Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 6, 1 June 1999 — Ceded lands proposal sells Hawaiians short: Desperation breeds disaster [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Ceded lands proposal sells Hawaiians short: Desperation breeds disaster

DID YOU vote to make OHA a private corporation with sole ownership of lands returned by the state to the Hawaiian people? No? Well that's what Rowena Akana, Clayton Hee and Kah Watson proposed to the govemor last month. On April 16, Trustee Akana's attomey, Kali Watson, dehvered to the govemor's office a letter, offering to "settle" the "Heely" ceded lands revenue lawsuit for $305 million and signed by Trustee Akana as chair of the OHA board, although most trustees had never read it. The state's past debt was the only issue that the board had authorized for negotiation. But, when we were finahy "allowed" to read Akana's letter, we were shocked to discover its global impheations. Tmstee Akana, backed by Trustee Hee and Attomey Watson, had offered to let the state "wash its hands" of ah future responsibihties to OHA. In exchange for ritle to a share of ceded lands and some cash, Akana had agreed to the repeal of Chapter 10, OHA's implementing legislation, and Act 304, the law giving OHA 20 percent of ceded land revenues. This "global" settlement would have set up OHA as a private "native" corporation with sole title to the lands transferred in settlement. Only a select group of OHA tmstees worked with trustee Akana and Watson on these secret negotiations. The board's own lawyer, Sherry Broder, was not informed of the settlement proposal. Even Mililani Trask, who was part of OHA's negotiating team, was unaware of Akana's plan. To her credit, when Trustee Trask finally received a copy of Akana's letter, she promptly shared its contents with all OHA trustees and staff. Trustee Trask's briefing was our first elue as to Trustee Akana's proposal on our behalf. (The press had aheady received copies.) When the excluded tmstees finally leamed the details of Akana's global settlement offer, we had deep concems: • Who would mn the new private corporation? Akana, Hee and Watson? • Where would this settlement leave the many Hawaiian groups that have argued for independence, reparations or some form of sovereignty? • What voice did the Hawaiian people have in designing this settlement?

Given these concerns, Tmstees Apoliona, DeSoto, Hao,Trask and I voted to pull out of negotiations with the state. We still want to resolve OHA's claims, but we eannot agree to a settlement that would extinguish the state's future responsibility. We cannot agree to create a private corporate holding company for Hawaiian lands without a mandate ffom the Hawaiian people! Before the vote, Akana's team attempted to trump up support for her

scheme. She threw together a rally and unsuccessfully lobbied respected Hawaiian groups such as 'Ilio'ulaokalani and the 'Aha Kua to demonstrate in favor of her settlement. They refused, but Akana went ahead with the rally anyway, spending $3000 on ads. The rally was a disaster since protesters showed up to challenge the settlement. Akana then called a press conference and blamed her failure on my aide, who had the guts to notify Hawaiians of Akana's plans. In retaliation, she tried to punish him by excluding him from executive board meetings and, as petty revenge, is now barring him from using the board copy maehine. This secretive, divisive and punitive style of leadership is deadly! It saps the morale of our staff, and prevents trustees from working together on behalf of our constituents. There are dangerous personal consequences for this brand of leadership, as the Bishop Estate trastees now know. But the damage inflicted on the Hawaiian people by a dysfunctional board wiU be far more significant in the long mn than any personal wounds suffered by individual trastees. We must overcome these petty politieal games and work together for the good of our people. If not, I ean only hope our voters will be watching and remembering whieh trastees put their own egos above their duty to the Hawaiian people! BS 4*

■ '-Ā . {