Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 6, 1 June 2008 — Secure and accountable [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Secure and accountable

After I began my tenn as a Trustee, I noted the security cameras in the fifth floor hahway that gives access to the Board Room, staff offices and the restrooms. Over the past several months those eameras have been criticized quite vociferously. I, being aware of the strife-torn Board meetings of the not too distant past, thought perhaps the cameras were installed to keep track of the comings and goings of any "partisans" of the individual Tmstees and to alert everyone to any problems in the hallway. However, Administrator Clyde Nāmu'o infonned me that there were other, very valid, reasons. You see, for safety reasons, the building management has directed that during working hours those doors, leading from the building's fifth floor elevators to the hallway in question are not to be locked. Consequently, the general puhlie has access from the elevators to the hallway and to the restrooms, whieh are the primary sanitary facilities for our staff members. The cameras keep a record of people coming and going to the restrooms. While some critics eomplain that the cameras are an intrusion on the privacy of the employees and are merely instruments for "spying" on them, that argument is ridiculous. In the not too distant past the men's restroom was vandalized on two occasions. The sole purpose of the cameras is to provide for the employees' safety. As Trustees we are responsible for providing a safe working enviromnent for OHA's employees. Those security cameras are simply there to provide that safe environment. And there are no security cameras at any other locations on the OHA premises. Another procedure that has caused some

eoneein among non-reflective "readers" is OHA's new "checking in and checking out" system. Those people impute evil motives to OHA's administration, again accusing it of spying on the employees. Here, again, we must bear in mind our obligation as Trustees to ensure that the trust funds are properly expended for legitimate trust purposes. One of those purposes, of course, is staff salaries. We are obhgated to ensure that the trust gets its "dollars' worth" from our staff. In return, the staff needs to be aware of their obligation to put in a full day's work. Those are the only purposes served by the new system. It is not intended or used for spying. The system is referred to as a bioscrypting system because an employee's fingerprint is recorded when he or she is checking in to work in the morning and checking out at the end of the day. Obviously, the system records whether or not an employee has put in the requisite work time. Regrettably that has not always been the case. As in any organization, certain employees report to work tardy and also leave before the end of the workday. That cannot be tolerated. The system is intended to provide for accountability on the part of the staff. Some critics have indicated that this is "overkill" because OHA already has a time card system. The long-tenn goal is to tie the bioscrypting system to OHA's time card system, whieh is called Qracle. Because the bioscrypting records the fingerprint of the employee OHA ean be assured that the person who has checked in or out is in fact an employee. A card key system with a camera aimed at the card reader would also address this eoneein. However, the building management has advised OHA that a video camera in the puhlie elevator lobby is not pennissible. In short, the systems installed by OHA serve two legitimate trust concerns: security and accountability of our employees. For the critics, I say, "Get on with your life." S

Walter M. Heen TrustEE, 0'shu