Council panel
moves ahead with
leasehold conversions
A City Council committee moved ahead with leasehold conversion resolutions yesterday even as a task force formed to quell the controversy over the issue met for the first time.
The Council's Executive Matters Committee moved resolutions adding more eligible condominium owners to the list of those seeking to buy the land under the Admiral Thomas and Kahala Beach condominiums. A sharply divided Council approved the first-round applications from unit owners in those buildings in December.
Committee Chairman Councilman Romy Cachola said the unanimous vote should not reflect the Council's stance on leasehold conversion.
"Some (members) are still against, some are in support."
The task force of landowners and lessees is supposed to take a comprehensive look at the leasehold issue since the city's ordinance went into effect in 1991.
The task force is reviewing the ordinance known as Chapter 38. Lessees defend the ordinance as giving them some leverage against landowners, while landowners say the ordinance is unfairly tipped in favor of lessees.
"The Council put the task force together to take an in-depth look at all the aspects of Chapter 38 -- should we still have it, why is it there, is it effective and just about anything that the two sides can come up with to discuss," said real estate broker Michael Pang, who leads the lessee group. "I think the overall objective is to make the law fair and less contentious."
The ordinance gives qualifying lessees the chance to buy the fee-simple interest in the land under their units by petitioning the city, which in turn takes the landowner to court to sell the land to lessees through a condemnation proceeding.
Several highly charged leasehold conversion cases came before the City Council over the past year, prompting the Council to call for the formation of the task force to take a fresh look at the issues. Both sides, however, remain stuck in their positions.
"We hope that the evidence will show there is no public purpose being served by (Chapter) 38, or at the very minimum some significant amendments must be done to 38," said attorney Benjamin Kudo, who heads the lessor group.
"Naturally, I think they're wrong," Pang responded. "I'm hoping that the facts, the truth will come out and quell a lot of that repeated raising of the same issues over and over again."
The task force, which will meet once a month, is made up of three representatives each for lessors and lessees. Each side also has three alternates.
The group is expected to complete a report that will be forwarded to the Council.
