Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 10, 1 October 1995 — Trustees change OHA course, fire Carpenter [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Trustees change OHA course, fire Carpenter

by Patrick Johnston The Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees has voted to fire administrator Dante Carpenter and

has appointed former deputy administrator of operations Linda Colburn as "interim temporary" administrator until a replacement is found.

Sesnita Moepono will continue as deputy administrator of operations until the new administrator is hired and chooses deputies. The decision to fire Carpenter

eame during an Aug. 30 special meeting of the Board. At that meeting the board defeated, by a margin of 5-4, a favorable report on Carpenter's performance submitted by an ad hoe committee to evaluate the administrator. Members of the board then voted, also by a margin of 5-4, to accept a minority dissenting report by Tmstee Billie Beamer that was critical of Carpenter and asked for his removal. Imbedded in that decision was an understanding that, by accepting the recommendation of the minority report, trustees were effectively terminating Carpenter's contract. The Board then passed, this time by a margin of 6-2, a third motion that set August 31 as Carpenter's

date of termination and gave him one month severance pay. Trustees held another meeting on September 7 to provide follow-up discussions on the termination decision and to vote on interim measures to continue OHA operations until a new administrator is chosen. The initiative to remove Carpenter was precipitated by Beamer's report, undertaken as a member of the evaluating ad hoe committee and was supported by Trustees Keale, Akana, Kamali'i and DeSoto.

Opposing them was C h a i r m a n Clayton Hee and Trustees A b r a h a m Aiona, Samuel Kealoha, and Moanike'ala

Akaka. Beamer cited a number of reasons for her critical evaluation of Carpenter. A major issue was her eoneem that the administrator did not work closely enough with all

tmstees, instead putting the interests of the ehaiiman, the vice-chairman, and other Hawaiian organizations above those of the whole board. She was especially critical of a number of financial transactions carried out by the administrator, allegedly without authorization by the Board.

She also felt the office needed stricter audit controls, tighter līnaneial management, and more rigorous personnel regulations, initiatives that she says should have been continued on page 16

Dante Carpenter

Billie Beamer

Carpenter firing from page 1

undertaken by the administrator. Other major Beamer criticisms included what she felt was insuf¥icient reporting about OHA officers and programs and Carpenter's disregard of tnistee inquiries about those programs. She also felt he was chronically late in submitting important reports and attending meetings. "We must recognize an inelinahon to shield inefficiency with the protective arms of our Hawaiianess." she said in her report. "And we must not turn away from impropriety, malfeasance and wrong doing just becau.se the perpetrator is a Hawaiian." Carpenter's respon.se - whieh included written as well as verbal testimony - tried to address the criticisms laid out by Beamer. He said in his testimony that his handling of certain financial transactions was done in concordance with OHA poliey and prcx;edure, was completely legal, and never put any of OHA trust funds in jeopardy. In response to Beamer's criticism of his work with other agencies Carpenter said he met wilh HSIA agencies only onee a monlh while he attended board and committee meetings at least three times monthly ;uid regularly met with individual trustees. He said if he was sometimes late in responding to trustees, this was becau.se of the numerous and time-con-suming demands placed on the adminis- . . . „ continued on page 18

Carpenter fromi6

trator's office. Carpenter pointed out he has spent a significant amount of time trying to upgrade the operations of the office. Results he cited were mueh needed improvements in office hardware and software and a cost-efficient move by the trustees to the 12th floor. "I am not above criticisms properly placed," Carpenter said in his testimony, "but I am not going to stand still for being called a peipetrator, one guilty of impropriety, malfeasance and wrong doing without appropriate comment to what I believe are exaggerations or, in certain circumstances, blatant untmths." His response however, was not enough to sway a majority of trustees over to his side. Because of uncertainty over OHA's leadership after Carpenter's dismissal, trustees voted unanimously at a September 7 board meeting to appoint Linda Colburn as temporary administrator. At the same meeting OHA chairman Clayton Hee attempted to reverse the Board decision to accept Beamer's dissenting report. The vote was 4-4, DeSoto absent, defeating the motion.