Aloha Surf Parking Protectors 🌺

Mahalo everyone! Our bill SB1034, introduced by Senator Inouye, to preserve the free recreational parking at the Ala Wai Boat Harbor went a long way towards educating the legislature and the public about our goal to SAVE SURF PARKING.  

Your combined 233 support testimonies for SB1034 provided a powerful public statement, and as a result, all ten Senate Chairs, Vice Chairs, and Committee Members unanimously voted yes in our favor. Save Our Surf, Surfrider, SurfParking.org, and individual testifiers speaking on behalf of the community did an excellent job of representing the issues.

Mahalo to everyone who submitted written testimony, attended the Rally, and networked with your friends and via social media! With your help, we’ve brought the issue of the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation's (DOBOR) ongoing efforts to reduce free recreational parking to the attention of the entire legislature through our Bills SB1034 and HB1189.

This is a fight we've been battling for decades and we remain committed to it. See this letter from Ed Underwood to Legislature dated July 2007, requesting to convert all the free parking to paid parking (Remarks Section). 

Legislative Update

April 4, 2023: Update

1) Local Newspapers show on March 30th, that Chief Administrator for State of Hawaii Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation (DOBOR), Ed Underwood “settles” Sexual Abuse case and the State Of Hawaii picks up the cost (45,000).

2) We are following Legislator’s Resolutions seeking a complete Management Audit of DOBOR, SCR 224 and HCR25/HR27. Please follow these bills at https://capitol.hawaii.gov.

3) We are also doing our own financial Audit through the the UIPA sunshine law mechanism.

Unfortunately, our bill to permanently preserve the 300 free recreational parking at the Ala Wai Boat Harbor, was not scheduled for a hearing by Senator Dela Cruz in the Senate Ways and Means (WAM) Committee by the March 2nd deadline. There’s still a chance our bill could be heard next year in the 2024 session, meaning our bill is technically not “dead” but “adrift,” as one sailor described it. We remain optimistic about the future and our goal to save the free public parking!

Senator Inouye informed DLNR/DOBOR that they must present their plan for a public-private partnership before publishing a Request for Proposals to develop the harbor in a lease agreement. She also stated that she will schedule a Senate Informational Briefing first. This is a big win for us!

Plus, Senator Inouye holds a significant position as Chair of Water And Land (WAL) and the Senate Majority Whip, and could choose NOT to consider DOBOR's new 20-year privatization bill, effectively rendering DOBOR's bill 'adrift'. 

As the session progresses, sometimes the contents of one bill can appear later in another bill. It’s possible that the theme of our bill (to save ocean access and free public parking) could still show up in the wording of another bill this year. Senator Chris Lee, who supported our bill, mentioned this could happen during the March and April legislative sessions. 

We will keep you updated about Privatization Bill HB1089. This bill is being called a “20-Year Pilot” at the Ala Wai Boat Harbor. However, we can educate ourselves and submit testimony in opposition to the proposed lease (which has no construction plans yet, measurable goals, or timelines). 

Today we have a unique call to action for you: sending a thank you note. Sen. Inouye and Sen. Shimabukouro are the Committee Chairs and voted YES on our bill SB1034.

Please consider sending a real card or handwritten note to Senator Lorraine Inouye and/or Senator Maile Shimabukouro to express your gratitude. This is the type of “people power” we have—big corporations don't have this. We are the people who elect our legislators and they want to hear from us!

For Senator Inouye
Chair of Water And Land
SAMPLE message: Thank you for introducing SB 1034. You are championing an important public resource for the people of Hawai’i. (add your personal message).

Senator Lorriane Inouye 
Hawaii State Capitol, Room 210 
415 South Beretania Street 
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

For Senator Shimabukouro
Chair for Hawaiian Affairs

SAMPLE message: Mahalo for supporting SB1034. We appreciate your YES vote, and the Yes vote from all your committee members, to preserve the free recreational parking at the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor (add your personal message).

Senator Maile Shimabukouro 
Hawaii State Capitol, Room 222 
415 South Beretania Street 
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813

Our next step is doing a financial audit of DOBOR, which we've requested through a UIPA request this week. DOBOR has estimated the cost of this audit to be over $500.00. Therefore, we kindly request that you consider donating $10.00 or more on our surfparking.org VENMO or Paypal link. We are not a non-profit yet, so please note that your donation is not tax-deductible. 

The funds are managed by Captain Maggie Hallahan, who testified for our Bill via Zoom. Captain Hallahan has been working on a near-daily basis with our Core Coalition here at SurfParking.org. You can trust that your donation will be in good hands, as we get ready to show that the Ala Wai Boat Harbor is already financially self-sufficient and the harbor does need parking fees from surfers or beachgoers.

The purpose for the UIPA request is to show that Ala Wai Boat Harbor is generally profitable, and specifically, to examine the revenue generated by the 249 stalls that we allowed DOBOR to convert from free parking to metered parking in 2008. 

Have a good week. Let’s remain inspired, we are making a difference!

We’ll be in touch,

Kate Thompson
info@surfparking.org