ISLAND VOICES
Vote on leasehold terms was fair

By Michael Pang

Michael Pang lives in Honolulu.

Jerry Burris' commentary of Dec. 8, "Term limit can prompt hasty vote," may be plausible in other issues, but not for the fee conversion votes by the City Council on Dec. 4.

I believe the four nonreturning council members who approved condemning the leased fee for the projects in question would have voted the same way — whether or not their terms were up. They were the longest in office and as such, had the most experience and best insight into this confusing issue. The facts prove this.

Opposing council members and landowners believe that the law is flawed and needs to be reviewed. However, Chapter 38 has a long history of debate and discussion. It has been reviewed before, most recently in 1999 by Duke Bainum, then chair of the Policy Committee. Also, its public purpose was upheld by the Hawai'i Supreme Court in May.

Further, just about every aspect of this law has been challenged in court over the past 12 years and it is still there. If the law had flaws, it would have been long gone. The law, its public purpose and intended effect are sound.

The purpose of Chapter 38 is to get us out of an antiquated residential leasehold system. In fact, the stated public purpose of the law is to give the right to convert to fee simple to all lessees (Section 38-1.1). It is not to break up a land oligopoly, which was the public purpose of Land Reform (leased fee condemnation for single family properties).

Condemnation for fee conversion is a difficult but necessary and proven concept to get us out of a leasehold system that displaces people from their homes. It has been with us since 1967 when the state first passed Land Reform.

Fee conversion at a fair price is the only win-win resolution to this problem — lessors can profit in reinvestment (over all the value of their leases, plus redevelopment potential of their lands), lessees don't get displaced and our community gets out of a sticky problem.

The voice of opposition today is emotional and loud, but we should not forget that it has been just as emotional and loud in the past.

I, for one, prefer that my elected officials make decisions based on fact, not emotion, and I believe this is what the council did, even the four nonreturning members who approved the resolutions.