Floor amendments made to Maunakea bills

The state Senate will vote on two controversial bills affecting Maunakea later this week after making floor amendments on Tuesday.

The amendments change the effective date of House bills 1585 and 1985 to Dec. 31, 2033. That’s when the University of Hawaii’s lease for the Maunakea Science Reserve ends. Floor votes are scheduled in the Senate for Thursday.

Both bills were crafted through a process known as “gut and replace,” where a bill’s contents are deleted and replaced by a measure that already failed or with new language.

As amended, HB 1585 still prevents new construction on the mountain until UH conducts financial, performance and organization management structure audits related to Maunakea; adopts administrative rules for Maunakea; implements remaining action items in the Maunakea Comprehensive Management Plan; and receives a new master lease for the Maunakea Science Reserve.

Instead of being effective immediately, those mandates would take effect at the end of the existing lease, which would presumably not impact the Thirty Meter Telescope. But it also would seem to take the teeth out of the legislation. UH is currently working on those issues, minus the audits.

The bill now also says the ban on construction doesn’t apply to telescope removal or maintenance. Still, the bill says the audits must be done by the 2020 legislative session, which conflicts with the effective date.

UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said the university is still concerned with the legislation because the effective date can change before the session ends. He said UH doesn’t think the audits are necessary since multiple reviews have been done on its management of Maunakea, including a highly critical audit from 1998, but isn’t strongly against them.

UH is in the process of seeking a new lease, and completing administrative rules and action items, Meisenzahl said. An environmental impact statement for a new land authorization is expected to be final in about a year based on the most recent schedule. Once accepted by the governor, the issue likely would go before the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, though legal challenges are expected.

The construction moratorium, if applied to TMT, would kill that project since it could add years of further delays, supporters of the $1.4 billion project have said. Some also have said it would be the end of astronomy on Maunakea.

HB 1985 would establish a new management authority for the mountain independent of UH, which oversees management responsibilities and road maintenance.

Testimony has been largely against that bill, including from both sides of the telescope debate.

The construction moratorium bill was crafted through gut and replace in the Senate Ways and Means Committee last week without notice.

Kealoha Pisciotta, one of the appellants challenging construction of TMT on Maunakea, said she is opposed to both bills because she doesn’t think the Legislature should meddle while these issues as they are being addressed by the state Supreme Court.

“The lawmakers aren’t trying to do things properly,” she said. “They are attempting to undermine the court before the court has ruled.”

Pisciotta said use of gut and replace also makes it difficult for people to keep up with legislation and make sure they are heard. She joined TMT supporters in saying the tactic is not democratic.

“If the process lacks integrity, so will the outcome,” she said.

Pisciotta said she has urged Sen. Kai Kahele, who is promoting both bills, to let the judicial process work.

Kahele, D-Hilo, said the Legislature needs to act on these issues now because he thinks UH has taken too long to address them.

Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.