Dispute continues on who is
responsible for rockfall safety

A bill would authorize counties
to create ordinances to clarify
the landowners’ duties

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By Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.com

The father of Dara Rei Onishi, a 26-year-old graduate student who died last summer after a 5-ton boulder rolled down a Nuuanu hillside and killed her as she slept, told a state House committee the dispute continues on who is responsible for fixing such hazardous conditions.

Patrick Onishi, a retired city planning director, said safety issues for his home and neighborhood remain unresolved after his Henry Street home was repaired from the Aug. 2 tragedy. He said attempts to discuss rockslide mitigation with the property owner above his home have raised questions of who is legally responsible for that work.

"I think we need to establish some clarity of responsibility, if not first to the property owner, then to have some other mechanism for government to intervene where the safety of people are involved," Onishi told the House Public Safety Committee yesterday.

"I'm not trying to address this on an emotional level -- that's a personal loss -- but I think there were circumstances to what we experienced that need to be addressed by law," he said.

Onishi testified yesterday in favor of a bill approved by the panel that authorizes the counties to create ordinances clarifying the responsibilities of landowners when hazardous conditions, such as large boulders and potential rockslides, threaten life, safety and property.

But House Bill 1261, which needs approval from two more committees before it can be sent to the Senate, had to be passed by the House Judiciary Committee today to make a key legislative deadline that requires all bills to be in their final committee.

House Judiciary Vice Chairman Blake Oshiro (D, Aiea-Halawa Heights) said no hearings are scheduled today for the panel.

Even so, Oshiro agreed the language in this bill could be transferred to another measure that remains alive, a procedure lawmakers routinely use until final decisions are made at the end of the session.

Honolulu City Councilman Donovan Dela Cruz, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, said in written testimony that the Council deferred action on a proposed city law last year to address "nuisance boulders" because it believed the state Legislature would enact laws this year to either create a duty for landowners to inspect their property for rockfall dangers, or to authorize the counties to enact such legislation.

But three of the four county administrations say they do not want the responsibility the bill gives. Hawaii, Kauai and Honolulu counties all opposed the measure because it creates a perceived duty for them to police hazardous conditions on private property.

"Another consequence of the bill is to increase the counties' liability for failing to exercise those responsibilities," said Amy Esaki, Kauai first deputy county attorney, in written testimony. "The responsibility for mitigation should remain the responsibility of the parties responsible for causing the hazardous condition, not the counties."

But state Rep. Marcus Oshiro (D, Wahiawa) said deferring this measure to next year would mean no action taken to address the problem when there are real threats to life and property from loose rocks and boulders, especially on Oahu.