A challenge against excessive vehicle towing at Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor was overturned Friday.
Last September, a proposal before the Board of Land and Natural Resources to renew a contract with Secure Parking LLC — the company that has managed paid parking at the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor since 2023 — received substantial backlash from residents concerned about Secure Parking’s management.
In particular, people complained about a "towing first" policy, whereby recreational users who exceeded their allotted six hours of free parking would have their vehicles towed immediately, without any citations or warnings beforehand.
The proposal in September claimed that towing policy exists because the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ ability to issue parking citations is limited — the Division of Boating and Ocean Resources isn’t authorized to do so, while the Division of Conservation of Resource Enforcement is authorized, but has insufficient staff to conduct full-time parking enforcement. Therefore, towing offending vehicles has been the primary solution for cars overstaying their free parking period.
The proposal to renew Secure's contract included a License Plate Recognition system that would, ostensibly, help reduce the amount of vehicles towed from the lot.
Secure’s LPR system would use cameras to scan license plates automatically and track repeat violators, while also connecting with existing equipment such as pay stations. Violators would receive printed warnings on-site, and would be subject to towing upon subsequent offenses.
But residents argued last year that this system does not end the “towing first” policy. One resident, Kate Thompson, requested a contested case hearing against the proposal in September.
Thompson argued that the proposal will “lock in” the towing first policy, and noted that other public facilities such as the Honolulu Zoo are able to manage parking with citations just fine. At the same time, she argued, Secure’s contract costs the state $15,316 per month, funds that could be allocated toward harbor improvements.
On Friday, the Board voted to deny Thompson’s request, despite requests from dozens of residents urging the case to go forward.
Honolulu resident Douglas Meller argued that issuing warnings before towing a car is not preferable to issuing parking citations.
“A warning carries no financial consequence,” Meller wrote. “The first financial penalty a vehicle owner will ever face at Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor remains a $165 tow … The community has not been asking to be warned before being towed. It has been asking for the tow to be replaced, as the first financial penalty, by a proportional citation.”
Thompson and Meller both suggested that the only party that particularly benefits from the towing-first policy is the towing company itself. According to Honolulu Police records obtained by Thompson, there were 2586 vehicles towed from the harbor in 2025, and 2512 in 2024; DOCARE, meanwhile, issued 25 parking citations at the harbor in 2025 and four in 2024.
Nonetheless, the BLNR ruled unanimously — albeit with member Wesley Yoon abstaining — that Thompson does not have standing to request a contested case, as things like “statutory post-tow procedures” or “fair proportionate penalties” are not constitutionally protected interests that a person can challenge via the contested case process.
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