Episode 11 - Bureau of Conveyances

In this episode we go behind the scenes of the Bureau of Conveyances with Administrator Mike Imanaka. From recording every real estate transaction in Hawaiʻi to preserving land records dating back to 1859, Mike shares how kuleana, public service, and aloha keep Hawaiʻi’s land history — and future — on track. A must-listen for homeowners, history buffs, and anyone curious about how land, law, and legacy intersect. 

Transcript

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Dan Dennison: Aloha and welcome to Hawaiʻi Conservation Kuleana, brought to you by the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources. I'm Dan Dennison. 

Patti Jette: And I'm Patti Jette. We're here to explore conservation issues from land to sea with expert insights and stories from the field. 

Mike Imanaka: Every single real estate transaction in order to take effect has to be recorded at the Bureau of Conveyances.

Dan: In this episode, we explore the role and responsibilities of the Bureau of Conveyances, or BOC, 

Patti: And today in studio, we have BOC administrator, Mike Imanaka, thanks for joining us.  

Mike: Sure thing. 

Dan: Mike, tell us about your background, your Ohana and your early life. If you could. 

Mike: Well, if anything, I'm a public school product, very proud public school product from Hawaii Kai. Went to all the elementary schools, went to University of Hawaii with a bachelor's in English and a Master's in Public Administration. So there is a lot of value in education within my family, typical local family, you know, just doing local things, growing up and appreciating the culture here. So, you know, I don't think it's any different from anybody else's. And, you know, just a lot of hard work to get to where I am today.

Dan: And what were you doing prior to BOC then? 

Mike: I did a lot. So I've been, I've had tons of, tons of jobs, but actually a lot of my work actually prepared me for where I am today. I started working at the legislature while I was an intern at the University of Hawaii. I worked in state senate in a consumer protection area as well as AG, so I have some awareness of the issues as well as legislative background. While going to or working at the legislature, I got a Master's in Public Administration, so if you know that program, it's dedicated to create administrative background for actually what I'm doing today. In addition to that, I was a lobbyist at the Board of Realtors, so I understand their issues, and then the last 30 years within the escrow industry. So you know, in an odd way, this, my background actually prepared me for what I'm doing today in public service, having the knowledge of administration, having the knowledge of the industry, you know, and the relationships to help out.

Patti: And how has that background influenced your sense of kuleana for public service? 

Mike: Well, you know, you work with a lot of different people, and you can appreciate or go through and see what challenges they face. Then, you know, at least having some awareness of their challenges, working within the department, you can see that a lot of times they come here challenged because they want to solve a problem. And actually, I think it started back when I was at the Board of Realtors. I was a lobbyist, and at that time, there are not a lot of legislative issues, but the calls I would get would be about either taxation or building permits, ironically. So you know, we're able to collaborate with the building department as well as the tax department. And I created a seven step process, a booklet to actually learn how to do building permit research. You know, I thought it was just one, one shot deal, but as I developed that booklet and trained it, it became very popular. And, you know, I found out that the realtors and their clients, you know, appreciate at least some type of transparency or exposure within government work. So within that context, you know, I've always felt that, you know, the government workers, they just have a lot to do. They have challenges with staffing, challenges with systems. So we have to at least have some awareness of that, and actually being in this situation, dealing with it, we have to have awareness of what the public's going through, and we have to support them. So in a lot of it is, you know, being aware of other people's challenges and putting yourself in their place.

Dan: People don't often realize that the BOC every time they do a real estate transaction theyʻre dealing with the BOC. So in that context, in layman's terms, tell us what the BOC does and what you're responsible for. And I, I know a little of the history. It's a it's a long standing, probably the longest standing division that we have in the state, or at least its origins. 

Mike: It could be we were, unlike my mainland counterparts, we're the only state recording office here. And basically we have actually three interns right now, so they're just out of high school and working for us over the summer. So, you know, I have to explain it. What do we do? And basically, over anywhere between 1000 and 1500 recordings a day, so there's a lot of volume. And the simplest terms is. It's if you have a transaction, a real estate transaction, in order for it to take effect, it has to be recorded at the Bureau of Conveyances. 

Dan: And your records go back to territorial days. 

Mike: I think it goes back to 1859 so in addition to what we have online, we have our public reference room, where the public's welcome to come in and do their own research. We have our teams that help on their computer. We put a lot of our database online, and we're continuing trying to make it on available online, especially for our neighbor island constituents. We want to make sure that they have access to it, and, you know, provide that support for them, because some, sometimes they fly in and they don't know how to do the research. So, you know, we're going to make sure we help them out. 

Patti: And how does that fit into DLNR overall? You know, we've talked to forestry folks here. We've talked to aquatic folks, but how does recording deeds and land interaction transactions fit into the overall mission of DLNR? 

Mike: Well, it talks about the preservation and perpetuity of the land management here, so we work closely with our land division, we will support any division to actually doing the land transfer. So it's not only within the DLNR, but it's also DHHL, other partners, say, AGs office. So I see it as a collaborative team that we work together to enable these transactions to go through. We're the last stop, where it comes to our area. We record it. It becomes official. So well, you know, we understand that it takes a lot of work for that transaction to get to our table, so we have to be very serious and help them record it. Because in some situations, you know, we reject it. And you know that could, that could set these people back for a while. So, you know, we're trying to be very sensitive of actually helping, you know, our counterparts within the government, you know, get through this process a lot smoother. Because if you don't do it a lot, you know, like anything else, it can be complicated. 

Dan: Some years ago, we, we did some publicity, or some stories on the digitization of all of your records. Does that go back to all those volumes?  

Mike: So everything's digitized now. Everything's digitized now, and we're actually in the last phase of that process. So you know, thanks to Leslie Kobata, the former register who started this process, we're at the last phase. And basically what we've done is taking all of those records within hard copies or within microfiche and making it available online at this point in time, everything's not on it, because we still have to clean it up. We still have to make it available. But I think up to, I think 1976 it is online. We are working on getting those dates and that data prior to that available. It's just taking a lot of work, because a lot of times during the imaging process, it's not clean, so they have to clean it up and make it visible. So it's, it's, it's, it's a process that, you know, I'm very sure that we will complete. 

Patti: And I know as a as a homeowner here, like it's been very exciting when you get that notice that your title has been recorded by the BOC. What do you find invigorating and on the flip side, challenging about leading the department or the division? 

Mike: It's like anything else. It's people. We're very fortunate that, you know, we have great staff there. You know, they have a lot of background. We even have staff that are retired, that are helping as well. So, you know, that says a lot about, you know, their value and their mission. It's also finding people. You know, the job market is really tough, especially to recruit for government positions. I've known a lot of people within industry, title and escrow, who would are very interested in coming here, but the compensation is this challenging. So, you know, I appreciate the support of the Chair. I appreciate the support of our HR department to to work along with me and collaborate, to actually try to do some creative things to bring in more people. But it's actually, you know, staff and staff. 

Dan: We watch the the foot traffic coming in and out of the BOC, it strikes me that probably, of all the DLNR divisions, you have more personal touch with people on a daily basis. And so are you? Do you really look for people that have those customer services?

Mike: Absolutely, absolutely. So you know, we have two areas. We have our public reference room where you see all the public come in, and we have a recording section where more of the professionals come in. In some situations, a public comment comes in to record name changes or something that they're not familiar with. So we'll try to help them out. But more so it's our public reference room, and that's where, you know, people can come in and take a look at the books, get access to the maps, get documents, get certified documents. So, you know, we value that opportunity to support the people, because there's professionals who would come in and they know what they're doing, but it's, it's when the, you know, the kupunas, come in and they're trying to find information about their property, because something's happening, you know, we want to take extra care for them, because we have to be aware that this process or Real Estate is it's very complicated. Getting information from a government entity is very complicated. So, you know, we need people who can have, you know, awareness, appreciation and aloha to help you know their peer. 

Dan: On the surface, it seems like it may be sort of mundane, but in reality, if you're interested in history of the islands in particular, there's a wealth of there's a wealth of information.  

Mike: And you know, that's, that's where the, you know, the title people, or you know, even the abstractors, you know, who do legacy work or genealogy work. I mean, it's fascinating. What we have our resources. So, you know, we'd encourage anybody to come in, we do title tours that if people come in, we can explain the process, we can show them our resources, because it is a cultural asset. It's a value, and we're proud to make it available to the public and support their access to it. 

Patti: We kind of like to open the floor up to you. And what do you think would be important for people to know about the bureau, about yourself and your background? 

Mike: It's not about me. It's about the team. You know, I just work with the team. So it's more about, you know, what do we do as a bureau? What do we do as a service to the public? Make the documents available, accessible online, and, you know, at at our offices, and also, you know, try to extend the services to our neighbor island peers. We want to make sure that, you know when they come in. Unfortunately, sometimes they do have to come in, but if we can put more resources or data available online, which is part of the five year plan, they won't have to come here. And you know, I'm fortunate that your chair supports that at some point in time. You know, we do, you know, want to look at, you know, some type of support entities from the Bureau on our neighbor island. We do have a large department with different offices that perhaps we could leverage and have presence there at some point in time. But right now, it's just a matter of, you know, trying to maintain our systems and understand it. I'm fairly new, and, you know, once, once we get a little bit more settled Absolutely, and that is, the plan is to make it more accessible for all. 

Dan: Periodically, we hear information about the the monthly recordings, and I'm just doing a time check in current time, how is the real estate industry, and I guess we're talking about residential real estate industry doing in terms of your recordings, because that's really a bellwether for showing how healthy it is. 

Mike: It's, it's a lot, it's, it's not only the residential recording. There's various steps they're recording, but overall, you know what I'm hearing from the industry, it is a little slower. I think I just saw article this morning, that is down 13% but you know, there's still it's that's not sales, there's other aspects of transactions that we still have the volume, and you know, we have to provide support for that. 

Patti: So we know that people form opinions about different agencies like the DLNR, and we're wondering, what are you doing to engender like a positive flavor, day in and day out, with all the all that public facing work that you do.

Mike: Well, first, it starts with the staff. You know, happy staff, you know, you know, we'll treat people better, so we have to take care of the staff, and you know, we have to be available for them. You know, a lot of times, you know, some of the comments is, you know, you don't get back to me fast enough or not. So that's where we really try hard to get back to people as soon as possible. We want to provide them a lot of good information. And a lot of people would call and they don't know what we do. So I've received calls about probate, marriage certificates, various so what I tell them is, stay on the line. Let me take a look at online, and I'll try to find a resource for them, because I don't want to just say, Oh, go look for a number and call this number. I'm going to tell you exactly how to do it, and if they have an email, I've documented other agencies that would have that resource so that that individual, even though they called the wrong place, per se, we're still part of the government. We have to work collaborative, collaboratively with one another to actually provide that service, regardless of who it is and what they're asking for. 

Dan: You could and have worked many other places,  

Mike: Absolutely.  

Dan: So why DLNR? 

Mike: You know, it's, it's someplace I worked before, and I've always been interested in real estate, actually administration. And you know what was really nice. It's, you know, getting to know the chair and deputy, you know, their their passion, you know, and their purpose is just amazing, and it's something, you know, to be really proud of. In addition the current staff at the Bureau, you know, they work hard. They're nice people. They celebrate. They work hard. And, you know, like any job, it's about the people. And fortunately, you know, it's within the bureau staff. It's one administration here, it's other administrators here. There just seems to be such a value of kuleana and aloha here. 

Patti: On that note, that wraps it up for this episode, mahalo Mike.

Dan: And Mahalo to our listeners for joining us today. I'm Dan Dennison.

Patti: And I'm Patti Jette.  

Dan: Our theme music is provided by Kawika Kahiapo 

Patti: Thanks for tuning in to Hawaii Conservation Kuleana A hui hou. 

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