HILO, Hawaii (AP) - The state has extended its contract with a retired Hilo Circuit Court judge to oversee the contested-case proceedings for the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Hearings officer Riki May Amano’s contract had been set to expire June 30 but will be extended through the end of the year, assuming the proceedings aren’t finished by then. Her maximum compensation will also be increased from $200,000 to $350,000, The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported (https://bit.ly/2nlRor0).
The hearings for the project’s land-use permit to build a giant telescope atop Mauna Kea wrapped up testimony March 2. The testimony began in October and involved 71 witnesses.
This is the second set of contested case hearings for the Thirty Meter Telescope. The first occurred in 2011 and resulted in the permit being upheld, but the state Supreme Court invalidated the permit in 2015. The high court ruled the land board’s approval process was flawed.
TMT International Observatory’s plan to build the 180-foot-tall observatory could face another delay following a judge’s December ruling that the land board should have granted petitioner E. Kalani Flores a contested case hearing for the project’s sublease on Mauna Kea.
That ruling is under appeal, and the state has issued a solicitation for a new hearings officer if necessary.
The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources has spent more than $316,000 for the current contested case in Hilo so far.
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Information from: Hawaii Tribune-Herald, https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/
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