Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 12, 1 December 1999 — Reflections on a year in office [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Reflections on a year in office

NOV. 24 marked my first anniversary as ehainnan of the board. I appreciate sharing with you the gratification and disappointments of this eventful year. I promised an update every six months on the board's accomplishments: • We launched a successful initiative in Washington D.C., winning the Hawaiian people and the State the support of U.S. Solicitor General Seth Waxman in Rice vs. Cayetano. Waxman's office filed one of some two dozen briefs urging the Supreme Court to consider constitutional OHA's eleetion. • We approved amendments to S. 225, a bill extending the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determi-nation Act to Hawaiians. • We awarded $116,996.60 in grants for Native Hawaiian projects. • We appropriated $1.2 million to guarantee a loan supporting Hawai'i County Department of Water Supply's application for federal funds for road construction and clearing homestead lots in Kīkala-Keōkea. • We approved funds for initiatives in

alternative education. • We voted to support the Dollars-to-Classroom Act. • We amended the Native Hawaiian

Health Care Improvement Act to widen its scope. • We appropriated $120,000 for the Moloka'i Dialysis Treatment Center and $7,200 for home kidney dialysis machines. • We approved inelusion in our money monitor's contract a provision for a "wrapped" rather than a "fixed" fee. • We resolved our Ho'oulu Mea Kanu native plant project to the ANA for funding. Regretfully, the board

appropriated only a small fraction of the puwalu. Only $243,000 was earmarked for community education by Paepae Hanohano, OHA's volunteer self-deter-mination advisory board. The request was $1,056,463 for two years.

Īhe board also deadlocked on the Native Hawaiian Heahh Care Initiative. This project aimed to supplement the Medicare Part B of 23,000 needy kupuna. On Maui, we heard three hours of testimony from kūpuna urging trustees to approve this

action item. The issue was revisited on Oahu. This time, kūpuna from neighbor islands flew in to testify in its favor. The proposed plan had been recom-

mended to the board by an independent task force made up of outstanding professionals such as former trustee Gladys Brandt, Dr. Charman Akina, and attorney Beadie Dawson. Trustees Clayton Hee, Colette Machado, Haunani Apoliona, and A. "Frenchy" DeSoto objected to appropriating a mere $43,500 to get this plan off the ground. In point of fact, Trustee Machado quipped, "Do you think that I would support

this heahh initiative, just because kūpuna eame here in a wheelchair?" Trustee Machado's eomments are hypocritical in the wake of her oath of office vowing to better the conditions of the Hawaiian people.

A recent newspaper article reported negative comments made by Trustee Mililani Trask about U.S. Senator Dan Inouye. Let me make perfectly clear that I do not condone name calling of any kind and I believe people must be responsible for their behavior and eomments. That said, the people who leaked those comments to the press should also take responsibility for their actions. Trustees DeSoto, Apoliona, and Machado took an internal tape, paid to have it transcribed, and then sent it to the Senator and to the press. All of these events are unfortunate and certainly regrettable. While I believe in freedom of speech and the right of other trustees to disagree, to do it in this manner is not only unproductive but very hurtful to our beneficiaries and to OHA as a whole. On a more pleasant note, I look back with satisfaction on the nine years of working with Trustee Moses Keale, who recently retired after nearly two decades of service. As I bid farewell to him, the longest serving trustee, and the most popular, garnering 33,000 votes in one election, it occurs to me his replacement has big shoes to fill. Finally, I wish you all a safe and very happy holiday season as you prepare to greet the new millennium. Mele Kalikimaka kākou and God bless you all! ■

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TRUSTEE MESSAGES

CHAIRPERSON'S MESSAGE

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