HILO — Major changes are coming to boating and harbor rules, but those most affected say the state hasn’t consulted with them, or even made the rules readily available prior to public hearings scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
The rules cover everything from outlawing camping and sleeping at harbors to banning the feeding of feral animals to requiring dive flags to stricter rules for commercial boating and mooring permits.
Numerous amendments and repeals are being proposed for clarity and consistency, according to an online notice by the state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation.
The 132-page rule changes, posted at http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dobor/draft-rules, will help the agency “better manage and facilitate boating and ocean recreation related activities within state small boat harbors and nearshore waters.”
“This extensive rule package contains modifications we have wanted to make for many years,” Ed Underwood, DOBOR administrator, said in a press release. “Some amendments are being proposed because facility management and the ocean recreation industry are changing rapidly and our existing rules cannot address the way people are using our harbors and the ocean today.”
Public hearings are scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday at the state office building in Hilo, and 6 p.m. on Friday at Kealakehe High School cafeteria in Kailua-Kona.
The industry and other stakeholders have mostly been left out of the rule change process, said Rick Gaffney, a Kailua-Kona boat dealer who’s chairman of the Hawaii Fishing and Boating Association.
He said DOBOR used to have public meetings to get input and have discussions early on for proposed rule changes. Several years ago, the state agency dropped those interactions, forcing stakeholders to engage in an “adversarial” public hearing process, where statements are taken, but there’s no chance to ask questions about the proposals.
“There’s no opportunity for discussions or questions or feedback,” Gaffney said.
For this particular set of rule amendments, the DLNR district offices located on each island didn’t have copies of the rules, and in some cases, weren’t even aware rule changes were being contemplated, Gaffney said. He said notices weren’t posted at state harbor offices, either.
“They haven’t followed their own rules requiring informing the public and posting the rules,” Gaffney said.
He said he sent emails to the island’s two Land Board members, asking them to get DOBOR to start the process over.
Some specifics of the rules changes themselves bothered Keauhou Bay Capt. William Murtaugh, who has accused the agency of retaliation when he tried to contest the loss of a permit.
Murtaugh, who said he’s been interviewed several times by administrative and criminal investigators with the state Attorney General’s Office, is specifically worried about changes giving the state agency more discretion to work around the rules when “reasonable and warranted.”
“Preferential treatment and selective enforcement — that’s exactly what the department is under investigation for right now,” Murtaugh said. “It’s important that the community go to these hearings and tell them these rules are bogus.”
The state is investigating allegations of corruption at DOBOR harbors in West Hawaii. William Nahale, a harbor agent overseeing the Kailua-Kona and Keauhou Bay harbors, left the agency June 30. He was fined $1,000 earlier this year for soliciting and accepting free parasailing trips from a company he regulates.
Murtaugh and Hawaii County Prosecutor Mitch Roth say the investigation is ongoing. Roth also experienced what the county Board of Ethics termed “retaliation,” when Underwood levied an ethics charge against him because he testified to the Land Board on Murtaugh’s behalf.
An attorney general spokesman Monday couldn’t confirm or deny there is an ongoing probe.