State likely to add
staff for inquiry
Hawaii's attorney general
By Jim Witty
prepares a plan for Cayetano
Star-BulletinIf Gov. Ben Cayetano signs off on a wider investigation of Bishop Estate after he's presented with a plan today or tomorrow, the attorney general's office will likely have to beef up its staff for what could be a months-long investigation. "We definitely will need some help," said Cynthia Quinn, special assistant to Attorney General Margery Bronster. "We'd like to keep it in-house. We may need more people if it comes out that we're going to do a more comprehensive investigation later."
She said hiring a special investigator is unlikely.
The attorney general's office was expected to give Cayetano a detailed plan today for a broader query into allegations of management irregularities and the way trustees are selected.
Investigators are scheduled to conduct an informal interview tomorrow afternoon with members of Na Pua A Ke Alii Pauahi, an organization of students, parents and Kamehameha Schools alumni that's been critical of the way trustees have managed the 110-year-old institution, said Quinn.
They also plan to interview court-appointed fact finder Patrick Yim, probably next week, before concluding the preliminary probe.
Yim, a retired judge looking into charges that trustees are micromanaging Kamehameha Schools, is scheduled to complete his inquiry at the end of this month.
"His report will have an impact on our investigation as will the master's report due out in September," she said.
The latter is a court-ordered "biennial checkup" on the estate's financial dealings.
In recent days, the investigators have questioned several sources, including a former Bishop Estate executive who said he was fired after raising questions about possibly illegal activities and the authors of a critical essay in the Star-Bulletin that prompted Cayetano to launch the investigation. Quinn said interviews with the trustees have not been scheduled yet.
"We're trying to be very thorough, to proceed very carefully," Quinn said. "It's an important issue. The goal is to protect the trust. Everyone we've talked with so far has had an abiding love for the school."
The attorney general's office has been receiving about a half dozen telephone calls and a half dozen letters each day from people offering information on the Bishop Estate investigation. Unfortunately, most have been anonymous, Quinn said.
She said the office welcomes information that will advance the inquiry.
Toni Lee, president of Na Pua A Ke Alii Pauahi, said the group is not necessarily pushing for the ouster of the trustees.
"But if they're going to remove trustees, we're saying don't remove five, just remove four," Lee said. "We need continuity. Os Stender has really earned his keep as far as we're concerned."
The authors of "Broken Trust" are pushing for replacement of all Bishop Estate trustees with the exception of Stender, with appointment of interim trustees to be made by the probate court.
Mayor Jeremy Harris said he backs Cayetano's call to have Bronster investigate the Bishop Estate allegations.
"But it needs to be handled with a level head and with a focus on the beneficiaries," Harris told reporters yesterday.
State statute calls for Bronster to investigate the operations of nonprofit charitable trusts such as Bishop Estate, the mayor said.
Harris also had high praise for Yim.
"I don't think there's anybody with greater integrity than Judge Yim," the mayor said.
While giving credit to the public for calling for change, Harris said he feels the media have been overdoing it.
"It just appears to be banner headlines every day," he said. "There appears to be a feeding frenzy going on."
He added: "The media's role is to report on the news, not make the news."
Information?
If you would like to offer infomation about the Bishop Estate to the stae attorney general's office:
Call: (808) 586-1500
Nonprofit status in jeopardy,
By Jim Witty
says Mililani Trask
Star-BulletinHawaiian activist and Kamehameha Schools alumna Mililani Trask is launching a letter-writing campaign aimed at persuading the Internal Revenue Service to preserve Bishop Estate's nonprofit status. "This is definitely something the IRS will get wind of if it hasn't already," said Trask, a Big Island attorney and leader of the sovereignty group Ka Lahui Hawaii.
"They have two choices. They can choose to take away the nonprofit status of the schools, or they can seek accountability from any liable trustees without taking away that status."
Trask prefers the latter. And she hopes to find another 1,000 or so like-minded people to deliver that message to the IRS.
"We all need to realize that this controversy will threaten the tax-exempt status of the schools," she said. "That's not the outcome we want."
Trask said she believes a change in the estate's tax status would destroy her alma mater and devastate Hawaiian youth.
"It would mean the Hawaiian people have lost the most lucrative and valuable trust left to us by the monarchy and the only opportunity to meet the needs of our children," she said. "We know those educational needs are extreme and that the taxpayer-supported education system, in these economic times, cannot bear that burden. This is not the time to dump another three or four thousand kids into the public education system."
Trask plans to urge officials to go after individual trustees - should any be found in breach of trust - instead of the institution itself.
"They need to look at individual trustees, and if they find that the trustees have done anything wrong, to seek the return of trust monies lost to mismanagement from the trustees themselves."
Trask says she's using word of mouth and an Olelo cable television show - "First Friday" - to spread the message. And she's appealing to non-Hawaiians who "appreciate the ramifications" of the current crisis.
"I am worried," she said. "I'm not after the schools or Bishop Estate. I'm after the trustees and the old-boy network."
