Now that the session is over, Rep. Elle Cochran is back in her district “reconnecting” with her constituents.

Sporting a vivid purple hair rinse and a colorful flower array, State House Rep. Elle Cochran (D) sat down with the Lahaina News earlier in May to discuss events at the recently concluded state legislative session. She was critical of how decisions are made there and the lack of transparency and accountability.

Cochran, 58, represents State House District 14, which includes Maalaea, West Maui, Kahakuloa and Waiehu. Though she is just completing the first year of her first two-year term as a State House member, she is no stranger to Maui politics — she previously was an eight-year member of the Maui County Council and an unsuccessful candidate for Maui mayor in 2018.

Cochran said her “biggest gripe” about life at the Capitol was the “utter lack of transparency, no sunshine, and decisions made behind closed doors.”

Local media widely reported on the ending of the session as “chaos.”

Civil Beat headlined their May 10 story “The Legislature is Broken,” noting that even the most important bill of the session, funding the state budget for the next two years to the tune of $38 billion, wasn’t settled until the very last day.

In an unprecedented move, there were six “No” votes and nine who voted “Yes, With Reservations.”

Cochran was one of the six House members leading the rebellion. Other “No” votes came from Reps. Jeanne Kapela, Sonny Ganaden, Natalia Hussey-Burdick, Amy Perruso and Della Au Belatti. This failure to show unanimous support for the budget and voice criticism of the process and leadership is something that has not happened before.

Cochran also pointed out that lawmakers are required to vet thousands of bills in a very short time frame. She found there “was just no time for proper consideration.” She observed that while the start date of the session is fixed as the third Wednesday in January, there is no hard and fast rule that it has to end at a specific time. She objected to the process, to the lack of detail.

“We never saw any worksheets; we just saw grand totals, not where those numbers came from,” Cochran explained.

The budget and other legislative measures now go to the governor’s desk where he has 45 days to veto.

Cochran said her biggest accomplishment for her district was the authorization of $20 million in special purpose revenue bonds (SPRB) for the long proposed new West Maui Hospital. These bonds will allow more aggressive fundraising efforts by hospital supporters. Cochran said she worked with hospital board member Jo Anne Johnson-Winer on advocating for the authorization.

SPRBs are a type of municipal revenue bond authorized by Hawaii’s Legislature that can be issued by the state to provide loan financing to assist qualifying private capital improvement projects such as hospitals in the public interest. The bonds are not state monies. SPRBs are sold to private investors, who provide the actual funds and invest their funds in exchange for tax-exempt or taxable interest payments. For the state, selling SPRBs is a way to facilitate loans for certain kinds of projects without spending taxpayers’ money or placing the state’s credit at risk.

Cochran also had comments on House Bill 955, which would have allowed unlicensed midwives to continue offering services permanently, which failed to advance when it did not get a hearing in the House Finance Committee, chaired by Kyle Yamashita (D)-Maui — even though it cleared two other committees.

She was dismayed at how women who wanted to advocate for changes to that bill were treated. She said the modification to that measure had more than 2,000 individual testimonies in support, the most of any bill in the session. In addition to killing the changes, she said Yamashita also refused to meet with those who had hoped for modifications to the licensing bill that would have allowed long-established cultural practitioners, many of who assist with home birth in remote or rural parts of the state, to continue to offer assistance. It irked her that not only did Yamashita refuse to schedule a hearing, “He never even went to talk to them. They just wanted to be heard,” she said, “but he refused to see them.”

She also had a strong reaction to HB676, introduced by Rep. Troy Hashimoto (D)-Maui, which would have substantially changed the minimum size of parcels that come before the State Land Use Commission (LUC). Presently, any parcels over 15 acres that want to change use are reviewed by the LUC; under 15 acres request for change, often from agricultural to urban use, are handled at the county level.

The initial proposal was to raise that number to 30 acres and eventually the language specified 100 acres. Cochran said the proposed legislation raised an “outcry” because of “lack of oversight and environmental and cultural protection. Those things would be wiped out,” she said. “It would be a green light to developers.” The measure received strong push back and was killed on the State Senate side.

Cochran touched briefly on the status of the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation (DOBOR), a part of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) that supervises small boat harbors, including Maalaea and Lahaina Harbor and the Mala Boat Ramp.

She has been critical about the operations of DOBOR, not only in Maui but throughout the state. Her measure calling from a management and financial audit of the division “never went through.”

The good news, she said, is that there is $3 million apiece in funding earmarked respectively for Mala and Lahaina, (subject to final reconciliation of the budget and approval and release by the governor.)

She said that she will continue to pursue improvement in DOBOR and urged her constituents who are concerned about Maui’s small boating facilities to “put pressure on the people who are not doing their jobs.”

Cochran said her Honolulu office remains open, and members of the public can call or e-mail her there to let her know their concerns.

Reach Rep. Cochran at the State Capitol, Room 315, 415 S. Beretania St., Honolulu HI 96813; call her office at (808) 596-6160; or e-mail repcochran@capitol.hawaii.gov.