Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 7, 1 July 1999 — Trustee retirement: At what cost to the trust? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Trustee retirement: At what cost to the trust?

OHA trustee participating in the plan. This minimal amount is provided to pay for anticipated funeral expenses."

KE WELLNA aloha, e nā ewe o ka 'āina. This is my 35th article in the series of 46. On May 26, at the OHA board meeting on Moloka'i six trustees (Akana, Hao, Hee, Keale, Springer, Trask) voted to "approve and authorize the Administrator to implement a supplemental retirement program for trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs." One trustee (Apohona) voted no. Trustees Machado and DeSoto were excused. As approved by the BOT majority, the basics of the program are three fold: "Upon attainment of age 60 or medical certification of disabihty, any OHA trustee would be ehgible to participate in the supplemental ineome program providing benefits up to $24,000 a year. A fuhy vested trustee would have to serve three terms or 12 years in order to be ehgible for this maximum amount. Trustees serving two terms or eight years would be ehgible for a maximum amount of $16,000, and a one-term trustee would be entitled

to $8,000. Under the proposed plan, these supplemental entitlements would be offset by any other ineome (excluding social security payments) received by the retiree. A fully vested trustee, for instance, receiving $10,000 from a City and County of Honolulu retirement plan and $4,000 from a private pension would be ehgible to receive $10,000 from the OHA program. "Health insurance (medical, prescription

drug, vision care and dental) would also be provided as a supplemental benefit. If a retired trustee were entitled to other heakh coverage, for instance, from a private pension plan, the OHA supplemental plan would not apply. "Life insurance in the amount of $7,500 would also be provided to any retired

ĪHESOURCE ofthe funding is the Native Hawaiian trust. In a June response to Chair Akana, as to whether OHA may estabhsh a retirement plan for its trustees, the board's attomey, Broder, said, "Yes." OHA was not successful at legislating retirement benefits for trustees in the 1999 legislature. During the session, Tmstees Keale and Akana and Gladys Brandt testified on SB 1314, SD2, HD1, trastee

retirement. They testified for amendments seeking retirement benehts retroactive to July 1993. The OHA trastee retirement bih failed. At the May 26 BOT meeting, my reasons for voting NO on authorizing the implementation of the supplemental retirement program for OHA trastees were two:

1 . The details of this specific trastee supplemental retirement program, as eonfirmed by the Administrator,were not slated for prior BENEFICIARY eomment, review or input prior. 2. The cost to implement this program was not disclosed in the material given to trastees for deliberation and action. Consequently, the amounī of money from the Native Hawaiian trust to fund and implement the retirement program remains unknown. So the question is what is going to be the cost to the trast? Without hearings to collect beneficiary input on this specific retirement proposal and without the cost to the trust identified, the supplemental retirement program for trastees was approved by a vote of six out of seven trastees. As another note on beneficiary input, we want to say mahalo to our Moloka'i beneficiaries who prepared and presented well-thought-out, clear and compelling testimony relating to the purchase of the Pau Hana Inn. Your comments made the difference. In our communities statewide, beneficiary views and feedback on issues will continue to be critical. E ho'omau. ■

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