Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 5, 1 May 2007 — What is an OHA trustee? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

What is an OHA trustee?

Many people have asked me: "What is an OHA trustee? Is there a difference between an OHA trustee and a trustee of the Bishop Estate or Lili'uokalani Trust?" The answer is yes and no. A trustee is generally defined as one to whom property is legally committed in trust. The position

carries with it a multitude of legal commitments and responsibilities. There is, of course, the sacred obligation to carry out the terms of the trust; do what the founder of the trust wanted to have done. Additionally, a trustee is required to protect the trust corpus, the estate, against depletion and, in fact, to grow the estate through prudent investment practices that produce ineome exceeding expenditures. Within those and other general charges lie obligations such as the duty to avoid conflicts between the trust's and the trustee's interests and the need to protect the confidentiality of trust affairs. Trustees must work together and cooperate always with the same objective: to preserve the trust and carry out its mission. Trustees must keep uppermost the thought that everything they do must be designed to protect and grow the trust. The manner in whieh OHA trustees are "appointed" - by election - places them in a unique, even anomalous, situation. At any time, on any issue, a trustee may ask himself, "How will this decision affect me in the next election?" The answer, of course, is that it doesn't matter how it might affect a trustee's re-election; he is bound, as a trustee, to make the decision that will fully and legally accomplish the obligation to

provide for the betterment of Native Hawaiians. OHA trustees are subject to the same general rules of "righteous" conduct as are other trustees. They are governed by the same legal obligations and limitations mentioned above. In fact, most of those universal rules are set forth generally in Hawai'i Revised Statutes, Chapter 10, whieh establishes the purpose of the office and the general powers of the trustees. On behalf of the "estate" of OHA, trustees may acquire, manage, sell and dispose of real and personal property and manage the proceeds of any sale. The trustees are specifically charged with formulating policy regarding the affairs of native Hawaiians and Hawaiians. More specifically, and most important, an OHA trustee is required to "[o]therwise act as a trustee as provided by law." One troublesome area in the management of OHA's affairs has been the laek of a clear and coherent policy and strategy governing the acquisition of real property. Up to now, it has been "catch as catch ean." That cannot continue. As mueh as we and the Hawaiian community may feel the desire and the need to acquire real property for the purpose of adding to the trust corpus or preserving parts of the 'āina that are important to our culture and our heritage, we must be sure that we have or ean establish programs that will minimize the danger that the cost of maintaining the particular property will "eat up" the trust assets. For example, the acquisition of Waimea Valley, as important as the ahupua'a is to the preservation of our culture, ean heeome a huge mistake if we cannot develop the means of acquiring funds to maintain the property and establish cultural programs there. I am happy to report that we are working on establishing a policy governing real property acquisition and are already guiding our actions by most of its still preliminary principles. S

— LEO 'ELELE ■ TRUSTEE MESSAGES

Walter M. Heen TrustEE, O'ahu