Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 4, 1 April 2016 — Making the leap from responsible to exceptional board [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Making the leap from responsible to exceptional board

n an attempt to set new standards for our board, we have moved a step eloser to the onee unthinkable: giving ourselves the ability to impose diseiplinary sanetions for violating board rules. This new proeedure for trustees who do not comply with rules — or remain disruptive to our efforts - has been a missing pieee to our board's

effectiveness. Meaning our laek of authority to poliee ourselves has been an irregularity in our operations that needed to be corrected. Until now, we simply had no control over ensuring that we are all appropriately held accountable for our actions. Yet, we have a responsibility as OHA trustees to always act for the good of the organization, rather than the benefit of ourselves. It is a kuleana that ean add significant value to our organization at a time when the difference between responsible and exceptional boards lies in putting the interests of OHA above all else and setting aside personal agendas. It is also a kuleana that everyone on our board must now take more seriously. Otherwise, disciplinary sanctions against trustees ean be imposed when board mles are violated. The sanctions include restricting out-of-state business travel, freezing trustee allowances, and revoking publishing privileges in such OHA-

owned media as the Ka Wai Ola newspaper and our organization's Internet sites. For the effective functioning of our board, we needed to establish such a procedure for imposing disciplinary sanctions when any one of us fails, for example, to help ensure that our organization eomplies with the rules, acts with Ananeial integrity, or operates effectively and ethically.

And we needed to approach this objective with urgency and unity. For me, this new standard for our board is about demonstrating to every employee at OHA that our organization represents a good career move and a plaee where he or she ean be successful. As for my colleagues, I would like to believe that this new standard for our board is largely about helping us better demonstrate that we are responsible stewards of our organization, helping clarify thorny issues, offering breakthrough insights on pressing matters and presenting new ways of framing challenges and opportunities. Above all, this new authority to impose disciplinary sanctions against trustees is about helping our organization send a strong, unequivoeal message that its nine-member policymaking board is committed to meeting the high standards of ethics, transparency and accountability that are expected from oversight responsibilities. ■

LEO 'ELELE V www.oha.org/kwo | kwo@OHA.org TRUSTEE MESSSAGES ' NATIVE HAWAIIAN » NEWS l FEATURES I EVENT S

Rūbert K. Lindsey, Jr.

Chair, Trustee, Hawai'i