Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 13, Number 9, 1 September 1996 — What kind of trustee do you want? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

What kind of trustee do you want?

By Billie Beamer T rustee-at-Large When I was elected, I thought trustees would serve according to the constitutional authority delegated to the beneficiaries who elect nine trustees, eaeh with equal power to

serve them. Instead, I found a controlling hui that claimed it was pono to heeome subservient to the chair and vice-chair as they had done. This hui was only concerned with spending the vast inheritance OHA had eome into, everything else was neglected. Records were outdated, reporting was non-existent, trustees did not know the value of the trust, the budget or the value of

the investment they were supposed to manage, they left it to Hee and Aiona and their figurehead administrator. To represent the beneficiaries by being able to plaee items for action on the agenda was

denied unless I relinquished my accountability to them. When I asked for records and made this public information available to the beneficiaries I was called a liar and not Hawaiian. What happened? Beneficiaries let go of the reins of control. Disgust and apathy took over and trustees with no one to answer to ran amok. We built up a high paying dysfunctional bureaucracy, paying more to operations and contractors than the beneficiaries received in benefits. Far better we just prorate the millions received to the beneficiaries as the Indians.

NOW IS THE TIME FOR ANOTHER ELECTION. YOU ANSWER THE HARD QUESTIONS. IF YOU DON'T LIKE WHAT IS GOING ON LOOK IN THE MIRROR AND ASK YOURSELF, IF YOU WERE A TRUSTEE, WOULD YOU:

• Give your authority to the chair or the hui? • Let them decide how and who will receive the near $200. in travel funds? • Permit the continued control tactics to prevent any contributions to the agenda? • Suspend prevailing policies and rules of order to do as you please, ignore any parliamentary procedure when it suits their need? Hire an adminis-

trator by casting aside procedures? • Allow administrators to run operations witli an unlimited budget, without annual performanee evaluations, without accountability? • Give these administrators

unlimited authority to hire whomever they wish at whatever salary. • Serve without receiving monthly financial reports, fiscal controls, or audits? • Accept denial of your requests for an accounting of the $300 million valuation of OHA? • Accept their refusal to give you a detailed accounting of the investment portfolio of $260 million for the management

fees and brokers commissions? • Operate without an expenditure plan and spend like a spoiled heir? • Deny you the right to communicate with beneficiaries by mail outs? • Allot only $179,000, less than one percent of the cash we have invested, to assist the needy, bedridden, infirmed, etc. And, of the 611 who asked for help, make awards to only 306, for an average of $586? But contemplate giving two non-Hawaiians $700,000 for a CD dictionary? • Serve for twelve years and never bother to leam what OHA'S budget is, what the total valuation is of $300 million, what our investment portfolio is, or not receive any management audits? • Never question the inner mismanagement, but hire a PR Firm for $300,000 to tell you how good OHA is? THE LIST IS EXHAUSTING. TELL ME HOW YOU WOULD ACHIEVE PONO, BY BEING QUIET AND SWALLOWING THIS TYRANNY OF CONFUSION AND

INEPTITUDE? ONLY BENEFTCIARY CONCERN CAN CORRECT THE FRIGHTENING PROBLEMS ALREADY THE STATE IS TAKING OVER YOUR POWER BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT INTERF.STED. THE FOUR PLAINTIFFS CHALLENGING THE HSEC ELECT!ON ARE TRYING TO PROTECT OUR BENEFICIARY AUTHORITY, MONIES AND LAND INTEREST. In November we will be voting for four tmstees. Check the candidate's knowledge of what's going on. WE NEED MORE INDEPENDENT TRUSTEES. O'AHU VOTERS, COMPRISE 68 percent OF THE TOTAL VOTE, USE IT WISELY. HAWAIIAN TALK COMES AFTER WE PUT OUR HOUSE IN ORDER. If any of the candidates wish information eome see me or eall 594-1872 or 521-2256 for a packet of information. VOTE, SUT BE INFORMED.