Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 6, 1 June 1993 — Legislature says OK to trustee compensation [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Legislature says OK to trustee compensation

by Patrick Johnston For the first time since OHA's inception 13 years ago, trustees will be receiving a salary. Senate Bill 1027, the result of a recommendation by the legislatively appointed OHA Trustee Compensation Advisory Commission, was passed into law by the 1993 Legislature. On July 1, trustees will begin receiving an annual salary of $32,000 and the chairman $37,000, with half of the money coming from special funds and half from the state. Trustees will receive all regular state benefits except retirement. (Including retirement would have required changing a separate law). A salary commission will be set up in 1997 to make future board salary recommendations.. An individual audit of eaeh trustee suggested by the commission was replaced by a general audit of OHA every four years. Explains Mary Aragon, legislative analyst for Senate Hawaiian Programs chair, Sen, Anthony C'hang, "We researched what other trustees on the island had to do and found that they weren't subjected to an individual audit. ... We felt if they don't get audited, why should OHA trustees." Trustees will be asked to work

full time but, like elected state officials, will be allowed to have other work commitments The issue of part-time and fulltime work had divided the legislature. The original senate bill wanted the trustees to work full time with no other work commitments, the house wanted parttime. "We were thinking of giving them compensation," says Tom Okamura, Hawaiian Affairs Committee chair, "but were going to treat it as a part-time salary similar to elected officials. The Senate felt that making the wording full-time would be a more accurate reflection of how mueh time trustees put into the position. Says Aragon, "Because OHA trustees do work full-time we decided to include that language. ... it shows that they are even more entitled to salaries than legislators who only have to work part time. Up to now trustees have been paid $100 per meeting plus per diem. There was general consensus that because trustee responsibilities have increased significantly since OHA's creation, they should be adequately eompensated for the work they do. Says OHA trustee Abraham Aiona, "The demands of

Hawaiians have increased. ... they have become more aware of what OHA is supporting and what it ean do for them." In 1983 the OHA trust was $1.5 million. It is now over $20 million. With the money OHA will receive in past due revenues from the state ceded land trust, the it will be over $140 million. Legislation for trustee salaries has been debated in the House and Senate since 1987 but the only significant change in trustee ineome resulted from a 1989 bill that increased compensation for attending meetings from $50 to $100. In 1991 a study was done on alternative means of compensating trustees. The study gave impetus to the creation of the salary commission that eventually recommended compensation. The salary commission, a legislatively appointed group headed by Fred Cachola, felt that the low compensation offered to trustees restricted the position to individuals with enough money to support themselves independently or to people willing to "endure severe financial hardship or even risk bankruptcy" to hold the position. "If you want people, especially young people, to eome and run you have to pay them," Aiona ... . . «.V • / -I ■ - "

says. The commission also felt that native Hawaiians had many unmet needs and that the "pieee-

meal" compensation was not enough for trustees to adequately attend to those needs.

The Kamehameha Floral Parade wouldn't be complete without colorful pā'ū riders. For more on the parade and other holiday activities, see page 7 and the calendar on page 21 .