29,000 acres in the Pōhakuloa Training Area on Hawaiʻi Island, Oʻahu's Mākua Military Reservation, Kahuku Training Area and Kawailoa-Poamoho Training Area. Those leases begin expiring in 2029.
Earlier this year, Driscoll said that the federal government wanted a deal on the ongoing use of those training grounds finalized by the end of the year.
In his most recent letter, Green instead suggested finalizing an agreement on community benefits that the two officials have already outlined, including the return of Mākua Valley to the state and the cleanup of unexploded ordnance.
The letter also sought confirmation that the federal government has considered taking the lands by eminent domain.
However, members of the 10-person advisory panel — made up of mostly Native Hawaiians — said they weren’t consulted on that letter sent by the governor. They feel he is circumventing them in his negotiations.
Noe Noe Wong-Wilson is a member of Green’s advisory committee on military leases. She said the group wasn’t given enough time to respond before the letter was sent.
“We received notice that he was sending out the letter just prior to it being released, so we didn't have any ability to provide feedback or input,” Wong-Wilson said. “I was surprised that he took such a big, bold step in writing that letter without having had any conversation or meeting with the advisory committee.”
Office of Hawaiian Affairs interim CEO Summer Sylva also sits on the advisory panel. In a letter on Dec. 4, Sylva wrote that being left out of the conversation is concerning.
“While we accept that an advisory body lacks final decision-making power, being shut out of the conversation altogether is deeply concerning – especially when the proposals, concerns, and ‘ike offered by Kanaka leaders are conveyed to federal officials in ways that appear to foreclose their viability,” Sylva wrote.
Green told HPR that the letter he sent was procedural.
“It was a procedural letter so that they understood that we were going to have this conversation for the next year about what the people of Hawai‘i, especially the Hawaiian community, needs most as we go forward as an ʻohana. And so that is really what the letter was about.”
In October, Green sent a letter to the Secretary of the Army outlining a series of federal investments that he believes is worth $10 billion. Part of the package was to clean up and remove unexploded ordnance on military training grounds in the state.
He repeated that again to the Army last week, but when asked where those cleanups would take place, Green said, “These are preliminary discussions.”
“This is one piece of a $10 billion program,” he told HPR. “Mākua Valley would be important to return to the state of Hawaiʻi. I already have a basic agreement, but none of this is in stone until we’ve gone through the process and until ultimately, the military makes their final decision on what they're going to do with the land. — whether they’re going to condemn the land and what they’re willing to partner with us on.”
Green said the work he’s done has bought the state an extra year to negotiate the leases.
The advisory panel has met once since its creation, and Green said the next meeting will be on Dec. 22.
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