Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 2, Number 6, 1 June 1985 — DHHL Mismanagement [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DHHL Mismanagement

By Rodney K. Burgess T rustee-at-Large

Commissioners of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, appointed by the Governor, have continuously breached their fiduciary trust responsibi!ities by allowing lands to be used for purposes other than whieh they were originally intended. We are referring to homestead awards to native Hawaiians.

This airport land exchange we've been talking about since last December is another example of the continuous flagrant mismanagement of these lands. If you've been following the views of my other fellow trustees on these pages, you know we're talking about the airport lands at General Lyman Field in Hilo, Waimea Airport in Waimea and Hoolehua Airport on Molokai. A Federal/State Task Force study made 134 recommendations to the Governor as corrective action to keep DHHL on track of its intended purposes. Among two of these recommendations were: • The return of illegally conveyed lands totalling approximately 28,000 acres by the Governor within 60 days (inclusive of these three airport lands).

• Acceleration of homestead awards to the 9,000 or so families within a five-year period, many of whom have been on the waiting list for periods exceeding 25 years. It would be well to note here that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs funded $50,000 to the Task Force in order for it to properly function. Let me point out that the bulk of these lands for distribution adjoin the three airports. DHHL is currently master-planning distribution of these lands in these respective areas. We contend that awards to 9,000 families or approximately 45,000 people should be accomplished within the five-year period whereupon there will be a mass transition of our native Hawaiian people to these areas. These airports, under ajoint management agreement with the State of Hawaii and DHHL, could provide the nucleus of eeonomie opportunities to the many families who will be moving into these areas. There will be opportunities in airport concessions for the sale of our farm products, flowers, arts and crafts, transportation, U-drive, food and many other related endeavors. Those homestead lands immediately adjoining these airports should be zoned for industrial and commercial uses to further the eeonomie opportunities of the native Hawaiian. To give up these airport lands from our direct ownership and control would be to deprive the native Hawaiian of the full opportunities rightfully due them. The Task Force further recommended that the DHHL structure be scrutinized, noting in part . . . "The Task Force recommends that the public authority device be examined as a possible means of providing creative solutions to current constraints and problems of administering the Hawaiian Homes trust." Perhaps now is the time to be looking for the transfer of Hawaiian Homes trust land management under the jurisdiction of OHA as a body more accountable to the needs of our native Hawaiian beneficiaries.