The finished session is notable for rejection of Lingle nominees

The 2007 Legislature ended with House and Senate members holding hands and singing, but the session will most be remembered for the two people not there: Iwalani White and Peter Young.

The Senate Democrats handed Republican Gov. Linda Lingle her first two Cabinet nomination defeats as the Senate rejected the appointments of White as public safety director and Young as land and natural resources director.

Senate critics said White, a former first deputy prosecutor and Family Court judge, did not have the temperament to run the state department in charge of Hawaii’s prisons and jails.
Young’s nomination was more controversial, as Lingle staged a news conference with prominent supporters of Young ranging from environmental and native Hawaiian groups to major land and business interests.

Senators, however, said Young was to blame for the department’s poor performance and said he should have done more to inspect dams across the state before the 2006 dam break on Kauai that killed seven.

The rejection is still reverberating among Hawaii environmentalists.

Yesterday, Jeff Mikulina, Sierra Club director, said his members and others in the environmental community “are still very upset about it. … We lost a good leader … not only because of the ultimate vote, but the process and how they did it.”

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(Source: Richard Borreca, Honolulu Star-Bulletin)