Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 2, Number 7, 1 July 1985 — Our Chairman [ARTICLE]

Our Chairman

Chairman Joseph Kealoha of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs should be reprimanded for refusing to allow any discussion of the beach people to eome before the Board of Trustees at our May 30 meeting in Hilo. We trustees meet together as a full body to make decisions affecting you, our people, onee a month, and the deadline for arrests of people on Waimanalo Beach was May 31. Chairman Kealoha's dictatoral attitude sabotaged any discussion that would have helped to resolve the homeless situation. This is not befitting a democracy . I thought we trustees were elected because we as Hawaiians want to help resolve our peoples' problems. It is a sad state of affairs when we trustees who were elected "to help better the conditions of our people" are denied the opportunity to discuss the most vulnerable of our constituents — those "homeless" families forced to live on our beaches. This laek of leadership, care, compassion and eoneem most seriously also shows a fear of participatory democracy, a condition unbefitting the Chair of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. E kala mai ia'u for bringing pilikia to your attention, but as your elected representative, I believe in accountabi!ity to my constituents, and a true government of the people, by the people and for the people. After all, I was born on the Fourth of July. Malama pono.