Judge blocks Waimea lease deal
By David Waite and Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writers
A state judge yesterday put on hold the city's plan to lease Waimea Valley to the National Audubon Society, placing the issue of who will manage the botanical and cultural preserve in legal limbo.
The delay means the Audubon Society might not be able to complete preparations to assume management of the 1,875-acre valley by June 26, the scheduled transition date, an Audubon official said.
The legal challenge was brought by current park operator Waimea Management Corp., which lost out to the Audubon Society in the city's selection process for a 30-year lease on the valley.
Circuit Judge Sabrina McKenna issued a temporary restraining order yesterday — blocking the city from issuing the lease — after agreeing with Waimea Management's contention that the city did not follow all the steps spelled out in the selection process.
McKenna said the city's chief procurement officer must respond to a protest filed by Waimea Management, as required by state procurement law.
The judge stopped short of ordering the city to reopen the bidding process or to award a long-term contract to Waimea Management. She ordered the city to take no further action on the matter until the two sides return to her courtroom May 20 for a hearing. If there is no resolution by then, one option for McKenna would be to send the case to trial.
McKenna's ruling came about an hour after the City Council voted to lease the park property to the Audubon Society. The judge's order does not negate the council action but prevents the actual issuing of the lease, officials said.
The Audubon Society has said it will move the park toward eco-tourism and away from entertainment, focusing on Hawai'i residents and individual tourists rather than large tour groups. It also plans to significantly reduce admission prices.
Audubon project manager Diana King said she is optimistic that the matter can be resolved quickly and without irreparable damage, but said any delay beyond a few days will push back the date Audubon can take over.
"We're not going to have adequate time to advertise for positions and interview and offer jobs and hire people," King said.
Andrew Beaman, a lawyer for Waimea Management, told McKenna that the company responded to the city's "request for proposals" to find a company to manage the park on a long-term basis. Beaman said the proposal request indicated that the city would follow state procurement code in selecting a company to manage the park.
But the city later decided to lease the property to the Audubon Society and never told Waimea Management about the change in plans on how the park should be operated, Beaman said.
Gregory Swartz, a city deputy corporation counsel, told McKenna that the state procurement code includes an exemption for land leases and that the city was no longer bound by the procurement procedure outlined in the code once it decided to lease the property rather than have a private company manage it.
Although aware that McKenna was taking up the matter in her courtroom, the council moved forward with decision-making under the recommendation of Corporation Counsel David Arakawa, who said McKenna's ruling would apply to the administration signing the lease, not the council awarding it. "If there's a hold put on, it will probably be on the administration and not the council," he said.
Several council members said the decision to award the 30-year lease to Audubon comes after careful consideration.
Councilman Charles Djou said, "I do not want to see this council intimidated at literally the 11th hour and fail to move this matter, which has come after a considerable amount of discussion. I think we should move this measure forward and not be thwarted by this action today in court."
King said the community has stood behind Audubon through the lengthy procurement process and the society is willing to wait out this new delay. "Really, the community has been so supportive of us for so long and fought this battle for such a long time. We do feel we owe it to the community to do our best to stick it out," she said.
On April 16, Mayor Jeremy Harris announced that the Audubon Society was picked by a five-member selection committee to take over operation of the park as of June 26. He said the society was chosen over Waimea Management after a long evaluation.
The city took control of the park in 2002, a year after East Coast developer Christian Wolffer put it under bankruptcy protection.
