Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 7, 1 July 1999 — Moving Forward [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Moving Forward

AS HAWAIIANS for the next century, let's reflect on issues affecting our beneficiaries. I would like to share with you what we have done on behalf of the Hawaiian community over the last six months. Here is our "report card" since December: • We created a half-time Community Affairs Coordinator position for Lāna'i. • Gladys Brandt became director of OHA's Education Foundation. • We rectified errors discovered in our investment profile, creating a new ineome formula. • We passed a policy that requires a two-thirds vote for unbudgeted funding requests. • We established a policy for bonds by whieh our fixedineome managers would not be allowed to invest in below-yield investments. • We approved 1 1 grants

totaling $425,428 for projects ranging from transportation to Hawaiian immersion schools to prenatal programs for hāpai Hawaiians. Just six months ago, our grants department was nine months behind schedule. Now it is almost a fuU year ahead of schedule, serving our people. • We authorized OHA's eontinued participation in the Kukui o Moloka'i ine. water case. • We signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)with the State Department of Transportation for improvements to the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway in Kailua-Kona. • We voted to appropriate more than $500,000 for the renovation of Ke Kula Ni'ihau o Kekaha immersion school on Kaua'i, whieh will provide classrooms and a cafeteria. • We approved a two-year extension of the administrator's contract and clarified his responsibilities in order to streamline operations. • We resolved four workers compensation claims that had been pending for more than a decade.

• We awarded $10,000 to OHA's Education Foundation for operations. • We hired a personnel manager to align our organization with accepted employment practices. • We appropriated more than $500,000 for a legal "dream team" to represent our interests in Rice vj. Cayetano , now before the U.S. Supreme Court. • During our trips to Washington, D.C., we learned of a presidential health directive for Paeilīe Islanders and Asians.

We were instrumental in inserting language into the executive order that added our people to the list of ethnic groups eligible for funds and recognition. The order defines a Pacific Islander as "the aboriginal, indigenous native people of Hawaii and other Pacific islands within the jurisdiction of the United States." • We implemented an investment policy with the purpose of reviewing our trust asset alloeations. • We developed an Individual Development Account (IDA) program. • We approved an MOA for an H-3 Interpretative Center in collaboration with the state and federal governments. • We approved funds for the Saddle Road MOA improvement project on the Big Island. • We appropriated $120,000 for the Moloka'i Dialysis Treatment Center and $7,200 in transitional funds for home kidney dialysis machines. • We also welcomed former Department of Hawaiian Homelands Director Kali Watson to our 'ohana as a crucial player in the ceded lands negotiations.

• Preparations continue for the October Puwalu Conference. We want to educate everyone about self-determination. All Hawaiian groups will be invited. We have hired a specialist to assist with this historic event. • OHA, the Bishop Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution are planning an exhibit in Washington highlighting the history of the Hawaiian people, scheduled for about the time the Supreme Court will hear Rice. • Our steadfast commitment to our kūpuna is the basis of a Native Hawaiian Heakh Task Force to be implemented by the end of this year. As we move ahead, we must all rise to the occasion and anticipate our challenges. I hope my fellow trustees will strive to work together and keep our eyes on the prize. We must be a shining light for our people, and set a good example. As Hawaiian community leaders, we must kūkākūkā and share our mana'o. If not to us, then to whom ean our people look in the new millennium? E kūlia i ka nu'u kākou! ■

CHAIRPERSON'S MESSAGE

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TRUSTEE MESSAGES

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