John Henry Felix, who chairs the council’s Executive Matters Committee, said that because Councilman Gary Okino withdrew his support for Bill 53, the bill will be "deferred indefinitely."

Although the bill technically remains alive, Felix announced before an overflow crowd that he would not let the bill come to a vote while he remains on the council, through the end of the year.

And that means that a newly elected council would have to revive the measure, which seems unlikely since the bill has drawn mainly opposition from council candidates.

The measure has drawn its most vocal resistance from the Hawaiian community led by the Queen Lili‘uokalani Trust, which fears it would be forced to sell the land under its Foster Towers condominium complex.

Okino, the swing vote on the measure, addressed the testifiers, many of whom carried Hawaiian flags and slogans. He said he decided the Hawai'i Supreme Court’s ruling in May correctly reflected the original intent of the ordinance that enables court-negotiated purchases of the fee of leasehold condominium properties.

"I was trying to find a compromise so both sides would be satisfied," Okino said. "But the more I did, I wasn’t making anybody happy."

He endorsed the proposal to defer the bill, which he called "the only option we have to deep-six it."

Michael Pang, principal broker for Monarch Properties, which represents condo lessees, expressed his disappointment with today’s development.

"It’s a surprising turn of events," he said. "I wish the controversy would go away as well, but it involves people’s homes. The lessees are not against the landowners, it’s the system they were put into.

"It’s going to be another council that resolves this."

Felix encouraged those testifying to indicate their position briefly, but many insisted on delivering full remarks.

"I beg of you, don’t continue stealing," said Makia Malo, known chiefly as a writer and an advocate for Hansen’s disease patients. "Please kill that bill."

Fred Backlund, representing lessees seeking the conversion at Foster Towers, took issue with the characterization of "stealing."

"We have no intention of stealing the land," Backlund said. "It would be a fair negotiated price."

Victoria Holt Takamine, whose group 'Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition has opposed the bill, countered that the proposal fit the dictionary definition of stealing, which she recited: "to take without permission or the right, another’s property."

The hearing was preceded by a rally in the Honolulu Hale courtyard, in which the crowd shouted "Onipa‘a Kakou (we remain steadfast)" and other Hawaiian slogans. The chanting continued in the meeting room, especially after Felix announced the deferral.

At issue in the bill is how many owners of a leasehold condominium project are required to force the sale of land under the 1992 ordinance. Earlier this year, the Hawai‘i Supreme Court ruled that the city interpreted the ordinance incorrectly. The city administration believed that 50 percent of the owner-occupants of a condominium or 25 owners were required to force the sale of the land. The high court, however, said the ordinance required 50 percent of all the condo owners or 25 owners.

The Supreme Court ruling meant that lessees would have a harder time forcing the sale, and of 363 condominium projects on the island, only 37 qualified for the lease-to-fee conversion, Pang said.

Bill 53 was introduced to reflect the city’s interpretation of the 1992 law.