Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 1, 1 January 1995 — Business as usual at OHA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Business as usual at OHA

by Rowena Akana T rustee- At-Large On Friday, December 2, 1994, a swearing-in ceremony and organizational meeting of the Board of Trustees was held, during whieh a chair and vice-chair of the Board

were elected. The agenda of this meeting was set by the sitting chair (prior to his re-election), without allowing other trustees the opportunity to discuss with potential nominees their vision for the future of this office, as has

been the tradition at OHA since its inception. Although the organization of committees appears on the agenda for a BOT meeting of 1 2/8/94, the bloc that voted for the re-election of Clayton Hee had aheady discussed committee chairs and composition weeks prior to the organizational meeting. Trustees assigned committee chairs during these informal, closed-door negotiations include: Abraham Aiona, Budget, Finance and Policy; Moanike'ala Akaka, Planning, Eeonomie Development and Housing; A. Frenchy DeSoto, Legislative Review; and Samuel L. Kealoha, Education and Culture. We ean safely assume that Clayton Hee will also continue in his capacity as chair of the

Ad Hoe Committee on Entitlements, further underscoring his ongoing abuse of power. By his own admission, Clayton Hee learned his style of leadership in the Legislature. As he said during the meeting of December 2, "I grew up under Henry Peters

and graduated under Dickie Wong. ... I like Dickie Wong's style more than Henry's." In a similar vein, Abe Aiona, Trustee Hee's closest ally on the Board (who was re-elected as vice-chair at the same meeting), stated that, "It's eom-

mon practice within legislative bodies, that are elected bodies, for people to organize as soon as they are elected into office. You look at the Legislature, the moment the election is pau, they're already organizing." As newly elected Trustee Billie Beamer pointed out. the problem with this perspective is that "this is not a legislative body. This is a trust, as iterated many times by the Legislative Auditor." As trustees of a public trust, OHA Trustees have a fiduciary responsibility to all of the beneficiaries. This important difference between a trust and a legislative body requires organizational strategies different from those at the State Capitol. While Trustee

Aiona may "see nothing wrong with us coming up with a slate, if there is a slate," OHA's trust beneficiaries are poorly served by back-room deal making and legislative "business as usual." When asked specific questions about what he plans to do for the next two years as Chair, Trustee Hee answered with generalities, using his evasive, politician's stvle to refer the aues-

tions back to the Board and avoid personal responsibility. I asked "what his plans are for the next two years, in terms of the ceded land trust budget (that this Board has been asking him for the last two years), to discuss how mueh of the money that is now deposited with First Hawaiian Bank ean be used for the programs that the various Trustees and their committees have wanted. For instance, edueahon, heahh, culture, housing and various other things." It is important to some trustees, and incredibly important to our beneficiaries, that concrete questions addressed to potential chairs about how they

plan to lead the Board are met with concrete answers. As an important part of maintaining the status quo, the trustee receiving the most votes in the recent OHA election (myself) and the trustee with the most seniority (Moses Keale) were both prevented from assuming any committee chairs. Despite our clear popular mandate, Trustee Keale and

myself remain exiled in Siberia, as punishment for our continued and outspoken criticism of Clayton Hee's leadership - or laek thereof. The one bright spot that shines through the dismal prospect of two more years of business as usual is the eleehon of a tough, independent-minded new trustee, Billie Beamer.