Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 2, 1 February 2011 — My hope for change ot OHA and the Legislature [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

My hope for change ot OHA and the Legislature

/A no 'ai kakou . . . Happy Year /\ of the Rabbit! I would like ^^\ to wish newly elected OHA # % Chairperson / \Colette Machado

the best in 201 1. Colette has a strong community and grassroots background and I am hopeful that she will take the Board of Trustees in this direction. In this New Year, I eontinue to hope that there will be changes at OHA to make things better here for everyone. GET M0RE TRUSTEES INV0LVED

I believe that being a Trustee is not about simply showing up at a few monthly meetings. OHA cannot afford to maintain a system whieh encourages passive Trustees, as we have experienced in the past. Currently, there are only two subjectmatter committees under the Board of Trustees: (1) Trustee Oswald Stender oversees all of OHA's fiscal, policy, eeonomie development and administrative matters, and (2) Trustee John Waihe'e IV, for the first time in nine years, has responsibility over all federal and state legislation, ongoing programs in heahh, housing, education, land and the Native Hawaiian Revolving Loan Fund. The problem is that eaeh committee is too broad in scope and ean easily heeome overwhelmed. I'mhopeful that Trustees Stender and Waihe'e will form"Ad Hoe" subcommittees to allow other Trustees to concentrate on more specific issues such as land, policy and planning, program management, legislative and govemment affairs, and budget and hnanee. Creating subcommittees will get more Trustees actively involved and ensure less things "fall through the cracks." BRING BACK 0HA-RUN PR0GRAMS Today, OHA mostly operates like a charitable foundation that hands out grants. Most of the successful OHAmn programs, like Aha 'Opio and Aha Kupuna, whieh took years of hard work by past Trustees to develop, have been contracted out or quietly discontinued. While farming work out to nonprofits is appropriate in some cases, I believe

OHA has gone too far. I believe that OHA should do mueh more for our beneficiaries in terms of programs and services. Grants are ineffective in solvina lona-

term problems since grant monies eventually run out. Even successful services end up getting cut if they can't raise any money. That's why we need ongoing OHA programs that are closely monitored by the Trustees. EMBRACE TRANSPARENCY Despite many requests, OHA meetings are not televised like the Citv Council or the State

Legislature. Cost has always been an issue, but with today's technology, it shouldn't cost that mueh - Olelo and YouTube are free! Broadcasting our meetings would make Trustees more accessible and keep us honest. NEW LEGISLATURE Congratulations to newly appointed Big Island State Sen. Malama Solomon, who previously served as an OHA Trustee and State Senator. Now, with Sen. Clayton Hee, OHA has two former Trustees it ean count on in the Senate. We will certainly need their help to finally resolve the claims relating to OHA's portion of ineome from the Puhlie Land trust between Nov. 7, 1978, and July 1, 2009. In the 2009, Senator Hee introduced Senate Bill 995, whieh offered OHA $251 million in cash and 20 percent of the 1.8 million acres of ceded lands. The proposal died in the House and went nowhere in 2010. Even a few of these properties could generate all of the revenue OHA needs to operate and would give our future nahon the assets it needs to serve our heneheiaries. Let us hope that we ean successfully lobby the State House to have a change of heart. Aloha Ke Akua. ■ Interested in Hawaiian issues and OHA ? Please visit my web site at www. rowenaakana.org for more information or email me at rowenaa@oha.org.

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