Bronster’s office
looking into OHA

Trustees Billie Beamer and
Rowena Akana file complaints

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

The state attorney general's office is investigating the Office of Hawaiian Affairs after two trustees filed separate complaints questioning the actions of board members.

Cynthia Quinn, special assistant to Attorney General Margery Bronster, said the office is researching claims of misconduct from trustees Billie Beamer and Rowena Akana.

She said that it is uncertain when the investigations will be completed but that the office wants them done quickly so OHA can deal with them.

The complaints come less than two months after a new OHA majority led by A. Frenchy DeSoto wrested control from longtime chairman Clayton Hee.

"We do need more facts, and that's what we're doing right now," Quinn said.

"There's a whole bunch of remedies available out there for misconduct of trustees on a board, and this being part of a state arm, that's another overlay as well. So there's a lot to be looked at before we come up with any conclusions or actions," she said.

Here are the complaints:

Beamer in a Dec. 1 memo to the attorney general complained that official OHA records are being removed and destroyed by the minority faction of the board. Beamer alleges Hee and Budget Chairman Abraham Aiona and their staff removed OHA records from the chairman's office last month and left DeSoto with only the minutes and agenda of the past four years.

Beamer claims the missing records include membership information, policy, agendas, minutes, final reports and related correspondence and documents from board and committee meetings and advisory boards.

Hee, Aiona and DeSoto did not return telephone messages from the Star-Bulletin.

"I saw the vacating chairman's staff removing boxes of materials from the office," Beamer said in the memo.

In January, Circuit Judge Gail Nakatani dismissed Beamer's petition for a temporary restraining order against Hee, Aiona and two other administrators after she claimed they were withholding access to financial documents.

Akana on Nov. 28 said she filed a three-part complaint alleging Beamer repeatedly denied her a copy of a taped executive session held Oct. 21 during a joint committee meeting.

Akana claims Beamer violated the state Sunshine Law for improperly closing the meeting to the public and for illegally withholding the minutes from it.

Akana last Friday said Deputy Attorney General Charlene Aina will investigate the complaint.

The third part is against DeSoto, whom Akana said physically threatened her for questioning the majority's actions.

"These people who criticized the old chair are doing exactly the same or worse," Akana said.

"What they've done is instead of being inclusive as they have said they were going to be, they have been exclusive to the point where the four other trustees who did not support Mrs. DeSoto as the chair are left completely out of any meaningful discussions on anything other than what happens at the board meetings," she said.

OHA, with 115 employees and an additional 100 people on various contracts, operates a $15 million annual budget and has an investment portfolio valued at $262 million as of Sept. 30.