In the second rebuke this session to one of Gov. Linda Lingle's Cabinet nominees, the state Senate voted yesterday against confirming Peter Young as director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, finding he had failed to take responsibility for longstanding problems at the department.

The 15-8 vote came after more than two hours of debate in which Democrats cited management difficulties in several of the department's divisions that they said, taken together, threaten the protection of the state's natural and cultural resources.

Republicans countered there was no single compelling reason unearthed during an unprecedented five days of confirmation hearings to replace Young.

Earlier this month, the Senate rejected Iwalani White as director of the state Department of Public Safety, the first Lingle nominee to lose a confirmation vote. The Republican governor will now have to find new nominees for two of the state's most challenging departments.

Lingle, whose tone was less combative than after the Senate Water, Land, Agriculture and Hawaiian Affairs Committee voted against recommending Young's confirmation on Monday, still said she believed Young was treated unfairly.

"It did surprise me that the senators were grasping at reasons to go against the public the way they did," the governor told reporters. "It's a bad decision that they made."

Young, who will lead the search committee for his replacement, declined to criticize the confirmation process. Asked what advice he would give his successor, he said: "Continue with the passion about the place, that it's a responsibility each of us share, that we need to work with all types of constituency groups, and that there is significant opportunity within DLNR and, with that, significant obligation."

State Sen. Russell Kokubun, D-2nd (S. Hilo, Puna, Ka'u), chairman of the Senate Water, Land, Agriculture and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, acknowledged there was no "smoking gun" against Young but said there were a series of management problems that the Senate could not ignore.

TROUBLED DEPARTMENT

Senators cited the transfer of money from the boating and recreation division to conservation enforcement without adequate documentation, staff vacancies that hampered work in the state historic preservation division, and a lack of urgency in responding to warnings about dam safety in the months before the fatal breach of Kaloko dam on Kaua'i last year that killed seven people.

Senators were also troubled by state criminal and ethics investigations into the department's Bureau of Conveyances and whether Young has taken adequate steps to secure realestate documents.

Kokubun recognized Young's ability to work with the environmentalists and Native Hawaiians who nearly called for his resignation two years ago, but said the experience was indicative of the director's reluctance to act without a crisis.

"We cannot simply sit and wait for the next crisis to bring about change in management of the department," Kokubun said.

State Sen. Norman Sakamoto, D-15th (Waimalu, Airport, Salt Lake), said he could not minimize the department's lack of inspections at the Kaloko dam before the fatal breach. He said that while private property owners and others may be culpable —including the Legislature for not providing more money for dam inspectors — the state might have been able to prevent the tragedy.

"People died," Sakamoto said.

State Sen. Sam Slom, R-8th (Kahala, Hawai'i Kai), said the Senate's biggest misstep was to allow William McCorriston, an attorney for retired auto dealer Jimmy Pflueger, to testify against Young under subpoena. Pflueger, who owns property surrounding Kaloko, is suing the state and private companies alleging a lack of oversight of the dam.

Slom claimed McCorriston's testimony was an attempt to shield Pflueger and damaged the integrity of the confirmation process. "Shame on us! Shame on us!" he shouted. "We should not have done it."

Slom warned that the public backlash could be similar to what happened after the Senate rejected Margery Bronster for a second term as attorney general in 1999. Several senators later lost re-election in part because of their votes against Bronster. "The public is watching," Slom said.

Lingle said she considered several aspects of the confirmation process unfair and unprecedented. She was critical of the subpoenas for witnesses, the exclusion of Young from closed-session testimony, the swearing in of Young before he testified, and the decision to allow McCorriston to testify without letting her respond afterward.

SUPPORTERS OUT THERE

State Senate president Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), said the Senate agreed to subpoenas for confirmation hearings this session mostly as protection for state workers who wanted to testify but were fearful of retribution. She said the decision to subpoena McCorriston was Kokubun's as the committee chairman.

Hanabusa said the closed sessions were at the request of the state attorney general's office and the state Ethics Commission to protect the confidentiality of the ongoing investigations at the Bureau of Conveyances. All other information from the closed sessions, such as the redacted testimony of bureau workers about Young, has been released publicly.

Hanabusa was one of the senators who voted against Bronster but survived. She said she did not believe the public will have the same reaction to the Young vote, given the criticism of the department over the past few years. "I don't think it's the same thing," she said.

Environmentalists and Native Hawaiian groups, who supported Young's confirmation, said they would likely use the controversy over Young as leverage to get lawmakers to provide more money to improve the department. But some said the issue could also be used politically in the future.

"They knew our position on this," said Jeff Mikulina, director of the Sierra Club's Hawai'i chapter. "They knew it was a priority for us."

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.