Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 18, Number 8, 1 August 2001 — Administrator [ARTICLE]

Administrator

With respect to the quarrel about OHA's administrator reported in the the June 19 Honolulu Advertiser, I disagree completely with the opinion of Trustee Clayton Hee. OHA

needs more secrecy, not less. These public disputes only scatter the mana. All the public needs to know is that a new administrator was chosen, and the ehoiee is backed by a united board. People with questions, especially the press, ean talk to a designated spokesperson. Board members should not have personal opinions for the public, and they should not make statements or take actions that are embarrassing to the group position. Another recent example of this same kind of stupidity on the part of OHA's board was the Affaire Higa. It's bad enough when the state auditor decides to demonstrate her clinically certifiable anality at OHA's expense, OHA simply makes itself a $300 million joke when its trustees cooperate with this by publicly fighting eaeh other. Leadership does not occur among people whose only response to internal or external stress is to fight eaeh other in public. The OHA trustees seem to have forgotten already, that their broadened voter base will not support this kind of stupidity, whieh is usually dubbed, in deference to civility, "incompetence." Miehael Keolomakapu'u Pettingill Kailua