Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 10, 1 October 1986 — Community Meetings [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Community Meetings

By Moanikeala Akaka Trustee, Hawaii

We as Trustees of the i Office of Hawaiian Affairs only visit the outer islands onee a year and are obligated to have community meetings for our consti- | tuents. For months now on Lanai, Kauai and now here on the island of Hawai'i, there have been no community meetings whereas, nreviously these

gatherings have been held in Keaukaha, Naalehu, Kona and Kohala as the trustees circle this aina. Our constituents have shown eoneem as meetings with the people we represent is an obligation of all trustees and other public officials. This General Election there will be five trustee seats open as Maui, O'ahu and three at-large seats are up for re-election. For a more effective Office of Hawaiian Affairs we need trustees who are more accountable to our people; we need to elean house and must have eompletely new faces and an infusion of "new blood" in

selection as new trustees, not those who have failed OHA and the Hawaiian people in the past. One trustee running for re-election has not been attending meetings for months. This same trustee has not heldone meeting of the important Ceded Lands Committee he was selected to head by the past ehaimnan in October, 1985. We need trustees for OHA that care, who have vision, foresight and that want to work together in unity not discord in the ohana spirit towards bettering the conditions of our people whieh is OHA's constitutional mandate. The Hawaiian people abne ean make OHA work by electing active, responsive and responsible trustees. Malama pono. Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono.