Officials are forced to act quickly because the competition for Honolulu's high ground is accelerating as cellular phone companies hunt for perches for their low-powered cellular antennas.
In an effort to lock up that valuable ground, companies have turned to the state not only for permits, but for antenna sites. Included in the list of sites are Mililani and Waialua high schools.
"I think it is breaking new ground and the challenge is how quickly can the state deal with this," said Laura Matsuda Colbert, an executive assistant of the governor's office.
Education Superintendent Herman Aizawa has welcomed the antennas because the companies are giving money to the schools by leasing space on campuses. Schools may also get digital telephones to use rent free.
"By providing the access to the sites we are benefiting in some dollars and software and equipment," Aizawa said.
Questions have emerged within the DOE, however, about the speed with which the plans are being implemented.
One official said there is concern about how to charge the wireless phone companies. Should it be a flat rate similar to the low charges for renting a school facility, or should the state share more of the money that the companies will reap, by negotiating fees for each school transmitter site?
"We have looked at information provided and made a preliminary determination that they (antennas) would not pose a significant health risk at those locations," said Bruce Anderson, the department's deputy director for environmental health.
He referred the safety question to Leslie Au, a toxicologist with the state's hazard evaluation and emergency response office.
Au said there is no problem with putting antennas atop a 107-foot stadium light pole at Mililani High School, as requested by PrimeCo Personal Communications.
To arrive at his conclusion, Au took calculations provided by PrimeCo, a wireless phone company that plans to offer local digital phone service later in the year. He checked to ensure the company used industry-approved formulas to figure out antenna power.
Because the towers have not yet been fitted with the transmitters, there was no way to take actual measurements, Au said.
"Our calculations confirmed . . . indicated that anything at least 7 feet away from the transmitting antenna itself would be in the safe zone. That high light pole provides a large margin of safety," he said in his report.
Au, however, acknowledged that cellular antenna technology is not his field of expertise. He is trained as a toxicologist and is the state's expert in determining if chemicals are hazardous.
Au also is a potential investor in the new digital phone technology. He along with 30 others were in a partnership that last year unsuccessfully attempted to purchase digital cellular phone licenses on the mainland.
But Anderson said Au had no financial stake in the local firms holding cellular phone licenses.
"I don't think it clouded his judgment in assessing the risks," said Anderson, when asked about potential conflicts of interest.
He added: "I don't think Leslie would invest in a technology if he thought there was a health problem."
Au's stamp of approval was key to both the city and the state approval process.
The wireless digital technology is so new that Randall Fujiki, city building superintendent, wrote the state last month asking for advice regarding the safety of cellular antennas.
Noting that the city was processing applications for 52 permanent or temporary antenna permits around town, Fujiki wrote asking "if there are potential health problems with the permitting and erection of the antennas."
Anderson used the statement from Au to assure both the city and the state Department of Education that the antennas were safe.
Meanwhile, no public hearings have been held on the leases. DOE officials say the permits will be only for one year, until a complete statewide process can be established. Public hearings might come later if rules require them.
Ironically, in California, the San Diego City Council worked on the issue for a month, which
included a daylong hearing that packed the Council's chambers. The result was a permit to allow the erection of digital phone antennas, but the Council agreed to draft a comprehensive policy for new ones.
Clifford Fitterer, vice president and general manager for PrimeCo, the second digital phone company in the Hawaii market, said there is no need for the local government to impose zoning restrictions on the sites.
"The Federal Telecommunications Act pre-empts the local government from modifications on the basis of environment effects," he said.
"The city needs to have a land use plan, but clearly there isn't a need for regulation for antenna facilities."
With no public knowledge of the antenna locations, the safety issue completely bypasses the public, according to one critic.
"The jury is still out on microwaves exposure over a long time," said Henry Curtis, Life of the Land executive director.
"The companies appear to be going all over town with an attitude of `Let's build them quickly,' and there is no public process.
"We really need a public dialogue on this."
Fitterer, however, called his firm's antennas and transmitters safe and free of health risks.
"The approach we are taking in the community is to be very open with all the stakeholders who have an interest and work cooperatively in a quality way to gain the necessary approvals," he said.
"We have worked carefully. I feel good about the relationship we have - we have had a thorough review of our plan by Department of Health and Office of Environmental Quality Control."
VoiceStream Wireless, the local presence for Western Wireless, has also applied for permission to use light poles at Mililani High School. Harvey Luke, site acquisition manager for Voice Stream, says more school sites may be used to consolidate some of its private antenna sites.
Both PrimeCo and Western Wireless have hired high-powered help in dealing with local officials, signaling the big money and political stakes involved.
Western Wireless, for instance, hired Donald Clegg's firm Analytical Planning Consultants to prepare the environmental assessment needed for antennas in Waikiki. Clegg is the former head of the city's Department of Land Utilization, one of the agencies that reviews the antenna-building permits. He left the city in 1994 after holding several Cabinet posts under former Mayor Frank Fasi, for whom he was once pollster and political adviser.
Helping PrimeCo with legal work, meanwhile, is Donna Tanoue, an attorney and a University of Hawaii regent, U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye's 1992 campaign manager and the state's former banking regulator.
When the Star-Bulletin asked to see the antenna permit applications filed with the state, Au rejected the request, saying Tanoue considered them privileged business information.
The company later made its records available.
Some of the confusion is caused by the industry's infancy, which has few tested guidelines.
Pearl Imada Iboshi, state Business and Economic Development official in charge of research, said the process is a new one for both state officials and the digital phone companies.
There is a certain urgency on behalf of the state to help the firms set up shop, or risk getting "left behind," Imada Iboshi noted.
But, she said, the state still wants some regulation.
"We are hoping to develop a strategy to not just make money, but allow new companies to come in and make sure that there is not a proliferation of towers everywhere."