Hamakua Land Dispute

A Hawaii County Board of Ethics meeting was held on July 14 at the Hilo Lagoon Center to discuss a complaint brought by Shelley Stephens of Mountain View. The hearing was to discuss the status of approximately 737 acres of Hamakua Land currently up for sale by the county. Present at the meeting were three members of the ethics board: Chairman John Dill, Vice Chairman Anne Lum and Arne Henricks.
Stephens is associated with a group called Na Ohana O Moku O Keawe that claims the sale of the land is unethical. She brought the complaint against Mayor Billy Kenoi and the County Council.
Throughout the hearing, Stephens stated that the county had no right to sell the land because it legally belongs to descendents of King Kamehameha the Third, among them Albert Haa Jr., who was present at the meeting. Haa told the Youth News that King Kamehameha the Third faked his death then moved to Canada, he further stated that descendents of Kamehameha changed their names numerous times making the genealogy hard to trace.
Also present and active in the discussion were William JM Kuamoo and Gene Tamashiro. Tamashiro, the executive producer of Uamau Productions and a political activist, became part of a heated exchange with Vice Chairman Lum. “What are you afraid of?” Tamashiro asked at one point. Lum replied by stating, “What if I asked you to do plumbing at my house but you weren’t willing to? I would ask you, what are you scared of?” Tamashiro then said, “I am not scared of anything.”
As members of the Ethics Board insisted it was not their job to settle land disputes, Stephens asked Chairman Dill to write a letter referring to what she claimed were clouded land titles. Again the board members refused. The only result of the complaint and hearing was a vote to accept Stephens’ petition without action due to lack of jurisdiction.
Speaking on behalf of the county during a phone interview the following day, Hunter Bishop, public relations specialist for Mayor Kenoi, said Stephens’ claims are untrue. “We believe we have clear title to the property,” said Bishop.

Comment from the mayor’s office:

People of the Big Island will continue to protest land sold by the government for profit.