HERE'S a horrible joke: How is Bishop Estate trustee Gerard Jervis like someone who has fallen off of Cleopatra's barge? Cutting through
Jervis jargonThey are both "in da Nile."
Get it? Da Nile. Denial. OK. It's not funny. But neither is the fact that Jervis continues to either completely miss the point of why Bishop Estate is facing an unprecedented legal assault or he is in denial. A third possibility is that he understands how serious the situation is but is simply spinning the controversy into a pretty little box that everyone will buy.
That last possibility would be awfully sneaky and, really, an insult to everyone who has been following the growing controversy. I would rather believe that deep down he understands how serious the situation is, he just can't face it.
Where is the evidence that he is in denial? Just look at his recent writings.
"I am convinced that a fundamental reason for the current controversy is the lack of meaningful communication that has as its core mission the participation of people who can make a difference in improving the institution," he said.
THIS is hooey. It's hooey that has been heavily camouflaged with the worst politically correct school board subcommittee jargon available to anyone with the Official Bureaucractic Gobbledygook Double-Speak Handbook, but it's hooey nonetheless.
This isn't the movie "Cool Hand Luke." What we DON'T have here is a failure to communicate. What we have here is a failure to properly administer one of the country's finest private charities.
The federal government doesn't launch investigations for allegedly breaking the "Failure To Communicate Act." The state attorney general doesn't subpoena records of a billion dollar charity because folks haven't been "talking story."
Another Jervis observation:
"Next, we must improve fiduciary standards, safeguard against conflicts of interest and bring management of Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate into the 21st century."
This is something like a burglar caught in the act saying, "We must improve burglary laws and safeguard against breaking into buildings."
Fiduciary standards don't need "improving." Trustees simply need to ABIDE by those fiduciary standards.
As for getting into the 21st century, well, when you are pulling down nearly a million bucks a year, I think trustees should already be on the bridge of the starship "Enterprise."
All of this chit-chat about setting up discussion panels and putting out booklets of guidelines is an attempt to avoid facing or, worse, making public, serious mismanagement. It is an attempt to create an ocean swell of good feelings that will carry trustees over the treacherous legal reefs they are facing. It is denial.
Last week I said that it should not have been surprising that Jervis and trustee Oswald Stender have challenged the other three trustees in court. After all, people facing worse legal trouble than they have changed loyalties.
I pointed out that the notorious underworld hitman Sammy "The Bull" Gravano began to work for the government when he realized he was going to be betrayed by John Gotti.
I really am not trying to make a connection between the trustees and the underworld. Honest. I just want to point out that when Sammy agreed to change sides, he confessed to 19 murders. He didn't blame all of the problems facing the Gambino family on a "failure to communicate." And while he might have gone overboard in confessing his sins, he certainly wasn't "in da Nile."