Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 8, 1 August 1998 — Trustees need to be independent and loyal to the trust [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Trustees need to be independent and loyal to the trust

AS WE approach the end of summer, the rhetoric of an election year becomes more profound. Candidates point to their favorite issues and are very vocal about what they perceive to be clear answers, and people in power are working very hard to keep their power base past this year's eleetion. As I travel around the state and talk to our beneficiaries, it is clear to me that our people do not care about who is in power nor whieh trustees are not talking to the others. People care about what is being done on their behalf and want to know how soon they ean access monies for education, business, housing, heahh. Obviously, the needs of Native Hawaiians are numerous, and prioritizing how OHA

goes about fulfilling them is a tremendous challenge for trustees. This is an important time for OHA voters because five trustee seats are up for election. Voters need to be maka'ala in selecting the candidates. The easy thing is just vote for your friend. But if we want OHA's Board of Trustees to improve, voters must become more informed about the eandidates. When you vote, do you question the qualifications of your candidate? How mueh time has he/she given to the community? What motivates them to run for office at this time? ls he/she trustworthy, honest, reliable? And has he/she shown leadership ability? OHA is a public trust and must run

as a trust, and under Hawai'i law a trustee has the power to perform, without court authorization, every act whieh a prudent person would perform for the purposes of the trust. A trustee has the duty to act with due regard for the trustee's fiduciary obligation. Eaeh trustee needs to weigh independently the merits of eaeh issue and vote accordingly. It appears that no matter what people promise at election time, onee elected, they either push their own agenda or become very political. It is amazing how Mr. Ed Case (Rep., Mānoa) and others like him are still of the mentality that Hawaiians should continue to be wards of the state and other people should continue to control our lands and revenues, as we saw in this year's legislative attempts to wipe out all Hawaiian entitlements.

Enough! In this next election, let us show Hawaiian unity by removing politicians like Ed Case (Mānoa), Calvin Say ( Pālolo, St, Louis Heights), Joe Souki (Maui) and Kenny Goodenow (WaimānaloKailua). Hawaiians control 1 8 percent of the voting populaūon in Hawai'i. If we made a concerted effort in the 1998 elections to remove our enemies from the legislature and put in office those members who are pro-Hawaiian, the politicians will get the message. In the OHA race, there will be five seats open: three at-large, one O'ahu and one Maui seat. At least two board members have joined a slate of candidates that would support their unified agenda. I do not support slates because they tend to suffer from "group think" rather than indepenSee AKANA ON page 9

[?]

From page 8 dence. My response was printed in the July 7 Star Bulletin. 'The slate doesn't suggest democratic politics but rather a controlled board. It's dangerous to support a slate because the allegiance is to eaeh other, rather a than to the people. "It also suggests they would be voting

as a group, whieh isn't in the best interest of the people!" Trustees need to be independent and loyal to the trust, rather than to eaeh other (according to trust law). REMEMBER, no matter what slates may say to the voter, their unification and support for eaeh other suggests something else. We do have power: we need to exercise it. VOTE TH1S NOVEMBER! ■

Akana