Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 2, Number 2, 1 February 1985 — In Agreement [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

In Agreement

By Gard Kealoha T rustee-at-Large

The recently negotiated agreement between the State Departments of Hawaiian Home Lands, Transportation and Land and Natural Resources is an excellent one. Not enough ean be said about taking a negotiated approach to difficult problem solving so

that all entities ean emerge into win-win positions. The present hakaka over the settlement requires a wise and close examination on who is making the greatest noise and who is quietly working to plaee DHHL in a position of being able to make exponential gains in the resources and revenues that is needed by our native Hawaiian people. The threats to reoccupy the Hilo airport runway should not deter a fair and complete scrutiny of all of the agree-

ment's ramifications. In recent board and committee meetings of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, suggestions to initiate a suit against the DHHL director for a breach of fiduciary responsibilities only perpetuates the kind of emotional rhetoric that goes nowhere.

OHA has consistently refused to sign a Memorandum of Agreement with DHHL and other major Hawaiian agencies for unfathomable reasons. OHA prefers litigation to negotiation with DOT. OHA has yet to sit down with DOT and DLNR in assessing their positions relative to the DHHL agreement and their present and future impacts. It is surprising that the questions that need to be asked are not being asked at all. Instead we are treated with personalized attacks on the DHHL director and on the integrity of the OHA chairman and other individual OHA trustees.

ls this an indication that we ean expect more of the same demeaning, insulting, irrational diatribe to continue? That kind of ho'onaukiuki is detrimental to the ultimate effectiveness of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and will continue to insure that the public at large will remain largely unsupportive of a sadly misled and contentious leadership.