Summit has been marred, Rep. says
by Jason Armstrong
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 9:16 AM HST
Hanohano distributes mailers highly critical of University of Hawaii
Puna Rep. Faye Hanohano has mailed 1,200 newsletters accusing the University of Hawaii of desecrating Mauna Kea by allowing telescope development on the sacred summit.
"Over the past several decades, Mauna Kea has been desecrated through the opening of observatories on its summit by the University of Hawaii system," Hanohano, D-Puna, wrote in the two-page April newsletter she said cost about $750 to distribute.
"The Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is responsible for the desecration and hewa (mistake) to our aina and our people for the past 30 years," she added.
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The observatories are located within the 11,000-acre Mauna Kea Science Reserve the university leases from the state.
Hanohano went on to say she does not trust the IfA, UH President David McClain -- he's not mentioned by name -- or the university Board of Regents.
"This is the first one that I've actually offered my opinion in a newsletter," Hanohano told the Tribune-Herald on Friday. "I feel it needed to be heard."
In the newsletter, Hanohano notes Hawaii's tallest mountain "is of very special significance to the Native Hawaiian people."
Hanohano is a Native Hawaiian.
"I am very happy about the last two paragraphs, because I also 'believe that it is possible to achieve a balance between environmental preservation, cultural practice and scientific -endeavors,'" IfA Director Rolf-Peter Kudritzki said in quoting the ending part of Hanohano's newsletter.
In his e-mail response to a request for his reaction to Hanohano's criticisms of the IfA, Kudritzki added that he's most happy with Hanohano's comment that she will "support the University's management efforts."
However, that partial quote omitted Hanohano's statement basing her support on the university making "amends to the community" and cooperating in "good faith" in planning for the management of the Mauna Kea Science Reserve.
Harvey Tajiri, East Hawaii's representative to the University of Hawaii's Board of Regents, said, "Essentially, I'm of the same accord as Faye Hanohano," which is why the board is recommending that the University of Hawaii at Hilo have control over the summit region.
"We will have more say in the management of that place," he said.
Tajiri did take issue with Hanohano's criticism that the observatories charge millions of dollars for viewing access while only paying the state $1 a year in lease rent.
Those user fees don't produce a profit for the IfA or the university, he said. "It's all for operations."
Hanohano continued with her attack. "To add insult to injury," she wrote, "our people have had their tax dollars used to support this desecration."
But Hanohano's own use of tax dollars has upset one of her constituents, who questioned the action in a recent letter to the Tribune-Herald.
"Faye (Hanohano) is using the budget crisis to push for her own agenda. I am sick of this kind of political posturing," wrote Heather Anderson. "Faye, quit abusing the power we entrusted in you. If you want to balance the budget, save the money it cost to send out these non-newsletters."
Anderson also objected to getting two copies, one for herself and one addressed to her husband.
"One newsletter full of rhetoric is enough for me," she added in a follow-up interview Friday.
Hanohano said she has not received any complaints about the contents of her latest newsletter.
"If I offended anyone about it, my apologies," Hanohano said. "I was only saying what I needed to say."
Hanohano agreed Mauna Kea development is a "sensitive" subject, but said she doesn't see anything wrong with offering her views on the topic.
"That's fine," she said of Anderson's objections. "We could write whatever we wanted to."
However, a three-member House panel must approve all newsletters that are charged to a lawmaker's $10,200 annual legislative account, said House Chief Clerk Patricia Mau-Shimizu.
A lawmaker can skip that review process by using photocopiers to produce a newsletter and a monthly postage account to distribute it.
Hanohano said that's what she did, charging the mailing cost to her $750 monthly postage allowance available while the Legislature is in session.
Hanohano said she typically uses the bigger legislative account to mail larger newsletters to more people following the close of the Legislature's session.
Still, she sees the mailing process as being "wasteful" and would prefer a more informal distribution method like leaving copies at gathering places at little or no cost to taxpayers.
"I really don't like to send out newsletters," Hanohano said. "This is what they tell us to do. This is from the leadership here. This is the things they tell us to do, so we just go with the flow."
E-mail Jason Armstrong at jarmstrong@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
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