Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 1, 1 January 2010 — Forging alliances for legislation [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Forging alliances for legislation

OHA has striven mightily but unsuccessfully during the last two legislative sessions to get legislation enacted that would pay OHA $200 million that the state administration agreed was due and unpaid from ceded lands revenues for the years 1978 through 2009. OHA's settlement legislation proposed to satisfy that debt by transferring specifically identified State lands to OHA for a certain value and the

remaining halanee in cash. OHA's efforts were fruitless for various reasons: some legislators attempted to impose their own ideas about how the debt should be satisfied, others felt that the debt was not owed at all; there was considerable pushing and pulling among OHA's beneficiaries and among legislators over particular parcels of real property that OHA was proposing as part of the settlement; and some legislators suggested completely different parcels. The subject matter, in the form of Senate Bill 955, SD 2, HD 3, and House Bill 901, HD 2, SD 1, reposes in conference committee. If the conferees ean agree on a hnal solution, one bill or the other could eome before the Legislature. During those two sessions I was quite active at the Legislature on OHA's behalf in trying to get the two houses to reach an agreement on the issue. That experience taught me that OHA and, indeed, Native Hawaiians in general suffer from a laek of allies. Although OHA is generally supported by the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs on most issues, and several other Hawaiian organizations and environmental groups on some issues, the rest of the community usually takes a "hands-off' attitude. And, of course, there are a number of Hawaiian organizations who oppose anything OHA proposes, usually challenging OHA's legitimacy. As a former legislator myself, I learned that every proponent of a legislative

measure needs allies within and without the Legislature to get that measure enacted. In a previous article in this newspaper, I described how OHA supported certain iniīiatives related to Mauna Kea because they were important to Hawaiians who are suffering from the eeonomie malaise we are experiencing. Those Hawaiians and other workers are sorely in need of jobs. On Moku o Keawe their plight is extremely serious. They have families to feed, bills to pay and children to

educate. The Mauna Kea initiatives are seen as providing those jobs. Those workers and their union leaders expressed sincere gratitude to the OHA Board of Trustees for their support. They know that the BOT's decision to support those workers was disappointing to many of our beneficiaries and that they could turn against us in the next eleehon. That may or may not be so; nevertheless, as Trustees we must not let ourselves be intluenced by the question of whether our decisions will harm us in an election. In the upcoming legislative session I am determined to seek the open and active support of those same labor leaders and their members whom we supported and who expressed sincere gratitude. I will ask them to appear with us before the Legislature whenever possible and, if they cannot appear, to at least contact key legislators and express their support for OHA and for Native Hawaiians. This allianee is extremely crucial in this session of the Legislature. Our community is suffering from laek of eeonomie growth; it will be difficult for the Legislature to appropriate money to satisfy this debt. Nevertheless, we have a fiduciary obligation to OHA's beneficiaries to try to get that payment and to seek all the help we ean get from the allies that I believe are willing to help. ■

Walter M. Heen TrustEE, ū'ahu