Posted on: Thursday, February 13, 2003

Hilo homesteaders evicted

By Kevin Dayton and Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writers

HILO, Hawai'i — A dispute between the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and homesteaders that began more than a decade ago culminated yesterday in the eviction of six families in Keaukaha and Pana'ewa who, state officials said, owed back lease payments totaling $250,000.

The six lessees have worked together to protest various department policies, including increased interest rates and fees for water, so the decision was made to remove them in a single operation, said Micah Kane, department director.

Teams of Hilo police, sheriff's officers, government officials and others — about 80 people in all — swept into the Hawaiian homestead subdivisions. State officials did not know how many people in all were evicted.

Three of the homesteaders resisted arrest, Kane said. Hawai'i County police arrested three men. Richard Kela, 63, and Patrick Kahawaiolaa, 58, were each charged with one count of obstructing government operations and were released on their own recognizance, Hilo police said. A third man, 60, was booked on one count of obstructing government operations and five counts of second-degree terroristic threatening.

The third man remained in police custody yesterday afternoon.

"We have really tried to bring closure to this," Kane said, releasing a chronology of events including delinquencies dating as far back as 1992. "We approached the lessees with different repayment or refinancing programs, and we felt we exhausted all our options.

"It wasn't easy for us, but we have to focus on 20,000 other Hawaiian families who are seeking homestead land."

Caravans of officials arrived at 8:15 a.m. in the Keaukaha subdivision near the Hilo Airport, where five of the six lessees lived. They were followed by vans from Big Island Moving and Storage so officers could load property from the homes. Kane's deputy, Ben Henderson, said families can reclaim their belongings after paying a storage fee.

During a raid on Kela's home, a woman standing in her yard across the street screamed at sheriff's deputies as they handcuffed and arrested Kela.

"You act just like my brother was dealing drugs," she shouted. "You guys make like Hawaiian homes are so bad."

Kahawaiolaa, a prominent activist who has criticized policies made by Hawaiian Home Lands, told reporters that he was arrested for "illegal use of Hawaiian Homelands."

Kahawaiolaa and other homesteaders have staged a series of protests over the amount they must pay for water, as well as other department policies. They also have protested leases the department granted to commercial operations.

At one point, Kahawaiolaa and several other protesters poured concrete over their water meters. They contend that as Hawaiian homes lessees they are entitled to free water.

George Kela, the younger brother of Richard Kela, said his brother was one of the protesters who poured concrete on his water meter, and said Richard had stopped paying the mortgage on his Keaukaha homestead house to protest increases in the interest rates charged to homesteaders.

"Don't get them wrong, they're fighting for a good cause," George Kela said. "It takes a group like this to really give the people the perspective of what is going on around them as Hawaiian people."

Kane said water meters were removed from all six homes in November 1997, adding that the department discovered a month later that three of them illegally reconnected water lines.

State Attorney General Mark J. Bennett said his office was asked to coordinate the evictions by Hawaiian Homelands because the residents had violated their leases for lengthy periods.

"The Department of Hawaiian Homelands exhausted all other means, including attempts to resolve this matter without evictions and to resolve this through a mediation process," Bennett said.

"They made a deliberate choice not to pay loans, not to pay the water bill, not to pay property tax," said Kumu Vasconcellos, deputy attorney general.

Kane said the delinquent payments sapped the revolving fund that finances many Hawaiian Home Lands leases and took up staff resources better spent elsewhere.

Advertiser staff writer Curtis Lum contributed to this report.