Mayors seeking restoration of state’s agricultural inspectors

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LAHAINA - Mayor Charmaine Tavares said she and the state's other mayors will appeal to the state Department of Agriculture to restore all of Hawaii's agricultural inspectors.

Tavares said the consequences of cutting the positions, as planned by the state, could mean allowing invasive pests into the islands that could decimate Hawaii's agricultural industry and natural environment. She and the three other mayors will speak on a panel this week at the Hawaii Farm Bureau annual convention on Kauai, an unusual move that she said was prompted by shared concern over the inspector cuts.

"The prognosis, to me, is dismal," she said. "Unless there's some action taken in a positive direction, we're all going to suffer."

Tavares was speaking at an informational meeting about the cuts Tuesday evening in Lahaina.

The state Department of Agriculture initially planned to cut 52 employees from its Plant Quarantine Branch, which handles agricultural inspections, as part of the state's sweeping effort to close a projected nearly $900 million revenue shortfall.

In September, the department announced it was restoring 22 of those positions by tapping funds that had been earmarked for other invasive species protection programs and money from cargo inspection fees. All six of the agricultural inspectors that had been flagged for layoffs on Maui had their jobs restored.

But two positions in the Maui Plant Pest Control Branch, an entomologist and a noxious weed specialist, are still flagged to be eliminated in layoffs scheduled for November.

In a letter to Gov. Linda Lingle this week, Tavares appealed to have funding restored for those positions, calling them "critical to Maui's first line of defense against harmful invasive pests."

She pointed to the recent discovery of little fire ants on Maui as an example of how the cuts could hurt the county. She said that the Department of Agriculture estimates it would cost the state $211 million a year to control little fire ants, but that only $100,000 would be saved by cutting the two Maui positions.

"Early detection and rapid response is critical to stamping out would-be invasives, but without our plant pest control staff, we stand little chance of staying ahead of the game," she wrote.

Maui Sens. J. Kalani English, Roz Baker and Shan Tsutsui also wrote to Lingle to ask that the positions be reinstated.

Still, Maui is "fortunate" that its six agricultural inspector positions were spared, said Anna Mae Shishido, Maui County supervisor for the Plant Quarantine Branch.

Three of the positions were restored using the alternative funding; three other positions were transferred to fill vacancies in the Department of Transportation's inspection program at Kahului Airport, and will be restricted to working at the airport.

Even with that restriction, Maui agricultural inspectors will be able to cover all their core functions, including inspections of shipments at Kahului Harbor, which will allow produce to continue to be shipped directly to the island, Shishido said.

They will also be able to continue the department's self-certification program for Maui nurseries, which allows flower growers to ship their products directly to the Mainland.

Both maritime inspections and self-certification were in danger of shutting down when the larger cuts were initially proposed.

"We'll manage," Shishido said.

Layoffs of agricultural inspectors on other islands could still impact Maui, however.

Honolulu Harbor, the main port of entry for the state, will still lose about a third of its inspectors, and the Big Island, home of many nurseries that ship plants to Maui, will also be understaffed. That means greater opportunities for nasty pests to enter the state and travel to Maui through interisland shipping.

And even with Maui fully staffed, new restrictions on overtime and mandated furlough days will mean delays for some functions, such as inspections at Kahului Harbor on state holidays.

"It's going to be tight," Shishido said.

* Ilima Loomis can be reached at iloomis @mauinews.com.