Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 17, Number 3, 1 March 2000 — BOARD BUSINESS [ARTICLE]

BOARD BUSINESS

$400,000 plus in community funding, legislative plan B v Paula Durbin MORE THAN $400,000 in funding to benefit the Hawaiian community was approved by the Board of Trustees at its Feb. 1 1 meeting on Moloka'i. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs' funding will be awarded as follows: • $345,841 toward the construction, on Moloka'i, of the Ho'olehua Recreation Center, including an equipped, commercially certified kitchen, a collaborative project with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for the use of all beneficiaries whether or not they are homesteaders; • $46,740 to Alu Like Ine. for the continuation in fiseal 1999-2000 of its Native Hawaiian Substance Abuse Prevention Project; • $10,000 to Papa Ola Lōkahi for the annual traditional healing practices conference at Lapakahi, Hawai'i. Additionally, the board adopted, with respect to streets being returned by the Navy to the City and County of Honolulu, a resolution supporting the restoration of Hawaiian street names representative of the history of Kalaeloa, formerly known as Barber's Point. It also approved a resolution setting forth its agreement

with the submission of the Ho'oulu Mea Kanu native plant project to the Administration for Native Americans for funding. The board deferred consideration of funding for a feasibility study and business plan for the Hāna Community and the Hāna Community Heahh Center campus; the Hāna Community Heakh Center; and the Hāna Community Summer School Project. Legislative plan On Jan. 27, the OHA Board of Trustees approved a legislative plan that includes the reintroduction in 2000 of all pending OHA bills submitted in 1999. These include measures providing for the following: • the requirement OHA be a party to all quiet title actions concerning kuleana land in escheat cases, where there appears to be no heir; • a requirement OHA be a signatory to all transactions regarding Hawaiian lands; • OHA representation on the Board of Land and Natural Resources, the Land Use Commission, the Commission on Water Resources and the Hawai'i Tourism Authority; • the involvement of OHA in the leasing of govern-ment-owned Hawaiian fishponds; • bus transportation for public school immersion students; • an appropriation for infrastructure improvements in Maunalaha; • an appropriation for infrastructure in Kīkala-

Keōkea; • the participation of OHA trustees in the state retirement system; • tuition waivers for Hawaiians at the University of Hawai'i; • preparation of a cultural impact statement as part of any environmental review required under the law; • the purchase of certain homestead leases for $1; • exemptions from the fees charged by the Department of Heahh for documents required to verify Hawaiian ancestry; • proper labeling of aquatic food grown, manufactured, significantly processed or landed in Hawai'i; • coordination by the state auditor of a resolution of public land trust issues. The board also approved the submission in 2000 of several OHA "short form" bills to allow OHA, if necessary, to address contingencies as follows: • the outcome of Rice vj. Cayetano, in the event of a decision unfavorable to the State of Hawai'i; • Hawaiian entitlements, in view of the state's inahility to produce an inventory of ceded lands and distribute 20 percent of ceded land revenues; • beneficiary entitlements, if the legislature does not act favorably on OHA-sponsored bills relating to Kīkala-Keōkea and/or Maunalaha; • trustee retirement, in case existing bills may be stalled in committee. ■