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Hawaii Governor’s Pick To Lead DLNR Clears Senate Committee Vote

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Hawaii Governor’s Pick To Lead DLNR Clears Senate Committee Vote


The deputy funds director’s nomination additionally superior whereas three extra of Inexperienced’s nominees have been confirmed by the complete Senate.

A key Senate committee gave preliminary approval for Daybreak Chang to guide the Division of Land and Pure Sources on Friday after months of lobbying in opposition to her nomination by environmental teams and others who took problem with involvement in a burials case years in the past.

Her nomination now goes to the complete 25-member Senate. If confirmed, she would turn into the primary Native Hawaiian lady to fill the position.

Three extra of Gov. Josh Inexperienced’s Cupboard appointments additionally received approval from the complete Senate together with Maj. Gen. Ken Hara to go the state Division of Protection; Jordan Lowe, the brand new legislation enforcement director; and Sharon Hurd, the state agriculture director.

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Chang’s nomination has taken an identical path to Hurd’s: each administrators initially stumbled via funds hearings in January earlier than recouping and overcoming resistance from lawmakers and stakeholder teams that won’t have initially supported their nominations.

Daybreak Chang, left, the nominee to guide the state Division of Land and Pure Sources, received preliminary approval. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2023)

In Chang’s case, it was demonstrating that she understood the Division of Land and Pure Sources and all its complexities, the problems it touches on together with forestry, fishing and wildlife safety, in addition to a willingness to maneuver the needle on a virtually two-decade previous program to switch sure pasture lands to the Division of Agriculture.

“You’ve come a great distance,” Sen. Angus McKelvey instructed Chang in the course of the Committee on Water and Land listening to. He added that when he first arrived within the Senate after his election final yr he recalled Senate Water and Land Chairwoman Lorraine Inouye saying “we’ve received to do one thing about Daybreak Chang.”

Inouye was in full assist of Chang’s nomination, saying she “has demonstrated extraordinary management expertise throughout her transient time as chairperson and proven a willingness to work with others together with us right here on the Legislature and different departments.”

Chang had broad assist from public testifiers in the course of the affirmation listening to.

Gary Okuda, who served alongside Chang on the state Land Use Fee, stated she will be able to deliver individuals collectively and is aware of methods to maintain individuals accountable.

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He pointed to the LUC’s determination in 2019 to shutter the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill, wherein Chang took half in as a board member, in addition to a separate case earlier than the LUC wherein Chang requested a Maui housing developer to return and meet with extra individuals within the surrounding neighborhood.

“When she talks about collaboration, it’s not B.S.,” Okuda stated.

However her nomination bumped into sturdy opposition from environmental teams over her position as an environmental guide with the small agency Kuiwalu, which was contracted by builders up to now to carry out environmental or cultural assessments for initiatives.

Creator Tom Coffman stated that put her at odds with DLNR’s mission, which is to guard some 1.3 million acres of public lands, 3 million acres of nearshore waters and quite a few cultural websites.

“She is a mismatch for quite a few and long-standing relationships via her enterprise with builders,” Coffman stated. “Her enterprise was primarily consulting with builders, nevertheless else you parse it.”

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A lot of the opposition was additionally fueled by a suggestion Chang made to Kawaiahao Church in 2006 to not pursue an archeological stock survey of its property whereas planning for a multipurpose heart.

The church ultimately unearthed tons of of burial stays, which led to its plans stalling together with quite a few authorized battles.

Chang has stated that her suggestion was simply one in all many thought of by the church. She instructed the committee on Friday that the advice to not pursue an AIS got here solely after the church determined to maneuver away from constructing an underground car parking zone, which triggered the necessity for an archeological research within the first place.

Kawaiahao Church kakaako condo1. 4 may 2016
A lot of the opposition to Chang’e nomination needed to do with a Kawaiahao Church mission. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2016)

“It was by no means my intention to disinter burials,” Chang stated.

She instructed the committee that she was already within the technique of winding down her enterprise with Kuiwalu when Inexperienced requested her to guide DLNR. Kuiwalu has since closed out its work with all of its shoppers.

Chang additionally promised to recuse herself from most choices relating to Mauna Kea since Kuiwalu developed administration plans for the Large Island mountain, dwelling to an astronomy district and nonetheless the focused website for growth of the Thirty Meter Telescope.

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Chang was bedecked in lei after the listening to, and appeared assured going into her affirmation vote earlier than the complete Senate, which has not but been scheduled. She stated the opposition to her nomination seems to be coming from teams exterior the Capitol fairly than from particular senators.

“I feel I’ve warmed as much as them, by being ready,” Chang stated. “I come doing my homework and I come to reply their questions.”

Earlier within the day, the Senate Methods and Means Committee voted to assist Sabrina Nasir’s nomination to be the deputy director of the Division of Price range and Finance.

Nasir received a unanimous vote within the committee, though Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz and Sens. Kurt Fevella and Michelle Kidani voted “with reservations.”

The considerations needed to do with an incident in 2017 wherein 20 Methods and Means staffers, together with Nasir, shredded paperwork and deleted others from laborious drives underneath the path of the committee’s former chief of workers. A few of the supplies have been routinely discarded on the finish of session. Others that have been wiped from laborious drives have been nonetheless recoverable within the Senate’s knowledge recordsdata.

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Nonetheless, the disposal of some paperwork apparently led to a tough transition interval between WAM chairs. That yr, Dela Cruz ousted former state senator and present U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda from her place main the Senate cash committee.

“I personally am very sorry in my opinion in discarding supplies in the course of the 2017 transition,” she stated.

Dela Cruz stated he believes Nasir is able to finishing the job on an expert and technical stage. There was no opposition to Nasir’s nomination and almost 200 written items of testimony supporting her.

“I’m very grateful to the chair and to the committee for contemplating my nomination,” she stated after the listening to.

Having 5 of Inexperienced’s nominees clear main hurdles in someday stands in stark distinction to March 24, when Inexperienced noticed his financial director and planning director fail to win sufficient votes within the Senate to get confirmed to their jobs.

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Civil Beat reporter Ben Angarone contributed to this story.





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Hawaii man pleads guilty to killing lover and encasing body in tub

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Hawaii man pleads guilty to killing lover and encasing body in tub


A man pleaded guilty to murder Monday, about two years after his lover’s decomposing body was found encased in concrete in a bathtub in one of Hawaii’s most exclusive gated communities.

Juan Tejedor Baron, now 25, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Gary Ruby, 73. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors won’t seek a sentence of life without possibility for parole. Prosecutors will recommend a minimum term of 20 years to the Hawaii Paroling Authority, according to the plea agreement.

According to court documents, Baron killed Ruby, poured cement over this body and planned to fraudulently take ownership of his car and home in Honolulu’s Hawaii Loa Ridge neighborhood. Property records showed Ruby purchased the house in 2020 for nearly $2.2 million.

Ruby’s decomposing body was excavated by authorities in March 2022 from a standalone soaking tub, after his brother told police he hadn’t heard from Ruby in weeks. Ruby’s last email to his brother mentioned he had “met a new love interest named Juan” who was significantly younger, police said.

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Police said Baron covered the cement with coffee grounds to mask the smell.

SEE MORE: Father accused of drugging 3 girls at sleepover

U.S. Marshals and Los Angeles police arrested Baron after finding him in a crawl space at the back of a Mexico-bound bus in Anaheim, California.

Baron had long wanted to take responsibility, but Baron’s lawyers had discovered evidence of possible prosecutorial misconduct in the case, said defense attorney Kyle Dowd.

The plea agreement says Baron’s attorneys will withdraw a motion alleging that a former prosecutor on the case showed photographic evidence during presentations to community members, which could have tainted the jury pool.

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Baron is considered to have overstayed a visa, according to the plea document. If he’s granted parole, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will take custody of Baron and start removal proceedings. Baron is from Colombia, Dowd said.


Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com





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Hawaii State Arts Programs Could Be On The Chopping Block In The Legislature This Year

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Hawaii State Arts Programs Could Be On The Chopping Block In The Legislature This Year


Legislation to slash arts spending could even end the Kamehameha Day parades.

A 59-year-old program that pays for art in public spaces is facing significant changes and budget cuts under a bill being considered Tuesday in the Senate.

House Bill 1807 would change the program in which 1% of the costs of public construction projects are used for art in public spaces. The measure would limit the program to new construction only and eliminate it being used for renovation projects. Most state projects involve fixing up existing buildings, not building new ones, so this would considerably reduce arts funding.

The bill also suggests that no further artwork needs to be purchased by the state, noting that the state “possesses a surplus of artwork in storage for current and future uses.”

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The bill was approved by the House in March and has moved to the Senate. Its sponsor is Rep. Kyle Yamashita, chair of the House Finance Committee, who represents Maui’s District 12.

The Senate’s Transportation and Culture and the Arts Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the bill at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Capitol Modern, formerly the Hawaii State Art Museum, could face substantial budget cuts under legislation that seeks to curtail money for the arts. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2023)

The popular annual Kamehameha Day celebration and parades held statewide may be on the chopping block as well, amid cost-cutting pressures caused by the Maui fire.

The State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, the state’s primary arts funding agency which oversees the celebration, also had been targeted for major cutbacks in both the House and Senate.

Under one proposal that appears to have stalled, House Bill 2565, introduced by Rep. Daniel Holt, the commission that oversees the foundation would be eliminated and the governor would appoint the executive director who would have to be approved by the Senate.

Karen Ewald, the executive director of the State Foundation On Culture and the Arts, says the cuts being proposed are potentially devastating, with the foundation possibly losing up to 70% of its income, including some $50,000 to $60,000 each year that is used to support the Kamehameha festival.

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“This is a critical bill that would cut arts funding dramatically and reverberate negatively around the state for years and years,” Ewald said. “It would have a huge impact if it were to happen.”

She said that state support for arts education in public schools, grants to artists and purchases of public art would all be curtailed. She said she expected that the state’s art museum could be shut down.

As to the Kamehameha parades, “that wouldn’t happen anymore,” she said. “We wouldn’t be able to fund them.”

The commission’s annual budget for fiscal 2024 includes about $800,000 in state funds, $907,500 from the federal National Endowment for the Arts and about $5.7 million from the special fund, which is the 1% money, for a total of about $7.4 million, according to Ewald.

Hundreds of artists, actors, dancers, musicians and museum enthusiasts have rallied in defense of the foundation and the cut to the 1% for arts fund, testifying against the proposed legislation and saying that extreme cuts could alter Hawaii’s cultural fabric. They include the Kauai Museum, Maui Dance Council, Hawaii Craftsmen, Kahilu Theatre Foundation and the Maui Arts and Cultural Center.

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“The overarching purpose of this fund is to chronicle Hawaii’s history, its present, and future through the arts – all of the arts,” wrote Beth-Ann Kozlovich, executive director of the Hawaii Arts Alliance. “This also means supporting arts education to grow our current and future artists now children or as yet unborn. The fund’s purpose is far more than even the important function of collecting Hawaii art that can be seen in state buildings but to support all forms of the arts that can mirror and record the ongoing changes in thought, approach to issues and actions that reflect those changes through time.”

Karen Ewald, executive director of the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, poses inside Capitol Modern, a showcase for local art. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2023)

Artist and art instructor Erik Sullivan testified in indignation that lawmakers think Hawaii already has too much art.

“The assertion that the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (SFCA) has ‘enough works of art’ and that there is ‘no need to acquire more art for the state collection’ is shortsighted,” Sullivan wrote. “Art is not a commodity to be accumulated until a certain quota is met; it is a living, evolving expression of our society and its values.”

“Please do not cut funds for Arts and Culture,” wrote painter Doug Young. “They are the backbone of Hawaii nei.”

It’s not clear who is pushing for the changes in the state’s art funding budget, but some of the pressure is likely coming as a result of the huge costs of rebuilding in Maui after the catastrophic fire in August that killed 101 people and damaged or destroyed more than 2,000 homes and much of West Maui’s critical infrastructure. With that in mind, Senate Ways and Means Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz, who represents Wahiawa on Oahu, instructed state departments to prepare to make painful cuts of 10% to 15%.

But lawmakers have recently said the financial hit may not be as devastating as they originally feared. Last week Yamashita said the state was projecting a $1.34 billion surplus that would cover the estimated $1 billion needed to help finance the Maui recovery effort. The state, meanwhile, has a record $1.5 billion in its Emergency and Budget Reserve Fund, known as the Rainy Day fund, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported on Sunday.

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There has been some management turmoil at the foundation in the past two years. Long-time executive director Jonathan Johnson left the job in the summer of 2022, and was replaced by Allison Wong, former executive director of The Contemporary Museum. But the board placed Wong on administrative leave a few months later and named Ewald as interim director. She became executive director in October.

Around that time, the agency made an unusual announcement when it changed the name of the venerable Hawaii State Art Museum to “Capitol Modern,” in a rebranding effort that Ewald said would help the facility shed the common misperception that museums are stuffy or uninvitingly uptight.

But the rebrand, which cost $156,260 and stripped the word “Hawaii” from the museum’s name, proved controversial, with critics including former government Ben Cayetano publicly panning the move, according to Hawaii Public Radio.

The foundation has in the past been a source of pride to the state. Hawaii was the first state in the country to adopt a percent-for-art law, a concept that subsequently spread to many other parts of the United States, where it applies in some places to both publicly owned and privately owned buildings.

The money is used to finance many community arts-based endeavors and festivals.

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About 10,000 children in the state participate in arts programs funded by the commission through the percent program, tens of thousands visit public art exhibits and thousands of people each year attend Kamehameha commemorations.





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Former Hawaii Public Safety Director Ted Sakai dies

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Former Hawaii Public Safety Director Ted Sakai dies


  • STAR-ADVERTISER
                                Former Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commissioner Ted Sakai has died.

    STAR-ADVERTISER

    Former Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commissioner Ted Sakai has died.

Veteran state public safety official Ted Sakai has died.

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Sakai, who led the state Department of Public Safety from 1998 to 2002 and from 2012 to 2014, died this morning, according to the Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission where Sakai had been a commissioner until resigning for health reasons in December.

The Commission said Sakai, who was 77 and fought lung cancer for more than seven years, will be remembered for his leadership, dedication, compassion, and unwavering commitment to the people of Hawaii, and for the warmth he extended to everyone around him.

“Ted’s absence leaves a void that cannot be filled, and he will be deeply missed by the Oversight Commission, and by all who had the privilege of knowing him,” the commission said in a statement.

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