City wants to use Hanauma proceeds to balance budget

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

HANAUMA BAY — The city wants to take $1.1 million from the Hanauma Bay special fund and use it to help balance the budget, an action that the community was promised would never happen.

The money from admis-sion and parking fees, and from fees charged to the businesses that run concessions at the nature preserve, is supposed to be used solely to finance operations and upkeep at Hanauma.

The city law that created the special fund says so, and a 2002 ruling by Judge Alan Kay held that while the admission fee was constitutional, the money it generated was required to be applied toward Hanauma Bay only and could not be spent elsewhere, including neighboring parks.

The administration proposed to transfer about $1 million concession fees to the city coffers annually, but the City Council on Tuesday amended the proposal to allow for a one-time only withdrawal from the fund this year. The full council will vote on the proposal at its next meeting, on Friday.

The city did not return phone calls seeking an explanation of how the money can be taken from the fund although it was set up to be used only for Hanauma operations.

"The city tells me it's all legal," said Councilwoman Ann Koba-yashi, chairwoman of the Budget Committee. "I'm very worried about taking money from a special fund. We're still combing through the budget. We've even raised parking fees trying to raise more revenues."

The city administration has told the council that there are no unmet needs at the bay, Kobayashi said.

But supporters of the bay say at least three positions — grounds-keeper, a park attendant and cashier — are vacant. That's affecting the quality of service and staff morale because people are working too hard, said John Norris, president of Friends of Hanauma Bay, a nonprofit group. In addition, the city owes about $200,000 to the University of Hawai'i Sea Grant program, which runs the education arm of the bay's programs, money due since last year, Norris said.

"The Friends are very concerned that the needs of the bay are not being met, yet we're being told there's a surplus (in the Hanauma Bay special fund)," Norris said.

When the city first proposed these fees more than a decade ago, officials saw them as a way to balance the overall city budget.

However, opponents pointed out that the fees violated a 1928 agreement between the city and Kamehameha Schools, which turned over Hanauma Bay to the city for public use. Ultimately, the community and the bay's volunteers were assured that the special fund would not become a source of money for the city to use whenever it was strapped for cash, Norris said.

City parks officials initially set the fee to control access to the bay as part of a larger plan to reduce wear and tear on the fragile underwater ecosystem. Nonresidents are charged a $5 entry fee, and residents, with proper identification, are admitted free of charge. Anyone who uses the parking lot must pay the $1 parking fee.

City Councilman Charles Djou, who represents the community near the bay, said it is dangerous to raid special funds to pay for other government services. The action sets a dangerous precedent concerning the Hanauma Bay special fund, he said.

"They say it's a one-time raid, that it won't be a continuous raid," Djou said. "But I will vote against it. ... Either we don't pay for the Hawaii Government Employees Association pay raise or we aggressively cut the budget, but we have to recognize sooner or later that our government is too big for the people to support it."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.