(BIVN) – The latest letter from Hawaiʻi Governor Josh Green to United States Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll about ongoing military land lease negotiations has raised concerns from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. 

OHA Administrator and CEO Summer Sylva issued a statement on Thursday, expressing “deep disappointment” in the latest letter. Sylva was one of 10 named to the Governor’s Advisory Committee for Military Leased Lands on November 13, but says the December 2 letter from Governor Green to Secretary Driscoll was a unilateral move that undermines the work of the newly formed advisory committee. 

The Advisory committee, created by the Governor to “provide guidance related to the ongoing negotiations over Army leased lands” in Hawaiʻi that are set to expire in 2029, held its first meeting on Tuesday, November 25. The leased lands include Pōhakuloa Training Area on Hawaiʻi island.

Location of Pōhakuloa from US Army maps found in the DLNR submittal

Governor Green, in his December 2 letter to Driscoll, agreed that the State and the Army “must establish a structured pathway to a final agreement.”

“As we discussed in Washington, it is imperative that we continue negotiations as this issue is important to both the people of Hawaii as well as to national security,” Governor Green wrote. “Given the importance of finalizing these investments, I believe there is insufficient time to complete an agreement by the end of 2025. Hawai i’s people deserve a resolution that is both durable and transparent. To that end, I propose that our teams, through the technical working groups, prioritize finalizing the major community benefit items we have already outlined. For the Army, these include return and restoration of Makua Valley, cleanup of unexploded ordnance, and expanded housing investments. For other interagency partners, we will also continue discussions on: energy investments, Medicare locality adjustments, cesspools, and the federal detention center transfer, among others. Concrete action on these items will demonstrate our shared good faith and provide certainty to Hawai i’s communities ahead of the Army taking any land action.”

Green ended the letter by writing:

Finally, it is my understanding that the Army’s current expedited approach is driven by these three issues. Please confirm that:

1. You reserve the legal right to pursue eminent domain should it be necessary for national security;

2. You have consulted with the Department of Justice regarding this potential course of action; and

3. Short-term land instruments, such as five- or ten-year lease extensions, do not provide the certainty required for military construction and force-posture investments.

Your acknowledgment of these points will help clarify the gravity of the decisions before us and the importance of a negotiated resolution.

On December 4th, OHA CEO Sylvia issued this statement in response:

The people of Hawaiʻi and in particular Native Hawaiians deserve a future that honors ʻāina, respects the law, and upholds genuine consultation with its communities. It is in that spirit that I express my deep disappointment in the Governor’s recent letter to Secretary Driscoll—issued without prior consultation with the very advisory committee convened to guide this process. While this setback is real, we carry the resilience of our kūpuna with us and will continue to protect ourʻāina and shape a future worthy of our lāhui.

The Governor’s Advisory Committee on Military Leased Lands is composed almost entirely of Kānaka leaders. Each of us stepped into highly scrutinized roles at the Governor’s request. All of us with the understanding that our lived experience, ʻike, and kuleana to the lāhui would be meaningfully included.

To again move forward unilaterally—despite public assurances of consultation—undermines the trust, candor, and integrity essential to any authentic advisory relationship.

While we accept that an advisory body lacks final decision-making power, being shut out of the conversation altogether is deeply concerning—especially when the proposals, concerns, and ʻike offered by Kānaka leaders are conveyed to federal officials in ways that appear to foreclose their viability.

Even more troubling is the reaffirmation of a unilaterally negotiated “community benefits package” while ongoing, grassroots, good-faith work continues to develop. That work includes creative, bipartisan legislative solutions designed to prevent repeating past injustices—solutions that ensure our lawmakers remain at the table and empower our communities to stand firm against renewed efforts to seize our Kingdom and Crown lands from us once more. These community-driven proposals center what matters most: meaningful consultation, adherence to the law, and aloha ʻāina as a guiding value—not an afterthought. They are meant to shield our people from being sidelined again, not to float questions that subtly steer the federal government toward condemnation. We recognize what is being signaled, and its ramifications are dangerous, injurious, and deeply disempowering. Auē. Auē.

This latest act strains not only the advisory process, but the generations-long work of rebuilding trust between the Native Hawaiian community and the State. The leaders serving on this committee carry the weight of our communities’ hopes, scrutiny, and expectations. We stepped forward in response to this Administration’s repeated commitments to transparency and partnership. Meaningful reconciliation, long overdue, guided us.

Receiving after-the-fact news of the Governor’s December 2 letter has shaken my confidence.

As a member of this committee, I am reflecting seriously on whether OHA’s continued participation serves the lāhui. The pattern of unilateral decision-making betrays the spirit of consultation pledged publicly.

And yet, because this moment is too consequential to walk away from, we appeal to you, Governor—to the integrity, wisdom, and aloha that we know you carry—and ask that you bring those forward now for the good of our people and ʻāina. There remains a narrow and urgent opportunity to repair trust—to meet with the committee directly, to engage substantively rather than through proxies, and to conduct this advisory process with the integrity that Hawaiʻi’s people deserve. Let us begin there, together.

OHA Chair Kaialiʻi Kahele recently led a community briefing and listening session on the issue of military leased lands in Hilo. The meeting was livestreamed by OHA.