Sandy Beach dispute
an expensive lessonThe issue: A multimillion-dollar
settlement has ended a fight to
preserve a piece of shoreline.SOME will view 15 years of litigation and tens of millions of dollars as a steep price for the city to acquire 32 acres of land across from Sandy Beach. However, after the memory of the city's missteps and land-use conflict fade, what will remain is an open shoreline, a commodity that has become scarce on Oahu.
The next step is for the city to ensure that the preservation effort will not have been for naught, that the coastal land will not be marred by structures and projects such as the one at Hanauma Bay.
The land acquisition comes with the settlement of a lawsuit brought in 1989 after the city changed the zoning for the property where developers planned to build homes. The city had earlier approved the subdivisions, but preservation advocates, the Save Sandy Beach Coalition, opposed them. An initiative was conducted and voters overwhelmingly rejected the development, but the Hawaii Supreme Court in 1988 determined the vote was illegal. The city then changed the zoning, and developers and landowners Kamehameha Schools sued. In March 2000, a Circuit Court judge ruled against the city and a trial to determine how much the city was to pay in damages was to begin this month.
With the settlement, the city will give the landowner and its lessee, Maunalua Associates, proceeds from the sale of 46 acres in the Manana-Pearl City area, valued at $60 million to $70 million. The sale -- and an additional $5.4 million the city also must pay -- total an amount far below the estimated $120 million the city would likely have had to pay in damages and attorney fees.
While hardly a bargain, the settlement will extricate the city from the conflict it had sparked by mishandling the zoning issue so many years ago. It also appeases the parties involved.
The lessons from the dispute are numerous. The city learned that it must proceed in a fair and orderly manner when making land-use decisions. Property owners and developers should recognize that many citizens place a premium on preservation of scenic areas and that land value may be measured in more than profits from home sales. Preservation advocates should realize that their desires are to be weighed against the rights of landowners and that they must make their views known early in the process.
The long battle over, the result of the settlement will add a key link along one of the last remaining stretches of open coast line on Oahu. The literal view -- from Palea Point just beyond Hanauma to Makapuu -- is evidence that the effort was worthwhile.
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Pressure is no excuse
for not following rulesThe issue: An audit criticized
the state's mental health division
for poor financial management.STATE Health Director Bruce Anderson takes issue with an auditor's report critical of his department's management of its mental health division, contending that the findings are old and that his agency has made significant progress in correcting problems. His remarks mischaracterize the timeliness of the report's data and, although the Department of Health has made improvements, the audit suggests some financial and management difficulties remain unresolved.
At stake is the department's ability to deliver necessary services to mental health patients and the confidence of taxpayers that the money paid out for programs is being spent efficiently and frugally.
The audit found that "millions of dollars were spent without ensuring maximum purchasing value of public funds." Contracts were awarded without assuring fair evaluation and specifications for services were changed, circumventing open competition and procurement rules. For example, contracts were made for a narrow scope of service, then enlarged or modified later, essentially excluding other providers from obtaining them.
The information for the audit was gathered between February and December of last year after $48 million was appropriated for the department's 2000-2001 budget to provide outpatient care. This refutes Anderson's assertion that the audit was outdated, an argument he used last July when a previous audit criticized the mental health division for lack of long-range planning.
Anderson's defensive stance is understandable. The Hawaii State Hospital is in its 11th year of federal court oversight, the result of a settlement of a U.S. Justice Department suit over violations at the facility. The state has two more years to correct problems.
It may be that pressure from the federal court prompted officials to take shortcuts in contracting services. However, as the audit noted, the division's practices fed a perception of "a quid-pro-quo environment in which personal gain seems to precede the state's interest." The report pointed to an instance in which a former official who participated in contract decisions "later benefited from employment arrangements made with those who were either awarded a contract or selected for a position with the division."
The auditor's report should serve as warning to the department to follow the rules. If the rules get in the way of efficiency, the prudent avenue would be to seek to have them changed.
Earlier this year, the department received good marks for its improvements, one expert predicting that the changes would result in a "national-class mental health system." In that light, Anderson and his colleagues, beleaguered as they may be by federal supervision, should conduct business properly and resist making excuses.
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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comJohn Flanagan, contributing editor 294-3533; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
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