Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 12, Number 12, 1 December 1995 — We Are One People [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

We Are One People

Trustee Rowena Akana Trustee-at-large If you read Vice-Chairman Aiona's Ka Wai Ola article for this month, you will see that he somehow feels competent to

judge the behavior of the other trustees. Coming from someone who was captured on video abusing beneficiaries at a Board of Trustee meeting, this is a real case of someone failing to practice what they preach! As a for-

mer long-time poliee chief of Maui, he has never quite gotten over the strict, condescending and authoritarian attitudes that ean afflict some people caught for too long at the top of a rigid hierarchy. He ofteri flies off the handle at other trustees, staff and contractors, who he expects to just shut up and take it, like good little subservient subordi-

nates. Also highly interesting is his assertion that trustees should deal strictly with an undefined "policy" and take no interest in the personnel matters of the office. If your "leadership

team" had installed key members of this personnel when your team's power was at its height, what cagey politieian wouldn't say "hands off" when your team's power started to crumble? Such comments are ludicrous from a member of a "lead-

ership team" that has caused three wrongful termination lawsuits recently! After loud complaints from some Board members about voting $150,000 for representation in the Carpenter suit, many of these same trustees turned right around and appropriated $50,000 at the Budget committee level to defend Chairman Hee in one of these wrongful

dismissal suits. These suits have already cost us at least $37,700 in settlements and - if Chairman Hee's latest present is any indication - will doubtless cost us mueh more. Perhaps this is the kind of passive Board that Vice-Chair Aiona would like to see, a reactive one in a constant state of incredibly expensive crisis management? In addition, trustees Aiona, Akaka, DeSoto, Hee, and Kealoha recently voted to increase our annual trust fund budget by 184%. This reckless spending is even further aggravated by the incredibly high travel expenses of two trustees, Kealoha and Akaka. The trustee from Moloka'i, Samuel Kealoha, complains that some of his fellow trustees laek the blood quantum of 50%, so they should neither serve nor be entitled to any benefits. Obviously, he believes his travel expenditures of $80, 1 65 in the last three fiscal years is justified, because he has the blood quantum required to spend it. continued page 16

Akana from 13

Amazingly, Trustee Akaka succeeded in topping this princely sum. She spent $96,659 on trips and per diem in the same period. Do my travel expenses for the same period amount to only $7,230 because I laek the 50% quantum? Or is it a matter of fiscal prudence with our public trust dollars? Should we say it is okay to spend beneficiary money on ourselves if we have 50% or more Hawaiian blood? As ridiculous as that may sound, trustee Kealoha seems to think so! Since the turn of the century, foreigners have successfully divided Hawaiians using the blood quantum issue. Here we are in 1995, and this issue still divides us. Article 12, however, the amendment to the Hawaii State Constitution whieh created the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, mandates the office to manage resources and formulate policy for both Hawaiians and native Hawaiians. The direction, vision and energy of the Office of

Hawaiian Affairs should serve all beneficiaries equally. We are one people. We cannot afford to be distracted by arguments about benefits or entitlements, not when so mueh work remains to be done. I should also point out that, according to the state Department of Health, the race item on vital records is not proof of genetic extraction but is simply the race claimed by the informant. Thus, the legal determination of an individual's status as a trust beneficiary is not even made according to legal rules of evidence. The blood quantum issue will eontinue to divide us, if we allow people like Mr. Kealoha to get away with it. We must rise above the narrow and ignorant thinking of those who have hidden agendas. We must not allow them to pull us down and push us backward. We must move forward. IMUA!