Car dealer’s attorneys
block vote on reef fineJimmy Pflueger may be fined
$5.8 million for damage to Pilaa Reef
LIHUE >> Following a day-long hearing by the state Board of Land & Natural Resources, attorneys for retired auto dealer Jimmy Pflueger played their only trump card to avoid a possible $5.8 million fine.
The Land Board's staff recommended last week that Pflueger be fined $5.8 million to cover the cost of repairing Pilaa Reef. The reef was buried in mud on Nov. 26, 2001, when a road collapsed after a heavy rain. Pflueger was building the road down the bluff above the beach without any state or county permits.
The road was to link property Pflueger was developing for luxury homes to the beach that adjoins the property.
Late yesterday, as the Land Board debated whether to vote on the fine or defer the matter for another month, Pflueger's lawyers asked for a contested-case hearing. The hearing is similar to a trial before a hearing officer whose recommendations go to the Land Board.
A request for a contested-case hearing cannot be denied, so any vote on a fine for Pflueger was blocked.
Pflueger's lawyers and consultants spent much of the day trying to knock holes in the staff proposal before the board.
Attorney Bill Tam told the board the basis for the fine -- which amounts to $1,000 per acre -- is a Florida law that cannot be used in Hawaii.
And, he noted, the Florida law was written specifically for cases in which ships run aground on coral reefs. It has nothing in it to cover damage caused by storm runoff, he said.
The Land Board did not indicate whether it agreed with any of Tam's arguments, but the issues did send the panel into a lengthy executive session with its attorney.
The one matter agreed on yesterday did not involve the reef. Pflueger's lawyers and the Land Board agreed on a plan under which Pflueger will pay $8,000 for additional work on the cliff face above Pilaa Beach to prevent mudslides in the event of heavy rain this winter.
