OPPOSE GM692, GM636, GM765: Urge Senators to Block Corporate Takeover of Our Public Trust Resources
/Should boards and commissions with kuleana over our public trust lands and waters be dominated by developers, real estate industry representatives, and construction interests?
If you say no, then we need your voice today, to protect our islands from decades of future avoidable and unintended harms.
In recent years, we have witnessed industry representatives increasingly crowd out those with natural and cultural resource management expertise on our water- and land-related boards and commissions. This includes a former plantation executive almost nominated to serve as the Water Commission’s loea, or cultural expert (until community pushed back); a climate and conservation expert on the Land Board replaced by a corporate attorney and a housing developer - leaving the Board with no conservation expertise as required by law, for months; and a Land Use Commission where all but one of its eight sitting members represent developer, real estate, and construction interests - and there is no sign of this pattern letting up.
To be clear, nominees and members of the Land Board and Land Use Commission should represent a range of relevant expertise, experiences, and perspectives. While potentially valuable, construction and real estate considerations cannot be the main or sole driver of decisions that must also understand and account for our long-term water security, food security, cultural integrity, and need for a healthy environment.
A line must be drawn, or this imbalance will only grow – and erode the foundations needed to build and maintain a sustainable, resilient, self-sufficient, and just future for our islands.
This session, there are three nominees to the Land Board and Land Use Commission who have raised significant concerns over their past willingness to overlook the public trust, Native Hawaiian rights and land claims, and for one individual, the very purpose of the Commission they were selected to serve on. Please take a moment to contact your Senator and ask that they vote “NO” to GM692, GM636, and GM765, to help restore balance to these critical decisionmaking bodies - more information on these nominees, message instructions and sample messages below!
Message Instructions and Sample Messages
Find your Senator’s contact information (if you need it) by visiting capitol.hawaii.gov/FYL.
Send an email to your Senator asking them to vote NO on GM692, GM636, and GM765. Sample message (feel free to add your own thoughts especially after reading about the nominees below):
“Aloha Senator _____,
My name is ______ and I live in your district, in _______. I am urging you to please vote:
NO on GM692, renominating developer Riley Smith to the Board of Land and Natural Resources,
NO on GM636, nominating developer Denise Iseri Matsubara to the Board of Land and Natural Resources, and
NO on GM765, renominating realtor Nancy Carr-Smith to the Land Use Commission.
While I respect these individuals’ willingness to volunteer, the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) and the Land Use Commission (LUC) are already dominated by the real estate and construction industry interests they represent. Confirming them risks uninformed decisionmaking that may place our long-term water security, food security, cultural integrity, and environment at risk of generations-long if not irreparable harm.
Moreover, I have deep concerns regarding Mr. Smith’s failure to uphold our environmental laws and the public trust in the BLNR’s decisions regarding military leases, stream diversions, and public beach access as a sitting board member, and misrepresentations made during his confirmation hearing about court cases overturning his decisions. BLNR members must reflect an understanding of the need to uphold public trust, and the laws that protect our lands and natural resources - something that I am concerned Mr. Smith does not possess.
I also have deep concerns regarding Ms. Iseri-Matsubara’s failure to understand and protect Native Hawaiian rights and land claims as a public servant otherwise bound by the Hawaiʻi constitution, and the potential role of the Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corporation’s lands in the Lahaina wildfire tragedy. BLNR members must reflect an understanding of their constitutional obligations to Native Hawaiian rights, and the importance of land stewardship and environmental restoration - something that Ms. Iseri-Matsubara has failed to demonstrate.
Finally, Ms. Carr-Smith has a documented history as a sitting Land Use Commission member of rejecting information from the Water Commission regarding water availability, despite the vital importance of water to the wide range of public interests the LUC must account for - from food security, to cultural practices, to affordable housing. She has also voiced support for proposed laws that would abdicate the Land Use Commission’s responsibilities, despite having sworn to uphold them as a sitting commissioner. She is also the subject of formal staff harassment complaints. There are much more appropriate candidates to fill her seat.
Please, do not simply rubber stamp the Governor’s nominees to the most important boards and commissions in state government. Please vote no on these nominations, to protect the public interest, prevent continued conflict and controversy, and restore much-needed balance in the composition of our Land Board and Land Use Commission.
Mahalo nui for your consideration of this matter.”
Call your Senator and leave a message: “Aloha Senator ____, I am a resident of your district in ____, and I am calling to ask that you vote NO on GM692, renominating developer Riley Smith to the Board of Land and Natural Resources, NO on GM636, nominating developer Denise Iseri Matsubara to the Board of Land and Natural Resources, and NO on GM765, renominating realtor Nancy Carr-Smith to the Land Use Commission. I have sent you an email outlining my concerns - please take a hard look at these nominees, and ensure much more balanced representation on our Land Board and Land Use Commission by voting to not consent to their nominations. Mahalo nui.”
Ask your friends to do the same!
Background Information on Nominees
Riley Smith (GM692, nominated for a second term on the BLNR)
A developer and land manager from Hawaiʻi Island, Smith has supported controversial decisions, including accepting highly flawed environmental impact statements submitted by the US Army for its “retention” of “ceded” (i.e. stolen) Hawaiian and public land trust lands at Pōhakuloa and on Oʻahu. He also voted in favor of the privatization of public beach areas fronting the Kahala resort despite repeated concerns raised regarding the public trust. Mr. Smith also supported the continuation of East Maui stream diversion permits that have been repeatedly shot down by the courts, denying the right of kalo farmers and water rights advocates to a “contested case” evidentiary hearing regarding the same. He also led Land Board decisionmaking on the preliminary approval of rules that would reopen West Hawaiʻi to the aquarium collection industry, without questioning staffʻs inexplicable assertions that state law somehow requires the issuance of commercial aquarium collection permits.
Notably, during a confirmation hearing before the Water, Land, Culture and the Arts Committee last week, Smith made several major misrepresentations that might have influenced the Committee’s recommendation that the Senate Advise and Consent to his nomination. Among them was a claim that he had not voted on an East Maui stream diversion permit that had been overturned by the courts (the 2025 permit that he voted on in 2024 was overturned in January, and in 2025, he voted to deny contested case requests from Nā Moku ʻAupuni o Koʻolau Hui and the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi for the 2026 permit despite clearly applicable court precedent). Another was a claim that granting a contested case hearing for the 2026 diversion permit would cut Upcountry Maui off from water; there, the Sierra Club and Nā Moku explicitly offered to stay any challenge to the continued diversion of streams for both Mahi Pono and Upcountry Maui, as long as the BLNR followed the Environmental Court’s ruling by limiting diversions to 23 million gallons a day, and promised to start a contested case hearing in early 2026. Mr. Smith did confirm his support of beach privatization by hotels.
Denise Iseri-Matsubara (GM636, nominated for a first term on the BLNR)
The executive director of the Catholic Charities Housing Development Corp., Iseri-Matsubara formerly served as the director of the Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corporation (HHFDC) until March of 2023. There, she was known for her outspoken support of the state’s ability to sell off “ceded” and public lands for housing, regardless of unresolved Native Hawaiian claims to these stolen ʻāina. She also filed a legal intervention against Water Commission well permit conditions intended to protect the water security, cultural practices, and nearshore environment of Kona - ironically delaying an “affordable” housing development project for years. Questions have also been raised regarding the extent to which HHFDC’s lands mauka of Lahaina, left ridden with weeds, contributed to the 2023 wildfire tragedy.
During her confirmation hearing last week, Iseri-Matsubara continued to reflect a deep misunderstanding of Hawaiian rights and land claims, conflating the public trust, the Admission Act, “ceded” lands, and Ka Paʻakai analyses. Her claim to understand “land stewardship” was based on her role in financing the Kapolei Parkway (itself now the subject of controversy and safety concerns). Ms. Iseri-Matsubara also did not seem to be able to answer a simple yes-or-no question from Senator Chang, contradicting herself as to whether she “personally” believes housing or industrial development should occur along the Honolulu rail line.
Nancy Carr-Smith (GM765, nominated for a second term on the LUC)
A realtor known to advocate for bills that would abdicate the LUC’s kuleana over major land use changes to the counties, Carr-Smith has also questioned the importance of mauka-to-makai stream flow, and failed to disclose her husband Riley Smith’s income as required under the law – until it was reported on in Environment Hawaiʻi. Most recently, Ms. Carr-Smith was also reported to be the subject of formal harassment complaints by LUC staff. Notably, with the expiration of cultural expert Kūʻike Kamakea-ʻŌhelo’s term, and assuming that the Governor’s nominations this year are approved by the Senate, every member of the LUC will have professional ties to real estate and construction interests.
Ms. Carr-Smith’s confirmation hearing has yet to be scheduled.