The O'ahu Island Burial Council yesterday joined Hawaiian organizations, archaeologists and others who are stepping up their call that Gov. Linda Lingle take drastic steps to improve the beleaguered State Historic Preservation Division.

Laura H. Thielen, interim director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which oversees SHPD, said in response that she has spoken to division administrator Melanie Chinen and believes she is taking the right steps to fill chronic staff vacancies and address complaints about agency management.

Thielen said six out of 27 funded positions in the division are vacant. There is no archaeology branch chief or lead archaeologists on O'ahu, Maui and the Big Island, nor is there a culture and history branch chief.

About two dozen people calling themselves the Friends of the Burial Sites Program, at a press conference before yesterday's O'ahu Island Burial Council meeting, distributed a list with 21 names of division employees who have left since October 2004.

The group, comprised of Hawaiian cultural practitioners, archaeologist and community activists said their questions about staffing and other issues at SHPD over the last three years have fallen on deaf ears and that the agency's deficiencies are threatening its ability to fulfill its mandate to protect the state's burial sites and other historical resources.

"We consider it a crisis at this point," said Thomas Dye, president of the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology, comprising more than 200 archaeologists and others from across the state who have made lobbying for more staff at SHPD their top legislative priority. "They're the only people who can bring some measure of rationality to the preservation review process."

Dye said the Legislature has funded the positions. "It's the Lingle administration (that is) not filling the positions and claiming that it can't find qualified people to fill the positions," Dye said. Members of Hui Malama I Na Kupuna 'O Hawai'i Nei, Defend O'ahu Coalition and the 'Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition also were on hand to voice their outrage at the situation.

Vicky Holt-Takamine, 'Ilio'ulaokalani president, said the state should have a moratorium on all construction statewide until SHPD becomes fully staffed.

"We have thousands and thousands of burials sitting on shelves," Holt-Takamine said. "We want those burials, those kupuna, those 'iwi, back where they belong."

Very few, if any, have been repatriated in the last three years, she said. "That's unacceptable."

Late yesterday afternoon, the O'ahu Island Burial Council, which is tasked with making recommendations on inadvertent finds of burials on the island, voted 5-1 to urge the Lingle administration to step up its efforts to shape up SHPD, which provides staff support for the council.

Council member Alice Greenwood said she and her colleagues are frustrated at the lack of progress. "People fought to make sure that our 'iwi were treated right," Greenwood said. "We find our 'iwi and we don't have people to help take of them."

Thielen, who took over the department at the end of last month, said she and the governor believe the state has a trust responsibility to deal with historic preservation issues. Chinen has been "working on a plan to strengthen that division (and) we've identified the priorities for the office," she said.

Thielen acknowledged that "we do have a problem finding people with the minimum qualifications to fill vacancies" in the division. For instance, she said, six people applied for the culture and history branch chief but none met minimum qualifications.

One change being discussed is broadening minimum qualifications "so we can recruit, train and elevate people as they gain experience," Thielen said. Architecture, Hawaiian studies, urban planning and archaeology students from the University of Hawai'i's may be able to participate in internship programs, she said.

Some critics have called for Chinen's removal but Thielen said her managerial experience is moving the agency in the right direction. Most of SHPD's issues have been around since before either Chinen or Lingle entered office, she said.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.