Governor Green Faces Lawsuit Challenging Water Commission Appointment

Honolulu, HI —

Today, a coalition of citizens from across the Hawaiian Islands filed a lawsuit in state environmental court against the Green administration for its unlawful nomination process for the loea (cultural expert) seat on the Commission on Water Resource Management. The suit, brought by the environmental law firm Earthjustice on behalf of community group Hui Kānāwai ‘Oia‘i‘o, challenges Governor Green’s refusal to select one of the highly qualified and respected candidates recommended by a nominating committee in February 2024. Instead, his administration arranged a redo of the nomination process, forming a new nominating committee to produce a new list with his preferred candidate, Vincent Hinano Rodrigues.

The loea seat was created by law to ensure representation of Native Hawaiian water management principles in commission decisions. But it has become a focus of controversy over the last year, as the Green administration first stalled selecting from the nominee list for months, then orchestrated a do-over of the list—all the while resisting calls from the public and Native Hawaiian community to put politics aside, follow the law, and select a nominee from the original list whom the community can trust and support.

“The loea is the designated voice on the commission for Hawaiian rights and expertise in restoring our water,” said Lahaina community leader Kekai Keahi. “The governor’s attempt to manipulate the nomination process for this key position is an insult to the law and to everyone who has worked with the commission for years to ensure it respects Hawaiian rights and values.”

The Hui’s suit, directed at Governor Josh Green, the water commission, nominating committee member James Kimo Falconer, and commissioner nominee Rodrigues as defendants, seeks a legal ruling from the court that the second nominating committee process was unlawful and invalid, and that the governor is legally required to select a nominee from the original list. The Hui also challenges Rodrigues’s nomination as invalid.

In defending his choice, Governor Green revealed his motives against the two undeniably qualified candidates recommended by the original nominating committee, Lori Buchanan and Hannah Springer. In statements to local news, the governor claimed the two candidates “brought an ideological perspective that was going to cause chaos,” and he needed people who will “compromise on restoring water to the streams and building housing.”

“The governor’s likes and dislikes do not justify him disregarding the legally mandated process and making up his own rules,” explained Earthjustice attorney Harley Broyles. “The legislature intentionally established this process for commission nominations as a check on partisanship by the governor,” she said. “The law does not allow the governor to scrap the committee’s recommendations because they do not suit his political agenda.”

The plaintiff coalition also includes youth who recognize the importance of the loea position for their future. “As a Native Hawaiian and kia‘i wai, it’s my kuleana to make sure the state upholds its laws, especially when it comes to the future of our limited water resources,” said 14-year-old Lahaina native Kalikookalani T. “Ever since the sugar plantation era our ‘āina has longed for the return of our kahawai. Native Hawaiians can’t continue our way of life when the streams are dry and the land is dying. That is why we are working so hard to ensure that this one seat designated for us is filled in a pono way, for pono reasons.”

Background

The state’s Water Code sets forth the procedure for filling vacancies on the commission. Under Hawai‘i Revised Statutes § 174C-7, the Code requires that a nominating committee “shall send the governor the names of at least three individuals for each open position,” and the governor “shall select” from the committee’s list.

In February of last year, the governor was given a list of four nominees reported to be: Hannah Springer, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner from West Hawai‘i and former OHA trustee; Lori Buchanan, a longtime community leader from Moloka‘i, a cultural practitioner, and former chair of the Moloka‘i Planning Commission; Ed Makahiapo Cashman, the director of Ka Papa Lo‘i o Kānewai, a cultural and education outreach program of the Hawai‘inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa; and James Kimo Falconer, a former luna for the Pioneer Mill sugar plantation in West Maui, now running a commercial coffee farm.

Despite being given the nominee list early in the 2024 legislative session, Governor Green stalled making any selection until past the end of the session. The loea seat sat vacant for months, until the administration announced in August that it was scrapping the original candidate list and forming a new nominating committee because two candidates for the nomination had supposedly withdrawn. Earthjustice wrote to the administration that the new process was unlawful, and a coalition of 70 organizations urged the governor to select from the available nominees on the original list.

The Green administration nonetheless went ahead with redoing the nomination process and list. Aggravating the controversy, the governor appointed Falconer, who had supposedly withdrawn from the previous list, to serve on the new nominating committee to pick the new list. In late October, Governor Green issued a press release announcing his nomination of Vincent Hinano Rodrigues, after he had left the position vacant for four months. Because the governor made the appointment outside of the legislative session, Rodrigues immediately took office as an interim appointee.