Governor defends controversial water commission appointment in exclusive interview

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Gov. Josh Green is making a strident defense of his nominee to the state Commission on Water Resource Management, and is calling for compromise on water and development issues.

He is speaking out after a key state senator said the nominee was not qualified and critics suspect he would side with developers.

The governor has been under fire from environmentalists for his handling of water issues since soon after the Maui wildfires, when his administration reassigned the commission’s top administrator after a false claim he delayed release of water needed to fight fires.

His appointment of retired state historic preservation official V.R. Hinano Rodrigues is the latest move to be challenged, including by a key state senator.

Related post: Governor under fire again over water commission appointment

In an exclusive interview with Hawaii News Now, he called on his critics to compromise.

“These kind of stories that get rolled out and start from a place of confrontation, what do they get us? Nothing. They get us no housing, no progress, no water changes, no nothing,” he said.

After a nearly 11-month process, which water rights advocates said was intentional stalling, the governor nominated Rodrigues to a position reserved by law for a person with “substantial experience or expertise in traditional Hawaiian water resource management techniques and in traditional Hawaiian riparian usage.”

That’s to ensure that traditional kalo farmers have access to adequate stream water, which has created conflicts with large landowners and developers, especially on perpetually water short Maui.

Rodrigues was a cultural expert and manager with the state historic preservation agency.

“Let them see this person’s resume. It’s fantastic,” Green said. “This is someone who’s committed years and years of service in the field, and, by the way, grows his own taro, for gosh sakes.”

But Sen. Lorraine Inouye, who chairs the Water and Land Committee, said that doesn’t meet the qualifications in the law.

“One needs to have some water resource management background. And certainly, from my standpoint, it doesn’t seem like this gentleman is qualified,” she said.

Inouye, whose committee will review Rodrigues’ confirmation, said there were more qualified candidates the governor passed over and would have been acceptable to the water rights and environmental communities.

“I can’t understand why the governor is already upsetting the community and not fulfilling the requirements of that particular seat,” she said.

The governor responded to Inouye’s comments:

“All due respect, the senators should talk to the individual, find out where they’re coming from long before lobbing a little hand grenade behind their back,” he said.

In his interview, the governor described his decision-making process, involving two rounds of interviews and two sets of nominees from the screening committees:

“First person felt not to be Hawaiian enough, though it was Hawaiian and a leader, but not the guy people wanted. So, I didn’t do it. Second person got scared out of their, you know, their dress clothes. They didn’t want to deal with a conflict. And the third and fourth person, great people, but they brought an ideological perspective that was going to cause chaos as I try to work through some of these problems,” Green said, using the fingers of one hand to count off the nominees.

Green said advocates of stream restoration are blocking needed housing, although they dispute that, and says people are too quick to attack nominees who are willing to compromise.

“In our beautiful state, if people don’t line up perfectly, then we demonize them,” he said.

“This is no way to move forward as a state, and so I would ask those who bring an ideological position to instead, trust that people are going to actually try to work in good faith,” Green said.

Rodrigues could take his seat on the water commission as early as Thursday, when the commission meets in Honolulu.

The commission is also scheduled to confirm the new deputy for the commission, Ciara Kahahane, whom the governor appointed in August.

Watch the governor’s full interview:

Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.