OHA: We Are Shut Out of Green’s Army Negotiations
by Andrew Walden
A letter from Governor Green to Army Secretary Driscoll, December 2, 2025, hints at the status of Army land negotiations in Hawaii.
And OHA is not pleased--as indicated by their response below.
After asserting publicly that eminent domain was less of a factor than previously thought, Green is still seeking clarity from Driscoll.
Driscoll has designated LTG Joel B. Vowell as the Army’s chief negotiator.
Green separates negotiation points between “Army” and “other interagency partners” which seems to imply those points are off the Army’s negotiating table.
That leaves “return and restoration of Makua Valley, cleanup of unexploded ordnance, and expanded housing investments.” Not mentioned: Opening an access road from the Waianae Coast via Schofield.
Obviously the 8(a) corporations are eager for fat juicy ‘restoration’ and UXO contracts. Most people in Hawaii have never heard of the 8(a) program. But, even as federal prosecutors hack away at 8(a) corruption, their influence in Hawaii politics places them at the center of Green’s agenda.
‘Expanded housing investments’ could help reduce pressure on the housing market on Oahu.
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The Honorable Dan Driscoll, Secretary of the Army
Dear Mr. Secretary: DEC -2 2025
Mahalo for your November 6 letter. I appreciate your designation of LTG Vowell as the Army's senior representative in Hawai'i as we continue direct dialogue between your office and mine. Given the complexity and historic significance of this matter, I agree that we 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 Hawai'i as well as to national security. 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.
Finally, it is my understanding that the Army's current expedited approach is driven by these three issues. Please confirm that:
- You reserve the legal right to pursue eminent domain should it be necessary for national security;
- You have consulted with the Department of Justice regarding this potential course of action; and
- 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.
Mahalo,
Josh Green, M.D.
Governor, State of Hawai'i
Let me know if you need further assistance!
PDF: GOV_Letter-to-Secretary-Dan-Driscoll.pdf
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Statement of OHA Administrator and CEO Summer Sylva
News Release from OHA, Dec 4, 2025
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 our ʻāina 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.
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BACKGROUND: