LIHUE — The state Board of Land and Natural Resources has postponed taking action on allegations that Hermina Morita, chair of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, and her husband ran an illegal bed and breakfast in Hanalei. “The action on
LIHUE — The state Board of Land and Natural Resources has postponed taking action on allegations that Hermina Morita, chair of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, and her husband ran an illegal bed and breakfast in Hanalei.
“The action on this matter has been deferred and won’t be heard today by the BLNR,” Dan Dennison of the Department of Land and Natural Resources wrote in an email.
The item was on the agenda for BLNR meeting in Honolulu, which began at 9 a.m. Dennison said it was not clear why the matter was deferred.
The DLNR asserts that Morita and her husband, Lance Laney, ran the vacation rental Taro Patch Hale without permission and built the secluded North Shore getaway in a state conservation district without the proper permits.
The couple has been ordered to shut down the bed and breakfast and could face significant fines for the alleged violations.
Morita was chair of the House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee from 1999 until she was appointed as PUC chair by Gov. Neil Abercrombie in 2011.
