Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 15, Number 5, 1 May 1998 — A tale of two searches [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A tale of two searches

ĪHE LAST sentence of my Apiil message read, "I look forward to working with them [the Hee faction. Trustees Aiona. Akana, Hee and Keale] to make this important appointment and to fulfill our obligation to the Hawaiian eommunity." This month's message expresses my great disappointment that our failure to select an interim trustee was a tale of two searches. It also documents that the roadblocks I encountered from the Hee faction early in the selection process continued to the very end. Here's the tragic way it went. • After I distributed my March 10 memo to all trustees and staff informing them I was soliciting candidates for interim tmstee, and that all applications had to

be delivered to the OHA Oifice by no later than 4:30 p.m. Monday, March 16, the Hee faction issued a "media advisory" announcing it was accepting nominations and its deadline was "postmarked by Wednesday, March 1 8." • During the March 20 board meeting. dedicated to verbal presentations or written statements from the 57 eligible eandidates, Trustee Hee left during the 12:37 break. We lost our quorum at 3:25 p.m. when Trustee Akana left. I adjoumed the meeting. asking the remaining applicants to retum the next day to make their presentations. • On March 23, after agreeing to submit the names of the two candidates of their ehoiee, one trustee in the Hee faction submitted Professor Kimura's name twice. • Tmstee Keale did not attend the March 25 meeting. The first

round of voting produced four votes for Judge Heen and three for Professor Kimura. A motion to submit both names to the govemor for his consideration failed to pass. (Tmstees Apoliona, DeSoto,Machado, Springer voted in favor; Trustees Aiona, Akana, Hee

voted against; Tmstee Keale was excused). Tmstee Hee spoke in opposition to the motion, suggesting none of the 57 candidates had achieved the two-thirds vote required for appointment. As such, he said, all applicants were "rejected by the board." • On April 1 , the Hee faction sent a letter to Govemor Cayetano recommending Professor Kimura, Louis Hao, Namaka Rawhns, Wendell Silva and Sesnita Moepono for consideration as interim tmstee. Three of these people had not even applied for the interim tmstee seat. • On April 2, the Hee faction proposed the addition of Louis Hao to OHA's list of finalists. Not onee during the discussion, nor at any time during the entire meeting, did anyone ffom that faction inform us, or the beneficiaries present, they had already sent five names to the govemor for his consideration.

The final round produced four votes for Judge Heen, one for Professor Kimura and none for Louis Hao (Tmstees Aiona, , Akana and Hee abstained when they were informed they could j vote for only one candidate). That aftemoon, I sent a formal letter to Govemor Cayetano informing him we were again deadlocked and unable to select an interim tmstee. I asked him to make his appointment ffom the three finalists: Louis Hao, Judge Heen and Professor Kimura. I close this sad tale with a heart ■ whieh is very, very heavy. My I worst suspicion was confirmed. ■ This whole exercise, for Tmstee ■ Hee and his faction, has not been ■ a search for an interim tmstee. It 9 has been a search to find ways to 9 regain control of OHA. In eon- 9 trast, my search was, and is, as it 9 always has been, for what is best 9 for OHA and its Hawaiian bene- 91 ficiaries. ■ 9

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TRUSTEE MESSAGES eh airperson?s m e s s a g e

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