A new community group is suing to invalidate Gov. Josh Green’s controversial pick to serve as the cultural expert on the state’s pivotal water resources board, following months of frustration from local conservationists and taro farmers over how that nomination process was handled. 

That group, dubbed Hui Kānāwai ʻOiaʻiʻo, argues that Green bypassed the legal process to select a loea, or expert in traditional stream water rights and uses, when he held off from making an appointment for months only to restart the process after two of the four finalists withdrew.

The reset, Hui Kānāwai argues in its suit, invalidates Greenʻs selection of V.R. Hinano Rodrigues to serve as the state Commission on Water Resource Management Boardʻs loea. The environmental legal nonprofit group Earthjustice filed the suit in state court Monday on behalf of the hui.

“The loea is the designated voice on the commission for Hawaiian rights and expertise in restoring our water,”  Kekai Keahi, a West Maui taro farmer and the huiʻs lead plaintiff, said in a statement Monday. “The governor’s attempt to manipulate the nomination process for this key position is an insult to the law and to everyone who has worked with the commission for years to ensure it respects Hawaiian rights and values.”

Another member of the group suing to stop Rodriguesʻ nomination is Danny Bishop, a retired firefighter and taro farmer on Oʻahuʻs Windward side.

Rodrigues, whoʻs retired, previously served as a History and Culture Branch chief at the Department of Land and Natural Resources. Green has touted Rodriguesʻ resume, saying he has extensive cultural knowledge, but lawmakers who could play a key role in his nomination point out that Rodrigues doesnʻt have a background in water management.

Green has further argued he had to restart the process because he needed a list of at least three candidates. His office had received a list of four finalists in February to replace the outgoing loea, Neil Hannahs, whose term expired June 30.

Green didnʻt act on the nomination for months, prompting strong public criticism from native Hawaiians and conservationists who supported most of the finalists. Green then announced in August he would restart the nomination process.

When he did, one of the previous finalists, James Kimo Falconer, had been named to the new nomination committee. Falconerʻs original nomination to serve as the loea had been widely questioned by conservationists across the state. Heʻs listed as a defendant in Hui Kānāwaiʻs suit alongside Green.