Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 8, 1 August 2010 — Let the facts speak for themselves [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Let the facts speak for themselves

n the July 20 10 issue of Ka Wai Ola, Trustee Rowena Akana again chose to criticize the current Board and committee Chairs at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. By doing so, she tries to discredit the good work her fellow Trustees do while dragging our hard-working staff into the fray. While most boards and organizations handle their differences within the confines of their offices by finding solutions and a means of mutual cooperation, Trustee Akana instead chooses to engage a one-way dialogue. I feel

an obligation to set the record straight for the sake of OHA's Trustees, administration and staff who take their jobs seriously and are committed to fulfilling our mission to improve the lives of our Hawaiian people. All Trustees were invited to attend the Goldman Sachs due diligence meetings in NewYorkin early May. Trustee Akana chose not to go; however, she point fingers at those who did attend. As is my usual practice, a trip report was submitted to CEO Clyde

Nāmu'o on June 10. In the 10 years I have been at OHA, I have never seen a trip report to all Trustees from Trustee Akana providing information on her OHA travels. The 250-page due diligence report is available for Trustee Akana's review if she is interested. As is consistent with the Beneficiary Advocacy and Empowerment (BAE) Committee and the Board of Trustees, the Asset and Resource Management (ARM) Committee schedules meetings twice a month. Eaeh committee consists of all nine Trustees, and all Trust-

ees are given meeting schedules in January; however, meetings are occasionally canceled for various reasons. Let me make clear that no meeting is canceled haphazardly or without great consideration. What puzzles me, though, is that canceled meetings are such a big issue with Trustee Akana. In 2009, 13 ARM Committee meetings were held; Trustee Akana did not attend six SEE STENDER ON PAGE 31

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(nearly 50 percent) of those meetings. Three of her missed meetings were with our investment advisers. Their reporting during volatile market times did not eoneem her enough that she would attend these meetings; but a year later, she complains that we didn't have more meetings during those difficult eeonomie times. So far in 2010, we have had 10 ARM Committee meetings and one budget workshop; Trustee Akana did not attend five (50 percent) of these meetings or the budget workshop. One of these meetings was with our investment advisers from Goldman Sachs, who were prepared to

address any due diligence questions Trustees had. She failed to take the opportunity to attend this very important meeting to discuss this matter with them. Since Trustee Akana is so bothered by canceled meetings, perhaps she will take every opportunity from here forward to attend all committee meetings. Her meeting attendance will afford her the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussion and will save our staff from having to stop their daily duties in order to prepare additional materials to answer questions she could have asked in meetings. Since she is concerned about finances, she should realize that our staffs' extra time spent on her projects do add up to additional time and costs. In my opinion, the most effi-

cient way to present OHA's budget and gather input is to file an agenda to inform the puhlie of our ARM Committee meetings and workshops that everyone is invited to attend. In addition, the budget will be posted on OHA's web site and in Ka Wai Ola in the near future. These three vehicles satisfy the requirement of eommunity outreach and provide more than ample opportunity for the community to voice their opinion. It is disappointing that in the 10 years I have served our people, Trustee Akana continues to find fault with other Trustees, with our leadership, with our staff, with our processes and with the sincere effort we, as an organization, put forth to move forward in order to better the future of our children and our 'āina. ■