Department of Land and Natural Resources

HONOLULU — The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) today announced the resignation of State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) administrator Pua Aiu. The announcement follows the release last Thursday of a report by the National Parks Service (NPS) that was critical of the division’s efforts under a two-year corrective action plan to address operational problems that jeopardize continued federal funding from NPS. Aiu has been the SHPD administrator for five years.

“We believe that SHPD has made progress in a number of areas, including hiring of qualified staff and addressing a backlog of review and compliance tasks,” said William J. Aila, Jr., DLNR Chairperson. “However, we take this report seriously, and given the importance of SHPD to the state, we need to change the leadership in order to move forward to implement the recommendations. So we’ve accepted Pua’s resignation, and are working on a process to select a new administrator in the next three months.”

“The State Historic Preservation Division is important to the preservation and protection of historic and cultural sites of Hawaii. It also plays a significant role in the state’s economy. Addressing and balancing these complex issues is the job of the SHPD administrator and staff,” said Aila. “We plan to bring in an interim administrator by the end of July, and at the same time set up a selection committee to review applications and interview candidates. We invite qualified applicants to submit their resumes to the Chairperson at [email protected]”

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