Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 12, 1 December 1997 — Change at OHA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Change at OHA

IF SOMEONE owes you $100 and charges you an additional $25 to do research what wouid you do? A. Pay the person $25 additional dollars; or

B. Deduct the $25 from the $ 1 00 he owes you. The state has "requested" OHA pay $425,000 for an inventory of ceded lands. Two altematives were put forth: Pay the state in cash, or deduct $425,000 ffom the $9,900,000 the state owes OHA for airport landing fees. Guess whieh altemative OHA's "leadership," DeSoto, Beamer, Apoliona, Machado and Springer selected. If you chose "A" you win. They voted to pay the demand "up ffont and in cash" in trust dollars. The state will be

"requesting" up to $1 miliion soon becau.se $425,000 isn't enough. And there's more . In the long tradition of "taking care of your ffiends" the "leadership" voted five to one on Nov. 10 to promote a "loyalist" to "chief of staff." First they eliminated the "board liaison"

position recommended by State Auditor Marion Higa. That position (SR24),paid $41,000 yearly. In its plaee, they created the "chief of staff to the chair" position (SR31), paying $52,000. The civil service pay range for an SR 24 position is $37,464 to $53328; for the newly created SR 31 the range is $51,264 to $72,948, a whopping maximum difference of $19,000! The five who voted for this ruse could argue that

the lucky loyalist is the best person for the job; however we'll never know because OHA (an equal opportunity employer), will not plaee an ad to recruit the best person for the job. Why? You'll have to ask the new ieaders. Obviously, one problem is that if OHA advertised, others more qualified would apply for the job. Every other SR 31 position at OHA requires a degree lfom an accredited college, but the "new leaders" added to the "minimum qualifications section" the phrase, "or seven years of job-related service." Guess who doesn't have a college degree. As a dissident member of the Senate in 1984, 1 remember "phantom legislation" appeared when senators voted to reward employees appointed by the govemor by granting them civil service status. Then-Sena-tor Ben Cayetano admonished the legislation asking, "Who is this for and why are we taking care of him?" Properly, legislators were criticized for taking care of their loyal, politi-cally-connected flunkies through the "old boy network."

And there's more. That same day the leadership voted five to one to conduct a $500,000 witch hunt/audit of OHA despite Manon Higa's conclusion that OHA's portfolio growth resulted from sound management. That $500,000 could be leveraged to build homes for Hawaiians, bus immersion students ffom Wai'anae and the North Shore to Anuenue School in Palolo, expand Hawaiian language on Lanai, pay for preschool education at Hana, computerize schools in Hawaiian areas or address the laek of a kidney dialysis facility on Moloka'i. Three leadership members said they ran on the platform of change at OHA. Based on these decisions, change means paying the state in cash when the state still owes OHA money. Change means not advertising for the best people to work for Hawaiians. Change means spending $500,000 to conduct witch hunt/audits to find "something wTOng." Sadly, change evidently means the new leadership is at work spending Hawaiian beneficiary tmst funds foolishly. ■

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