HILO — The state Department of Land and Natural Resources extended its contract with hearing officer Riki May Amano to complete the Thirty Meter Telescope contested case.
The contract amendment continues her employment through the end of the year, assuming the process isn’t complete by then, and increases her maximum compensation from $200,000 to $350,000. The original contract was signed March 31, 2016, and was set to expire June 30.
The cap is on par with Hawaii Circuit Court judges who make $197,112 annually.
Amano, a retired judge, makes $375 an hour under the contract. The extension was approved in January.
The lengthy hearing covering the proposed project’s land use permit for construction on Mauna Kea wrapped up verbal testimony March 2. A decision could be months away as each participant prepares their proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law.
The testimony started in October and got off to a late start due to a combination of factors, including the large increase in participating individuals and groups, many of whom are representing themselves, and challenges to Amano’s hiring by some opposing parties. Testimony involved 71 witnesses.
The hearing is a replay of a much shorter contested case that occurred in 2011. The state restarted the process after the state Supreme Court invalidated the permit in late 2015.
The high court ruled the department violated due process rights of project opponents because the Land Board voted in favor of the permit at the same time as it authorized the first round of hearings. The board later confirmed that vote after receiving a positive recommendation from the hearing officer, but the judges said the agency put the “cart before the horse.”
As of March, DLNR’s expenses for the contested case held in Hilo reached $316,477.22.
The bulk of that comes from Amano’s pay ($238,035.89), hearing venue rental ($31,950) and hotel bills ($22,049.73).
The University of Hawaii at Hilo, which also holds a master lease for the Mauna Kea Science Reserve, is the applicant for the telescope’s permit.
Spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said the university spent $475,054.84 on attorney fees for the quasi-judicial hearing as of October. He said invoices submitted since then are being reviewed.
Meisenzahl said the fees for outside legal counsel are paid through a “risk management account.”
The long-delayed telescope project faces another setback with the possibility of a third contested case. Hilo Circuit Court Judge Greg Nakamura ruled last December that the Land Board should have granted petitioner E. Kalani Flores a contested case hearing for the project’s sublease on Mauna Kea.
That ruling is under appeal, and DLNR recently issued a solicitation for a new hearing officer if the hearing is held.
A department spokesman said the agency received five responses.
The 180-foot-tall observatory would sit on the 13,100-foot elevation on Mauna Kea’s northern plateau if built in Hawaii.
Supporters and opponents of the $1.4 billion project see a lot at stake.
Officials with TMT International Observatory, the organization behind the next-generation telescope, have set an April 2018 deadline to resume construction and are pursuing permits to build in the Canary Islands if that date is missed.
Supporters say the telescope, capable of collecting the oldest light in the universe, would keep Hawaii at the forefront of astronomy.
Opponents say it will desecrate a sacred mountain and that Mauna Kea, which currently hosts 13 telescopes, already is overburdened.
TIO estimates it will create 140 permanent jobs on the island. The organization contributes $1 million a year for educational programs on Hawaii Island and is the largest contributor to the Akamai Internship Program.
The telescope organization’s partners are Caltech, University of California, Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy and national institutes in Japan, China and India.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.