State Representative Richard Onishi said the damning reports by the state auditor and the University of Hawaii economic research organization resulted in law on Friday that would abolish the Agricultural Development Corporation.
Onishi also referred to reports from 2019 and 2020 that 257 acres of ADC land in the village of Whitmore near Wahiawa, Oahu, was illegal dump, chop shop activity, and drug and sex trafficking.
Onishi, a Hilo Democrat, and MP Jeanne Kapela, a Democrat representing Kona and Ka’u, have signed the 1271 House Bill co-introducer. The bill was drafted by MP Amy Perruso, a Democrat who supported the Central. represents Oahu District where illegal activities are alleged to have taken place on ADC land.
The measure was passed in the second reading on Friday after a 7-1 vote in the House of Representatives Agriculture Committee. The no came from Rep. James Tokioka, a Kauai Democrat who joined central Republican Oahu Val Okimoto as two no votes in the House of Representatives.
The ADC – a quasi-state body affiliated with, but independent from, the State Department of Agriculture – was founded in 1994 to convert former pineapple and sugar land for the development of sustainable agriculture by smaller farmers.
The bill would delegate these tasks to the DOA, which submitted a written testimony against the measure.
“We have given them land and funding, they have exemptions in procurement, etc. to help with this development,” Onishi told the Tribune-Herald on Friday. “And unfortunately, they really didn’t accomplish their mission. I think people are frustrated.
“We have now tipped the balance and are now critically examining whether we can eliminate this organization.”
Onishi also noted that the ADC and its executive director, Jimmy Nakatani, “fought us for a couple of years to review them, to review their operations and finances.”
“Then we got the report and it really blew her away,” he added. “And then UHERO did an evaluation of ADC, and they were also very critical of the organization and the lack of work that they should be doing despite all these resources.”
“ADC has not become the entity that the legislature envisioned – one that would develop agriculture into a pillar of the state economy alongside tourism and the military,” the exam reads. “After almost 30 years, the economic void created by the cessation of plantation production remains largely unfilled.”
Onishi said he had his own negative experience with ADC raising $ 2.5 million to develop irrigation and other infrastructure for an agricultural project on former sugar land in Ka’u.
“And they dropped the ball on it and the money fell apart,” he said.
The bill generated 197 pages of written testimony before the Agriculture Committee, supported mostly by individual witnesses.
Supporting organizations include: Animal Rights Hawaii; Malama Moloa’a; Hawaiian seeds; Indigo Foundation; Clark Elements; Pele Lani Farm LLC; North America Pesticide Action Network; Alliance for Progressive Action; Environment Committee of the Democratic Party of Hawaii and OrganicHawaii.org.
In addition to the DDOA, the rejected organizations include: the ADC; Kauai Chamber of Commerce; Island of Kauai Utilities Cooperative; Friends of Waimanalo; Dole Food Co. Hawaii; Larry Jefts Farms LLC; Lin’s farms; Kekaha Agriculture Association; Whitmore Economic Development Group; Umi’s Farm; Hawaii Harvest Improvement Association; Hawaii Farm Bureau; Ho farms; CropLife America; and biotechnology innovation organization.
During the panel discussion on Friday, Perruso said that the subject of the abolition of the ADC has come up several times since 1998.
“We have been asking for an audit for years. We finally got the audit. The results are scandalous. I’ve never read an audit report like this, ”she said. “And I think it is time we held this agency accountable to build public confidence in the government.”
Rep. Bob McDermott, a Republican in the slipstream of Oahu, praised Perruso “for her courage in introducing this law.”
“I wouldn’t say the report was scandalous – rather weird, it was so bad. And last but not least, this is a shot across the bow to tell them to band together, ”he said.
Rep. Dee Morikawa, a Democrat from Kauai who voted for the bill with reservations, noted that the ADC has partnerships in her district and is responsible for maintaining irrigation ditches.
“Because of this, it prevents extreme flooding for the city of Kekaha,” she said. “So this is very, very important to this city and I just hope that these partnerships can continue when this law is passed.”
MEP Sharon Har, who was listed as excused on the vote in plenary, said of Zoom that she was against the measure and understood that ADC is “working to resolve these issues raised by the state audit”.
“You just don’t throw away, keep a department that actually does a lot of great things that the Department of Agriculture can’t do,” she said. “The point of creating these independent but affiliated agencies was to give them the freedom to do what other departments couldn’t do because of government bureaucracy.”
Rep. Gene Ward, a Republican representing the Hawaii Kai neighborhood of Honolulu, was reluctant to support the bill but questioned the government’s ability to carry out the ADC’s mission.
“If the private sector can’t, I would like to see what happens in the next few years, when the government now, the Department of Agriculture, is ready to do it,” he said.
“This is going to be a real test that I doubt will be successful.”
Email John Burnett at [email protected].
Comments are closed.