Tag Archives: Civil fines

Hawaii Legislative Fines and Knee-jerk Quickie Foreclosures

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Some legislators are quietly robbing basic constitutional civil rights of their private property owners constituents!

We were informed a couple days ago that HB1990 is sailing through! This is an abusive and greedy bill – – A notice of violation of ANY county zoning ordinance, rule or regulation shall be fined . . . $1000 per day subject to a lien if the fines exceed $20,000 and subject to foreclosure within 30 days of notice.

The Bill affects ALL Counties.

Who in Oahu alone can get a quick response from the County within 30 days! There are 30 days in a month, so $20,000 is easy number to become ripe for foreclosure!

What can you do?

Email the Senators. Tell them to “KILL HB1990” and other opinions you may have. Cut and paste on your email addresses.

sens@capitol.hawaii.gov,
 senihara@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senelefante@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senChang@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senkouchi@capitol.hawaii.gov,
sendelacruz@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senrichards@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senmisalucha@capitol.hawaii.gov,
sennishihara@capitol.hawaii.gov,
sendecoite@capitol.hawaii.gov,
sensshimabukuro@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senfevella@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senmoriwaki@capitol.hawaii.gov,
sengabbard@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senwakai@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senawa@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senfukunaga@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senhashimoto@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senkeohokalole@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senkidani@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senkim@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senlamosao@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senmckelvey@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senrhoads@capitol.hawaii.gov,
sensanbuenaventura@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senlee@capitol.hawaii.gov,
senkanuha@capitol.hawaii.gov,

A DEEPER DIVE:

The person who just informed us of HB1900 (2026) also shared HB811(2025).

HB811( 2025) too is very alarming and jarring. Who in their right mind think that fines of $5,000 should trigger a foreclosure within 30 days! Who knows how tedious and long it is to work with a county bureaucracy to get a permit for anything?

It’s common knowledge that any one or group can ask a Hawaii Legislator to draft a bill and sponsor it. This is a good democratic exercise for public participation.

However, there should be a litmus test to ensure that basic constitutional civil rights are not violated or infringed upon. Any proposed Bill ought to be for the public good and for the benefit for all Hawaii.

A proposed Bill can’t be appeasing one person or group to the detriment of the rest of Hawaii.

A proposed Bill cannot be a Mafia hit to a single issue because someone/group wants to. The Multiplier Impacts as well as Unintended Consequences on different levels of any proposed bill ought to analyzed and discussed intelligently BEFORE introduction.

I cannot recognize the signature of the legislative introducer. But the record shows the Introducers of HB811 as ( GANG OF SIX)

Introducer(s):MATAYOSHI, CHUN, LEE, M., MARTEN, QUINLAN, TAKAYAMA

I would like to know what’s their heads? Does any one of them own property or know what it’s like to own a property? Why waste taxpayers’ money to write this type of pilau bill? Does the introducer even know a typical home in Hawaii is $1M? Most of our local families are not born with a silver spoon in their mouth. They work hard to own a house that they can call their own. Why turn their own constituents into a sitting duck for the long arm of the government? It’s never a good idea to give the long arm of the government more powers.

The above (2025) HB811 looks like an early draft to HB1990 (2026) which is sailing through quietly at the State Capitol as of this writing.

Note they’ve added a few more legislators to sign into it. GANG OF 14.

Introducer(s):MATAYOSHI, GRANDINETTI, KILA, KUSCH, LEE, M., MARTEN, MORIKAWA, OLDS, TAKAYAMA, TAM, TARNAS, TEMPLO, TODD, WOODSON

2026 also has another similar Trojan Horse in HB1861. The Introducers are recorded as (GANG OF 4)

Introducer(s):QUINLAN, MARTEN, MATAYOSHI, OLDS

Did you legislator tell you about this possible sea-change?

Do you know what’s going on? Has any of your legislators disclose this drastic actions to you? The common denominator for repeat introducers is QUINLAN, MARTEN, MATAYOSHI, OLDS, CHUN*.

What’s just as alarming is that these Capitol Committee Chairs have the tendency to simply get along to move along to the detriment of the public. They spill out the same old illogical phrases – “This Bill deserves more conversation” or “This deserves more discussion” or “This deserves more dialogue”. They cherry-pick what they want to hear and do. They usually prepare the “amendments” before hand. So the Committee Chair will pass it out to the next chain for the sake of “more conversation”.

How can a conversation work for the constituents with a 2-minute testimony? How does a conversation work for the 99.9% public who cannot attend these hearings?

Shouldn’t these discussions/dialogue/conversations happening with the grassroots constituents first?

First, constituents need to know about these Bills. Constituents need to know about these Bills BEFORE they are introduced and put on the fast track to adopt. After-the-Fact laws is sneaky and undemocratic.

All these new civil fines and foreclosures began with Honolulu Mayor Blangiardi in 2021. He persisted each subsequent year until Representative Corey Chun of Waipahu because the sole introducer of similar agenda in 2025.

“NO KINGS” “NO TYRANTS” protests nationwide today.

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But the Hawaii State Legislature HB1990 to fine residents $1000 a day and quick foreclosure is secretly sailing through.

We are trying to stop HB1861 with the same agenda. But we did not know about HB1990. It feels sneaky. Why no disclosure of these significant changes that affect the lives of residents. Ordinary residents shouldn’t have to bird-dog politicians to make sure they do us no harm or just introduce hamajang Bills!

This agenda to have a new foreclosure powers through new county fines was initiated by Mayor Blangiardi in 2021. Blangiardi pushed every year. In 2025, a similar Bill 29 was introduced by House Representative Corey Chun of Waipahu.

This year, HB1861 was introduced by four (4) House Representatives – Sean Quinlan, Scott Matayoshi, Lisa Marten and Ikaika Olds.

Unfortunately, while ordinary residents were stopping HB1861, there was a concurrent BILL HB1990 sailing through. We heard about it a day ago! What a devious system! Three of the 4 Introducers for HB1861 are also introducers for HB1990 – Scott Matayoshi, Lisa Marten, and Ikaiko Olds. ( Sean Quinland’s name is no longer here.)

This unconstitutional agenda has been ongoing and initiated by Mayor Blangiardi since 2021. Blangiardi pushed every year. In 2025, a similar Bill 29 was introduced by House Representative Corey Chun of Waipahu. 2026 brought new and more introducers!

Who’s behind these non-judicial Power of Sale bills?

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UPDATE: SB 875 & HB 15 are speeding on. ( HB 538 is quite similar.)

Keep in mind the counties already have “Judicial Foreclosure” and “Eminent Domain” powers in place. But the justification is that these processes take too long.

In other words, these bills will allow the counties to be the Police, Prosecutor, Jury, Judge, and Executioner. The Judicial Due Process will be cut off.

We’re asked who started these non-judicial foreclosure bills to forced sale of a private property, based on the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) fines, without going to court.

Here are some quick answers:

It originated in 2022 as HB 1434 with Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi. Keep it mind that this Power of Sale requests applied to ALL Counties in Hawaii. Based on my observations of him, it’s unlikely that this non-judicial Power of Sale idea originated from Blangiardi unless he’s hoping for a new stream of revenues from fines and sale of properties.

If I have to take a guess, it would be his Managing Director Mike Formby, formerly with the Pacific Resource Partnership (PRP) or former Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) Director Dean Uchida.

Five (5) City Council members, known as the Gang of 5, also submitted testimony – Chair Tommy Waters, Esther Kia’iana, Brandon Elefante, Calvin Say, and Radiant Cordera.

What were the underlying motives?

Fortunately, Bill 1434 failed to pass last year.

I was in the same Mayoral campaign with Rick Blangiardi in 2020. Based on my observations and
his words, he had very shallow understanding about Honolulu City Hall workings.

This year 2023, Mayor Blangiardi is back with HB 106 and SB 216 by request to Senate President Ron Kouchi and House Speaker Scott Saiki.

However, presto! The tactics have changed a bit this year. There are five (5) clone bills with the same agenda speeding through.

Google Searches show no county mayors, state legislators or city council members appear to have warned Hawaii about this draconian assault on private properties.

Here are the rest of the three (3) bills.

SB875 is introduced by Senators Stanley Chang, Donovan Dela Cruz and Sharon Moriwaki. This bill is alive and has crossed over on March 7, 2023.

This time around, written testimonies come from only Honolulu City Council former Budget Chair Calvin Say and DPP Director Dawn Takeuchi Apuna.

Companion Bill HB498 is introduced by Representative Jackson Sayama.

HB 15 is introduced by Representative David Tarnas (D) It has no senate companion bill but it has crossed over on March 7, 2023.

HB538 is another similar one that includes judicial or non-judicial foreclosure. It is introduced by MATAYOSHI, BELATTI, HASHIMOTO, HOLT, KILA, KITAGAWA, LAMOSAO, MARTEN, NISHIMOTO, TAKENOUCHI, TARNAS, Chun.

The time line provided in this bill is too unrealistic. It assumes that DPP is 100% efficient. In actual fact, it takes a very long time to get a permit. Some permits take a much longer time because it may need a shoreline certified shoreline. This could easily take six months to complete.

Hawaii State Legislature quietly overturning basic civil rights

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UPDATE: SB875 & HB15 are speeding through at the State Capitol. Caveat: There may be more clone bills of this same agenda. I can’t keep up.

It’s a zoo at the State Capitol. Bills are flying off the tables. I don’t see how these 3,123 bills can be carefully vetted and thoroughly deliberated in such a short time.

There are at least five (5) clone bills allowing Hawaii counties to have non-judicial Power of Sale of private properties, based on county civil fines, WITHOUT going to court. This means no checks and balances in our Democracy.

These proposed actions violate many constitutional liberties. Due Process, that includes having your day in court, is fundamental to basic Civil Rights. Even prisoners on death-row have more judicial Due Process than these bills.

Even if we emotionally hate some egregious property owners, we cannot tear down the Cathedral of civil rights to fry a few bad eggs. There are other enforcement options for the counties already in place.

None of the legislators I’ve talked with knew about these far-reaching proposed Power of Sale bills.

Below are the CLONE BILLS that give all Hawaii counties non-judicial power of sale. Honolulu County reiterates that it already has “Judicial Foreclosure” and “Eminent Domain” powers but these processes take too long:

SB875 Introduced by Senators Stanley Chang, Donovan Dela Cruz & Sharon Moriwaki.

HB15 Introduced by Representative David Tarnas

HB106 Introduced by HOUSE SPEAKER SCOTT SAIKI (Introduced by request of another party – Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.)

SB216 SENATE PRESIDENT RONALD KOUCHI (Introduced by request of another party – Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi.)

HB498 Introduced by Representative Jackson Sayama.

Give Voice Now!

Email: sens@capitol.hawaii.gov, reps@capitol.hawaii.gov,

OPPOSE SB875, HB15, HB106, SB216, HB498. Don’t overturn our basic civil rights. Allowing Hawaii counties to have non-judicial Power of Sale, based on county civil fines, WITHOUT going to court violates Due Process, There will be no checks and balances in our Democracy.

Call them now:

Senate: https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/legislature/legislators.aspx?chamber=S

House: https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/legislature/legislators.aspx?chamber=H