Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 1, 1 January 2016 — COURT FINDS STATE ILLEGALLY DENIED FUNDS TO DHHL [ARTICLE]

COURT FINDS STATE ILLEGALLY DENIED FUNDS TO DHHL

Contributed by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation After an eight day trial that concluded in July, First Circuit Court Judge Jeannette Castagnetti has ruled that the State violated its constitutional duty by its continuing failure to provide adequate funding to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL). In a 40-page decision issued in late November, the court, eoncluded, "the legislature has failed to appropriate sufficient sums to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for its administrative and operating budget in violation of its constitutional duty to do so. This failure includes every fiscal year since at least 1992." In her ruling Judge Castagnetti noted that the "DHHL suffers from a laek of funding and staffing, whieh adversely affects beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust." In fiscal year 2009, the legislature provided DHHL with less than $900,000 in general funds for its administrative and operating budget. For the next four fiscal years, the legislature appropriated no general funds to DHHL. Funding was only restored after the Hawai'i Supreme Court ruled in 2012 "the State has failed, by any reasonable measure ... to provide sufficient funds to DHHL." For the last three years, the legislature has provided $9.6 million to the department. Decem-

ber's court ruling will require that the legislature appropriate at least $28 million to the department for this coming fiscal year. In her ruling, Judge Castagnetti also concluded that the Hawaiian Homes Commission has a "duty of loyalty to the beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust - not the governor or the Department of Budget and Finance." "Insofar as the years of underfunding by the State continued to plaee DHHL in the intolerable position of having to use the Department's own funds ... to pay for its administrative and operating expenses, it was beyond the bounds of reasonable judgment for the DHHL Defendants to not take action, to not file suit against the State and to oppose Plaintiffs in this case," Castagnetti said. Six native Hawaiians: Richard Nelson III, Kelii Ioane, Sherilyn Adams, Kaliko Chun, James Akiona and Charles Aipia, filed this lawsuit I in 2007. Akiona and Aipia have since died. According to Kaliko Chun, "This suit was filed on behalf of all native Hawaiians; to make the State live up to its constitutional obligation; to get DHHL the money it needs; to get Hawaiians off the waitlist and back on the land; and to get DHHL to act like a trustee." ■ This is part of a seri.es of case highlights provided by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp.