Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 10, 1 ʻOkakopa 1989 — OHA Board Business [ARTICLE]

OHA Board Business

By Ed Miehelman Public Information Officer

The OHA Board of Trustees held two special board meetings during the month of September, 1989. Both were convened to consider separate issues whieh required immediate board action. A previously scheduled community and board meeting Aug. 25 and 26 on Lana'i had to be postponed. The first special meeting took plaee at OHA's Honolulu office on Saturday, Sept. 2. The trustees present were Chairman Kaulukukui and Trustees Akaka, Burgess, Ching, DeSoto, Hao, Kahaialii and Mahoe. Trustee Keale was excused. The board unanimously accepted a recommendation from the committee on external affairs to concur with the revised Honokahua burial site agreement and to authorize the chairman to act as signatory for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Details of the agreement and the signing ceremony are set forth in separate stories in this edition of Ka Wai Ola O OHA. The second special meeting was held Friday, Sept. 8, also in the Honolulu office. Present were Chairman Kaulukukui and Trustees Akaka,

Burgess, Ching, Hao, Kahaialii and Mahoe. Trustees Keale and DeSoto were excused. The board unanimously adopted two items recommended by the Committee on Native Hawaiian Status and Entitlements. 1. The first action authorizes OHA to file an "amicus curiae," or friend of the court, brief supporting plaintiffs Kaolelo Lambert John Ulaleo and the Pele Defense Fund in their federal suit challenging a Big Island land exchange for the purposes of geothermal development. The suit, Ulaleo v. Paty, Civ. No. 88-00320, claims that the exchange of 27,785 acres of state ceded lands at Wao Kele 'O Puna and the Puna Forest Reserve for 26,000 acres of privately owned Campbell Estate lands at Kahauale'a is a breach of the ceded lands trust.

The board's action requests that the legal services required for the preparation of the amicus brief be provided through the appointment of a special deputy attorney general. State Attorney General Warren Price was requested to appoint attorney Sherry Broder to handle the case. 2. On a separate matter, the board authorized the following actions in response to the announced federal auction of Makahu'ena Point Light at Po'ipu, Kaua'i: a. That the Office of Hawaiian Affairs publicly urge a moratorium on the sale of Makahu'ena Point Light and all other federal properties — ceded and non-ceded — as a national act of good faith and intent to address the still-unresolved land claims of the Native Hawaiian people; b. That letters to the Hawai'i Congressional delegation and other federal leaders be transmitted stating the OHA position on a moratorium and requesting legislation expressly exempting Hawai'i from the requirement of forced actions on federal lands.

The regular September meeting of the Board of Trustees was scheduled for Sept. 30, on the island of Moloka'i. An account of that meeting will be published in next month's Ka Wai Ola O OHA. This month the OHA Board of Trustees will conduct public hearings on the Blueprint for Native Hawaiian Entitlements. All hearings will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. On Monday, Oct. 16 hearings will be held at: Kaua'i — County Council chambers, Lihue Moloka'i — Kaunakakai School cafeteria, Kaunakakai Hawai'i — Hawai'i County Council room, Hilo; and Kealakehe Elementary School cafeteria, Kailua-Kona. On Tuesday, Oct. 17, hearings will be held at: Lana'i — Lana'i School library, Lana'i City O'ahu — State Capitol auditorium, Honolulu Maui — County Council chambers, Wailuku Mainland hearings are also scheduled. On Friday, Oct. 20 hearings will be held in Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles. On Monday, Oct. 23, hearings will be held in Salt Lake City, the Washington, D.C. area and in Seattle. Locations are being confirmed and will be announced through loeal area Hawaiian organizations and loeal media.