Posted by Pono Kealoha on June 15, 2008 at 10:26pm
Tough talk on utilities intensifies for MolokaiBy CHRIS HAMILTON, Maui News, June 15, 2008WAILUKU — The rhetoric among Maui County, Molokai Properties Ltd. and the state Public Utilities Commission last week rose to the level of probable litigation — and is moving on to scorn.At issue is who is going to take over the utilities that serve 1,200 Molokai west side households and businesses, including Molokai Properties’ own, with fresh water and sewers. The county, state and Molokai Properties have been saying since April that they don’t want the decrepit and (mostly) money-losing systems, which would take a so-far undetermined amount of cash to whip back into shape.In the meantime, commissioners warned the county that substantial but temporary rate increases are on the way for Molokai residents to keep the utilities afloat until a solution can be found.In order just to continue to deliver water from its source on the other side of the island, Molokai Properties faces years of protracted lawsuits and bureaucratic wrangling, its foes say. Those critics say the move to abandon the utilities is a gambit by Molokai Properties to avoid these costs and still get the water it needs from the county if its developments ever pan out.Still, since Molokai Properties has a state certificate of public convenience and necessity, the county, the commission and state consumer advocate have repeatedly said the company has a legal obligation to operate the utilities until a new owner/operator is lined up and the certificate is transferred.In his letter Wednesday, Nicholas said he doubted that a private buyer would come forward.Gov. Linda Lingle appeared to endorse Molokai Properties’ position last week but also said that Molokai Properties should follow the orders of the commission.“As a former mayor and council member, I know that operating and maintaining water and wastewater systems is a basic responsibility of county government, but the mayor, council members, state representatives and senators, and Molokai residents have asked for my help,” Lingle said. “We will work with the county to assure they are able to provide uninterrupted service to the people of Molokai.”A member of Lingle’s staff said that the state would likely help provide unspecified resources to make the hand-over to the county possible.From the outset, it appeared as though there was no legal precedent for forcing a county to take over a privately developed and owned utility. However, Martin said Friday that the county’s corporation counsel is researching the law to backstop that understanding.Hawaii Revised Statute Chapter 269 gives the commission near carte blanche powers to investigate the utilities and its owners. When it comes to public utilities, everything from financial records to operations to plant conditions to corporate relationships and rates is fair game under the law, said Stacey Kawasaki Djou, chief legal counsel for the commission.“Any public utility violating or neglecting or failing in any particular to conform to or comply with this chapter or any lawful order of the Public Utilities Commission shall be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $25,000 for each day such violation, neglect or failure continues,” according to the statute.In his letter Wednesday, Nicholas said the company does not believe that threats of investigations or penalties are warranted or productive.“Regardless of anyone’s preferences or posturing, the utilities can only do what they have the resources to do,” Nicholas wrote to the commission. “No amount of encouragement or warnings will create resources that do not exist, and your suggestion that operations must continue when there is no money to pay for them comes close to insisting upon corporate dishonesty or even criminality.”In a previous letter to the commission, Nicholas also alluded to resistance by Molokai Properties to maintain the utilities in the face of ongoing litigation.In August, the state attorney general put to rest years of contention by the Molokai Farmers Association by issuing an opinion saying that Molokai Properties was using an unpermitted connection to the state Department of Agriculture’s Molokai Irrigation System to transport its water across the island.After a successful petition by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., the attorney general ordered that an environmental assessment — at a minimum — would be required before Molokai Properties could apply for a new contract in order to continue use of the extensive system of pipes, tunnels and reservoirs.The farmers argued successfully that they had first rights to this water, said Glenn Teves, Molokai agriculture extension agent.Those environmental studies can take years and millions of dollars to create, not to mention what it would cost if Molokai Properties had to build its own cross-island pipes. Still, the Department of Agriculture has allowed Molokai Properties and its utilities to continue to use the irrigation system in the meantime.But then a second, and potentially more devastating ruling for the company, was handed down in December by the Hawaii Supreme Court regarding the source of Molokai Properties’ water.In the 1990s, Molokai Properties bought the rights to Well 17, which pumps out an average of about 1 million gallons of water per day and is its primary source of water for its utilities.But the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Department of Hawaiian Home Lands argued that MPL’s predecessor, Kukui (Molokai) Inc., didn’t fill out its permit applications on time and that the Public Utilities Commission failed to do its duty as well.The court agreed with the plaintiffs and then remanded Molokai Properties’ permit to operate Well 17 to the state Commission on Water Resource Management, which will ultimately decide its fate. Attorneys for the Native Hawaiian groups said the court agreed that they have first rights to the water, but the plaintiffs still expected a protracted hearing process before the water commission.Jon Van Dyke, a University of Hawaii law professor who represented OHA in the Molokai contested case and later in an appeal before the Hawaii Supreme Court, said that Molokai Properties’ application before the state water commission was moving along until the company just stopped at the beginning of this month and said it didn’t want the permit anymore.“I guess that’s part of their business plan, to simply stop doing any business on Molokai,” Van Dyke said. “The whole thing is rather bizarre.”Retired 2nd Circuit Court judge and Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee Boyd Mossman of Maui said that Molokai Properties’ reasoning right now probably comes from a combination of negatives coming down at the same time.“It’s a reaction that’s not surprising, I guess,” Mossman said. “I have a lot of thoughts, but I don’t think I can say them.”However, more vocal Molokai Properties critics say that the company was counting on water from Well 17 at Kualapuu for its Laau Point development as well as to someday reopen the ranch, two resorts, and the Kaluakoi hotel and golf course.Now the water might not be there; that is, unless the county takes over the whole system, Teves said.“I think MPL assumes that they won’t have to pay for protracted litigation for up to 10 years anymore,” Teves said. “And they believe they can get water from the county and then support the county in finding another well and then ask them for that water. They’re trying to cut their losses. Everything they do right now is about dollar signs.”Efforts to reach Molokai Properties officials for comment were unsuccessful.mahaloNini'ane
"Everything they do right now is about dollar signs." Everything they do period is about dollar signs. They cannot move ahead in the project because there are too many red flags on the title of that property due to koe nae na kuleana o na Kanaka papers filed with the occupied Bureau of Conveyances (BOC) and more are coming in each day.
As for the water, why do we insist on going through a de facto process to find a remedy. It's been 100+ years and how many remedies have they assisted Kanaka with? I don't want to go through 100+ more years of going to the "great white father and his puppets" for help. The problem is the "great white fathers" have no intention of "helping" us poor indigenous (legal term literally - extremely poor, incompetent, incapable of caring for themselves) people. Thank Ke Akua we are NOT INDIGENOUS! We are Kanaka Maoli Oiwi!
Foreigners in the old days were amazed by us, how fast we learned English while still speaking our language, how fast we learned to read, the peacefullness of our people, our advanced knowledge of nature and our environment. We were so far from incompetent it's not even funny, even to this day...eat my dust m*'s.
We have 10's of thousands of intelligent Kanaka Maoli who everyday want to see us rid of these pesky greedy money lovers. All of us together can find remedies and assist each other. Let us find what our individual strong points are and use it for our Nation of Ko Hawaii Pae Aina.
Can we find the owner of the Royal Patent under the Kaluakoi hotel. See which one would like to take the helm and start finding a company to run the hotel. Have that company sign a lease agreement and for start collecting rent. Take the hotel building as part of their back payment for rent never paid to the lawful owners of the land.
We have 100's of people that have worked for the Visitor's Bureau. Have them get together and think of an attractive plan for tourists right now. The "great white father's" have a propaganda plan in place already I bet packed with all kinds of lies about us to make certain that when we take over tourists will be in fear of coming to our beautiful Ko Hawaii Pae Aina. If anything their visit will probably prove to be a lot more refreshing for them!
Can we find out where the water ic originally from? Here in Maui our water is diverted every which way (for the Love of money). So the water on Molokai originally comes from a stream (sorry no time to research) that must be part of a Royal Patent. Can the paperwork on the stream be vested up so that red flags are raised as to the ownership of the water as well (belongs to Kanaka)?
Can a Kanaka who knows the water system find out really what's up with the pipes? Can't we find a remedy within ourselves and not through a de facto organization? Their track record is not good at all!
I don't know I'm just throwing around ideas for a remedy without the de facto.
Remember, any lawyer, attorney, law firm's first oath is not to the people they represent but to the court, in this case our court is really the Hawaii Postal Savings Bank.
To learn more about Law Literacy for Maoli, Mahele Economics, Molaki (mortgage) Level I & II you can attend a class usually held on Sundays on Maui at the Cameron Center starting at 9am where we start giving out koe nae papers.
To see the list of koe nae papers available click on Palapala Koe Nae
To see an update of the class schedule and what island click on Class Schedule
Comments
As for the water, why do we insist on going through a de facto process to find a remedy. It's been 100+ years and how many remedies have they assisted Kanaka with? I don't want to go through 100+ more years of going to the "great white father and his puppets" for help. The problem is the "great white fathers" have no intention of "helping" us poor indigenous (legal term literally - extremely poor, incompetent, incapable of caring for themselves) people. Thank Ke Akua we are NOT INDIGENOUS! We are Kanaka Maoli Oiwi!
Foreigners in the old days were amazed by us, how fast we learned English while still speaking our language, how fast we learned to read, the peacefullness of our people, our advanced knowledge of nature and our environment. We were so far from incompetent it's not even funny, even to this day...eat my dust m*'s.
We have 10's of thousands of intelligent Kanaka Maoli who everyday want to see us rid of these pesky greedy money lovers. All of us together can find remedies and assist each other. Let us find what our individual strong points are and use it for our Nation of Ko Hawaii Pae Aina.
Can we find the owner of the Royal Patent under the Kaluakoi hotel. See which one would like to take the helm and start finding a company to run the hotel. Have that company sign a lease agreement and for start collecting rent. Take the hotel building as part of their back payment for rent never paid to the lawful owners of the land.
We have 100's of people that have worked for the Visitor's Bureau. Have them get together and think of an attractive plan for tourists right now. The "great white father's" have a propaganda plan in place already I bet packed with all kinds of lies about us to make certain that when we take over tourists will be in fear of coming to our beautiful Ko Hawaii Pae Aina. If anything their visit will probably prove to be a lot more refreshing for them!
Can we find out where the water ic originally from? Here in Maui our water is diverted every which way (for the Love of money). So the water on Molokai originally comes from a stream (sorry no time to research) that must be part of a Royal Patent. Can the paperwork on the stream be vested up so that red flags are raised as to the ownership of the water as well (belongs to Kanaka)?
Can a Kanaka who knows the water system find out really what's up with the pipes? Can't we find a remedy within ourselves and not through a de facto organization? Their track record is not good at all!
I don't know I'm just throwing around ideas for a remedy without the de facto.
Remember, any lawyer, attorney, law firm's first oath is not to the people they represent but to the court, in this case our court is really the Hawaii Postal Savings Bank.
To learn more about Law Literacy for Maoli, Mahele Economics, Molaki (mortgage) Level I & II you can attend a class usually held on Sundays on Maui at the Cameron Center starting at 9am where we start giving out koe nae papers.
To see the list of koe nae papers available click on Palapala Koe Nae
To see an update of the class schedule and what island click on Class Schedule