Kokua Line: Who's on the governor's fast-track building group?

Christine Donnelly, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
·3 min read

Jul. 28—Question : Who specifically will be on the committee fast-tracking housing projects by order of the governor ?

Question : Who specifically will be on the committee fast-tracking housing projects by order of the governor ?

Answer : Gov. Josh Green's July 17 proclamation invests authority in a lead housing officer to chair a Build Beyond Barriers Working Group "that will steward housing pro ­jects through the development process, " which is streamlined outside the usual regulatory framework and beyond the state's open-meetings law because numerous laws are suspended under the emergency proclamation.

The order lists state and nonstate entities that will be represented on the working group, but not people's names. The proclamation does not appoint individuals, but names departments, agencies, organizations and in a few cases positions (such as executive director ).

Nani Medeiros, lead housing officer, on Thursday emailed Kokua Line a tentative list of some group members by name, noting that "official invitations to the Working Group have not yet been sent out, so it is not clear whether these specific individuals will be present members or if they will designate someone from their agency /office /organization to represent them. Furthermore, as some positions are not specifically called out (in the proclamation ), it cannot be determined who that particular agency or non-state entity will invite to represent themselves at Working Group meetings. Directors and Executive Directors of agencies will be allowed to bring staff who are assigned to review the project."

Here is the list, with the entity as described in the proclamation, followed by the person tentatively expected to fill the role, when that information was available.

State agencies—Office of Planning and Sustainable Development ; Mary Alice Evans, acting director—Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism ; James Tokioka, director—Hawaii Housing Finance Development Corp.; Dean Minakami, interim executive director—Department of Land and Natural Resources ; Dawn Chang, chair—State Historic Preservation Division ; Alan Downer, administrator—Commission on Water Resource Management ; Kaleo Manuel, deputy director—Land Use Commission ; Dan Giovanni, chair—Department of Health ; Dr. Kenneth Fink, director—Department of Transportation ; Edwin Sniffen, director—Hawaii Public Housing Authority ; Hakim Ouansafi, executive director—Department of Budget and Finance ; Luis Salaveria, director—Island burial council representatives of the island where the project is located (no names provided )

Nonstate entities—Legislative Housing Committee chairs (nonvoting members ): Rep. Troy Hashi ­moto and Sen. Stanley Chang—Mayor of the county where project is located : Hono ­lulu Mayor Rick Blan ­giardi, Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen, Kauai County Mayor Derek Kawakami—County permitting and regulatory agency representatives of the island where project is located (no names provided )—County department of water supply representatives of the island where project is located (no names provided )—Hawaiian Electric or Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, as applicable, for island where project is located ; Shelee M.T. Kimura, Hawaiian Electric president and CEO, or David J. Bissell, KIUC president and CEO—Honua Consulting : Trisha Watson, owner—Executive director of Housing Hawaii's Future : Sterling Higa—University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization : Carl Bonham, executive director—Executive director of the Sierra Club of Hawai 'i : Wayne Tanaka—Executive director of the Land Use Research Foundation : David Arakawa Read the emergency proclamation and more about how the fast-track development process is designed to work at.------Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813 ; call 808-529-4773 ; or email kokualine @staradvertiser.com.------