More Bad News for water sports instructors on Maui

[Shaka Doug]

This just in from David Dorn of Action Sports who's working on his current situation with the County of Maui Parks and Recreation Department:



Parks director bypasses regulatory review board.

Thursday, March 27, 2008



More bad news for water sports instructors on Maui


Parks Director Tamara Horcajo has decided to bypass the recommendations of the Small Business Regulatory Review Board (SBRRB). Mrs Horcajo said she will rewrite the Park’s Departments Administrative CORA Rules without further discussions with the CORA operators, and she also threatens to take them directly to a Public Hearing, without first taking them to the Review board for approval.

This goes directly against the recommendations made by the SBRRB review board on Oahu last week. The Small Business Regulatory Board is appointed by the Governor to be the watchdog of government overregulation of Small Businesses.

This cavalier attitude and disregard for the Board’s directives demonstrates Mrs Horcajo’s unwillingness to work with the schools to create fair and workable rules.




NOTE: I have just been in contact with our SCUBA CORA Working Group Leaders and they assure me that we are actually making positive progress. They have said that we are in negotiation with the Parks Departmant and that the latest revised rules have NOT been written yet. This can be taken as "Good News". Until we see what the new rules are, I would have to say it may be a little early to get too worried about the outcome. I am watching this issue very closely and am asking that all those interested do as well. For now, we have to sit back and take a "wait and see" attitude. Sorry for sounding any false alarms...we are not out of the woods yet so let's be cautious until we see what comes next. Thank You, Doug.

 

[kidspot]

OUCH - Maui county in action once again

Thanks for the notice Doug.

Aloha, Tim

 

[justleesa]

Parks Director Tamara Horcajo has decided to bypass the recommendations of the Small Business Regulatory Review Board (SBRRB). Mrs Horcajo said she will rewrite the Park’s Departments Administrative CORA Rules without further discussions with the CORA operators, and she also threatens to take them directly to a Public Hearing, without first taking them to the Review board for approval.

Something tells me not to like Mrs. Horcajo....

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Socialism at it's finest.

 

[sharky60]

What's the motivation for all this? Enviromental somehow? Or just a power play of some sort.

Isn't Maui's main source of income tourism? Seems like these new restrictions could severly hamstring the dive shop community and thus hurt the county in the long run through loss of revenew.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

sharky60 - My first question would be; have you visited one of the popular Maui County Beach Parks at the peak use times?

On the West Side, Launiupoko used to be completely filled with cars and vans from the surf school operators and customers. Similar conditions existed at other parks with other activities. Now Launiupoko and a few others are completely off limits to commercial activities.

One of the big stories in that action was the permanent end of the Dave Kalama surf school, arguably the most famous of Maui's surf schools. Launiupoko was the only park Dave had a permit for and he was not allowed to move!

On the South Side, Kalama Park is where the surf schools work, but they are not allowed to operate in the "cove" just south of the park and they are not allowed to operate on Sundays/Holidays.

During the whale watch season, Makena Landing is the launching spot for numerous Kayak tour groups. There are pics on the other thread of typical congestion due that activity. Shaka Doug probably takes customers there more than everyone else and he waits until after the launching normally.

Weekends at Ulua Beach Park, you will be hard pressed to find a parking spot after 8am, due in large to the customer and operator vehicles from all the dive operators. Similar conditions happen on the North Shore with windsurf and kite-board instruction.

The motivations are many, but here is one that does not get much play; the facilities are overused, bathrooms are a mess, trash cans are full, tourists are leaving with a memory of crowded, run down Maui Beach Parks. We need to spread out the use; resource management is not always about maximizing revenue.

After the initial meeting, I worked up a compromise proposal for the South Maui dive community. Since the DLNR has indicated Makena Landing does not fall under the jurisdiction of Maui County, I have not submitted it to the County. I was waiting for the next incarnation of the Proposed Maui County Rules before deciding who to send it to.

If anyone is interested in taking a look, I will attach my proposal here, but I warn those not intimately knowledgeable with South Maui diving that it may be hard to understand.

 

[Shaka Doug]

Steve, good info bro. All we can do now is wait until the newest version of the ordinance comes out and see what they're attempting to pass. It's really hard to read the Parks people. They tend to say one thing and then deliver something different. It's to the point that we're running out of time and I'm afraid of an eleventh hour attempt to pass some pretty harsh conditions. They have been negotiating with each of the CORA disciplines and from what I hear, they are responding mostly favorably to our SCUBA issues.

Thanks for pointing out that I usually go to Makena Landing after the mass kayak launching. I rarely go to Ulua Beach first thing in the morning either. I'm sensitive to the overcrowding situation and I try not to contribute too much to it. Some people think it's just because I like to sleep in in the morning!!! (well, maybe that's part of it....) That reminds me of one of my old slogans I used to use: 'Sleep In with Shaka Divers!' Anyway, where was I?... Oh yeah, if they give us the freedom and option of multiple dive sites / parks to use, we can easily work amongst our industry to eliminate much of the congestion that groups of divers can create. However, the rules that they recently tried to push through wouldn't help that problem one bit until some of us went out of business. I believe that one of their goals is to eliminate some of the players to alleviate said congestion. Whether it's through natural or forced attrition or stonger regulation, I don't think it matters to them as long as it happens.

Like I said, we're not out of the woods yet. It's good that people worldwide are hearing about this problem (Scubaboard is great for this) and watching it. We may need a big publicity push and media attention to help sway the folks up at the top to continue to allow us access as professional dive leaders. Stay tuned for more.....

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

While doing some web research for an interested buyer of a boat business in Hawaii, I ran across a couple of Maui business offerings that may indicate some progress with the CORA permit situation. Evidently, two kayak operators are so confident permit transfer will be approved that they are calling the permits the primary asset!

"Primary Asset: The “Ocean Recreational Activities Permit” which allows the holder to operate in 3 different very desirable locations is the primary asset."

Those words are copied and pasted from one of the listings, and the other has very similar wording. Do they know something we don't?

Just wondering if any Maui divers in the know can shed any light?

 

[Brandon]

I usually do my shore diving solo in Maui, but went out with Doug last time to see what all the fuss was about. Had a blast, he's an awesome operator and a definite asset to the local diving community there. I really hope this works out for all of you. Good luck!!

Much shaka from Alaska,

-Brandon.

 

[Shaka Doug]

I made a call to the Parks Office yesterday to see how things were coming along with this. The most recent news I've received is that the County Parks Department is not expecting to be ready with the new ordinance by the June 30 expiration date of our existing permits. This means we still need to renew the CORA permits as in previous years. However, the fee structure has been changed and will be much higher, plus they added in an additional application fee that never existed before. I've also heard that the old application won't work so they're working on the new one now. They're in discussion today and should have more info for us in a day or two.

As I understand it, they may continue the present rules for another 90 days from July 1. That's subject to revision though and it could be less, could be more. They will still have to present the proposed changes to the general public and have meetings with the operators too so it could be a while before it's all ironed out. We will probably all have to refile our paperwork a second time this year when and if the new ordinance gets approved. I'm supposed to be notified by them when they get everything figured out.

I wonder what it means for the business' that are for sale. I think any prospective buyer should explore this particularly closely to be sure that the permit does in fact still work. The earlier discussions we had indicated to me that this wasn't the case.

Whose selling their kayak company? I might want to buy one or even two if the price is right! Hey Steve, how many kayaks do you think I can fit on the roof of my bus? That could be fun....good thing I gave up eating at the drive thru!