Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 11, 1 November 1993 — OHA Board Business [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA Board Business

Na kuleana a ka Papa Kahu waiwai

by JefT Clark Assistant Editor

The Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs held its regular monthly business meeting at McVeigh Hall in Kalaupapa, Moloka'i on Sept. 28, 1993. Seven of the nine trustees were present; Trustees A. Frenchy DeSoto and Moses Keale were excused. The Moloka'i meeting marked the end of this year's circuit of neighbor island meetings; it was held in Kalaupapa at the request of Moloka'i trustee Samuel Kealoha, Jr. Protocol for civic clubs convention The trustees voted to provide $8,000 in special funds to cover expenses associated with providing cultural assistance to the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs at its convention in Las Vegas Oct. 27-31. OHA's culture officer and culture specialist were to assist with planning and implementing the convention's opening ceremonies, whieh were to be held on sacred Paiute Indian land.

The funding was requested because the culture office's protocol budget cannot be used for out-of-state travel, hotel, per diem, and other expenses. Land and sovereignty committee report Trustee Kīna'u Boyd Kamali'i, chair of the Committee on Land and Sovereignty and OHA's representative to the Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commission, shared the schedule of statewide public meetings the commission was to hold in October. At the request of Trustees Akana and Kealoha, Kamali'i agreed to provide the board with minutes of the eommission's meetings. There being no further business on the agenda, the board adjoumed.

****************** The Board of Trustees held a meeting on Sept. 10, at OHA. All trustees were present.

Sovereignty commission funding The board voted to provide $210,000 in special funds as the matching share of the cost of funding the state Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commission, as called for in Act 359. The approval carried the stipulation that the funds not be directly related to the commission's Mainland representative, because, according to Trustee Kamali'i, the governor acted beyond his authority in appointing him. The board voted unanimously to write a letter to Gov. John Waihe'e asking him to identify the basis of authority he exercised in making that appointment. Sovereignty commission refreshments The board approved releasing $5,000 from the OHA 'Onipa'a ribbons and T-shirts proceeds to fund a Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commission "protocol

fund" to provide meals and refreshments at the commission's regular and public meetings. The request was made because neither the commission's $420,000 in funding nor the budget of the agency administering the eommission, the Office of State Planning, ean be used to provide meals and refreshments.

Geothermal royalties ealeulation The board voted to approve the 'net back' method and formula to calculate geothermal royalties due OHA, the state and Hawai'i county, "as a fulfillment of fiduciary responsibility and not, in any way, as an approval of this particular project or of any future geothermal development." The net back method seeks the halanee between the "fair retum" for a high-risk, high-capital investment and required revenues to the public trust for mineral rights use. The "percentage of proceeds" method generates more initial revenue, but the eumula-

tive total is less. William S. Richardson resolution The board honored retired Supreme Court Chief justice and Bishop Estate trustee William S. Richardson with a resolution titled, "A sincere mahalo to William 'Eill' Shaw Richardson for bettering the conditions of the Hawaiian community while holding fast to Hawaiian culture." The resolution noted Richardson's "commitment to maintaining Hawaiian principles of the past to solve problems of the present." The next business meetings of the board are scheduled for 10 a.m. on Nov. 5 and Nov. 22 at OHA's Kapi'olani Boulevard office in Honolulu. Call the OHA Newsline at 586-3732 for meeting schedule updates.