Two years ago, a bill to transfer control of the Aloha Stadium site to the Hawaii Community Development Authority, and to authorize spending $350 million of public money to fund planning and construction of a new stadium, was approved by legislators.

Several months later, the bill-HB1582 HD1 SD1 CD1–won an award from Common Cause and the League of Women Voters of Hawaii.

Unfortunately, the award was the “Rusty Scalpel Award,” given by the two public interest groups annually to call public attention to the worst example of the legislature’s “gut and replace” sleight of hand that again left the public on the sidelines. “Gut and replace” refers to a maneuver where the contents of an existing bill are deleted, leaving only the bill’s title and number, and the contents then replaced with wholly different content, sometimes (as in this case) concerning a totally different subject.

At the time, veteran newsman and columnist, Dave Shapiro commented in his “Volcanic Ash” column.

With a new Aloha Stadium looming as Hawaii’s first major public works project after the rail fiasco, you’d hope the state would take special care that every move is above board.

But lawmakers couldn’t even get past the first step without major corner-cutting, shaking public confidence from the start.

The groups behind the Rusty Scalpel award described the process that started with a bill that would have created a Department of Environment. This version of the bill was passed by the House and sent to the Senate.

In the Senate, the bill was amended once and scheduled for a public hearing, but before the hearing a “gut and replace” produced a new and very different draft of the bill which morphed from an environmental reform to a bill authorizing a permissive plan giving open-ended authority to HCDA to push ahead with a “public-private partnership” empowered to redevelop the stadium and surrounding area.

As introduced, and as passed by the House, HB 1586 proposed to transfer various state agencies to a new Department of the Environment. The HD 1 amended version of the bill was referred for joint action by the Senate Committee on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism and the Senate Committee on Government Operations. These two Senate committees deleted thecontents of the bill then held a public hearing on HB 1586, Proposed SD 1 to establish a new State Energy Office within the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism and to modify stateenergy programs and policy. The Proposed SD 1 was adopted as the SD 1 version of the bill, which ultimately was re-referred for joint action by the Senate Committee on Energy, Economic Development,and Tourism, the Senate Committee on Government Operations, and the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. These three Senate Page 2 committees deleted the contents of the bill then held a public hearing on HB 1586, Proposed SD 2 to authorize the HCDA to redevelop Aloha Stadium and the stadium property. With minor changes the Proposed SD 2 was adopted as the SD 2 version of the bill. Because the House disagreed with the SD 2 version, the bill was referred to a House-Senate conference committee. The House and Senate ultimately voted to enact numerous conference committee amendments as HB 1586, CD 1.

Two key players were Senators Donavan Dela Cruz, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, and Glenn Wakai, chair of the Committee On Energy, Economic Development, And Tourism.

Back in September 2020, a post here described how the two were bullying staff in several agencies demanding they support attempts to resurrect the trees-to-energy plant proposed on the Big Island by Hu Honua Energy (“Powerful state senators pressure agencies to back Hu Honua“). It seems likely similar hard-ball tactics have been used to push the stadium plan forward.

Next: If you like the Kakaako version of affordable housing, you’ll probably love the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District.