Business board takes case to Lingle
By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer
A business advocacy board, set up to prevent state agencies from becoming a burden to small businesses, is having trouble being heard on one of the first cases it has taken on.
Yesterday, the Small Business Regulatory Review Board appealed to Gov. Linda Lingle for support in a battle that pits it against the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
The board wants to help a small eco-tour company that was barred from taking snorkelers to a tide pool on the Big Island when the DLNR made the area off limits to commercial operations last summer.
The board took the unprecedented step of writing Lingle directly. They maintain the state failed to observe or accommodate Hilo-based Planet Ocean Watersports when the DLNR made the Wai'opae tide pool the only marine life conservation district (out of 11 statewide) that prohibits all commerce.
DLNR maintains the ban is needed to preserve the natural area's resources.
The small-business review board members, who received assurances from Lingle last May that state agencies would start cooperating with the board, now want her to follow through.
"We feel DLNR is pretty much ignoring our request and if we didn't dig our heels in so to speak, there would be no sense in us continuing to try to do anything," said board member Brian Zinn.
When it was created about five years ago, the board was hailed as a milestone in business advocacy in Hawai'i, which is commonly criticized as a state unfriendly to business. However the board has been largely ineffective because of a lack of cooperation from state agencies.
Lingle spokesman Russell Pang said the administration has not received the review board's letter.
"We can't comment until we know specifically what they're asking for," he said.
Regardless of whether Lingle chooses to respond to the letter, she may eventually be forced to address the issue should legislation introduced on behalf of Planet Ocean's owner Mark Willman pass this session. The Senate and House versions of a recently introduced bill allow bans on business in marine life conservation districts only if there's a showing of extreme hardship or unreasonable threat to the area.
Among the bill's introducers is State Rep. Bob Herkes, D-5th (Ka'u, S. Kona), who also wrote the bill that established the Small Business Regulatory Review Board. Herkes said he's disappointed at how the regulatory review board is being treated.
"We put that board in there to look at issues like this, and it was ignored," Herkes said.
A variety of environmental groups including Greenpeace and Earthtrust oppose the measure as does DLNR.
In the meantime, Willman is pursuing a lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop enforcement of the rule. He said he's also preparing to liquidate operations, which will result in the loss of eight jobs.
"I'm going down," Willman said. "We're on the verge of closing our store down."
Reach Sean Hao at 525-8093 or shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.
