The state Senate committee holding confirmation hearings on Peter Young as director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources has run into a dilemma because a portion of the testimony has been given under subpoena in closed session.

The committee has heard from an investigator from the state Attorney General's office, an investigator from the state Ethics Commission, and several workers from the department's Bureau of Conveyances in closed session.

The testimony apparently relates to separate criminal and ethics probes into the bureau; the investigations do not target Young.

State Sen. Russell Kokubun, D-2nd (S. Hilo, Puna, Ka'u), the chairman of the Senate Water, Land, Agriculture and Hawaiian Affairs Committee, said he would have to find a way to make the testimony available to the full Senate before the final vote on Young's confirmation. There is a possibility that all 25 members of the Senate would have to meet in closed session to review the confidential material.

Kokubun also said he wanted to make as much of the information available to the public as possible.

"I think that's a serious concern for us," Kokubun said yesterday near the end of the third confirmation hearing on Young.

Kokubun and Senate leaders have stressed that the closed sessions are by request of the attorney general and the Ethics Commission to protect the confidentiality of the criminal investigation and any ethics probe.

"We want to honor that, but we also need to get to the information, in terms of our decisionmaking," Kokubun said.

But some in the Lingle administration, and Young himself, are concerned about whether Young will be able to hear and respond to what was said in closed session. Young has asked Kokubun if he could attend each time the committee has recessed to go into closed session, but he has been denied.

"It's not troubling in the big picture because I know that the investigation is not about me. I'm the one who authorized it," Young said. "I just don't know what's being said, so I don't know what else is out there."

The committee has scheduled a fourth hearing for Tuesday morning, where senators are expected to hear from William McCorriston, an attorney for retired auto dealer Jimmy Pflue-ger, who owns property around Kaloko dam on Kaua'i. The dam was breached last year, killing seven people.

Young is expected to address and respond to questions from the committee on Tuesday.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.