Showdown at OHA
corral: Hee faces
ouster vote
Frency DeSoto heads a new
By Pat Omandam
board majority looking for change
Star-BulletinIt is the nerve center of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a cramped fifth-floor conference room at the Pacific Park Plaza Building. Here, five of nine trustees have formed a new board majority, hoping today to oust controversial OHA Chairman Clayton Hee from his well-worn chair at the head of the room's large koa table.
"We'll see what happens (today), but Frenchy DeSoto herself told me that she got the votes," said Hee, who has served as chairman since May 1991, the longest of any trustee.
"I think now it's up to the people to say, 'Is Frenchy DeSoto the kind of person that should lead a $300 million organization? Is she that kind of person that they want to lead them?"
Hee last week gave the first public notice of a possible leadership change when he announced he would resign as chairman if the new majority holds together.
Trustee Adelaide "Frenchy" DeSoto, who as a delegate to the 1978 state Constitutional Convention helped create OHA and later served as its first chairperson, said the reorganization will be good not only for the Hawaiian people, but for her health.
Constant worrying over the board's continued infighting, high-handed politics, as well as the lack of community involvement in issues have often kept her awake at night and in tears, she said. The weight of it all, DeSoto added, prompted her and others to seek a change.
"I'm going to start feeling better here," DeSoto said of the pending reorganization.
The longtime Waianae resident - along with Trustees Billie Beamer, Haunani Apoliona, Colette Machado and Hannah Springer - characterize Hee's leadership style as aggressive and exclusive.
For example, Apoliona said Hee didn't allow his staff to give her and other trustees information provided by consultants who want to represent OHA in its ceded-land talks with the state in December. Of the 13 proposals, the former executive director of Alu Like Inc. said she received packets on only a few, even though telephone calls later to some of the other consultants revealed they had submitted to the chairman's office copies for each trustee.
The board is scheduled to decide this matter at a meeting tomorrow.
"Why hold back information, why hold it back? That's the kind pilau stuff going on," said Apoliona, who ran with Machado and Springer under the Na Lei Lokahi banner in November.
Beamer said the board hasn't been able to set priorities on dealing with major issues like the ceded-
land talks because Hee has done it all by himself. She called him a "master politician."
"Nowhere in the statutes or in our bylaws does it give the chairman the right to make these unilateral decisions Hee's been making without consulting with us," Beamer said yesterday. "It's always after the fact that we get the information. And then if you object, it's like objecting to motherhood."
Trustees also were alarmed when they learned of a new law designating the OHA chairman as the agency's chief procurement officer, although Hee said he wasn't aware of the legislation until it was passed.
OHA has 115 employees and an additional 100 people on various contracts. The agency operates on a $15 million annual budget and has an investment portfolio of $275 million.
Hee has maintained that if his leadership style offends, it is because of his profound commitment to the agency.
While others may feel he is moving too fast in choosing a consultant team, Hee counters that time is of the essence, and at stake is $500 million for native Hawaiians.
"You can never move too fast when you're moving toward securing half a billion dollars," Hee said.
Hee said today's reorganization attempt raises concerns that the new majority may not fully appreciate the demands a chairman has in keeping track of OHA issues.
For example, Hee recently returned from Washington D.C., with a federal commitment of a $4.5 million grant to fund a $9 million elderly project known as Kupuna Village in Waimanalo.
Locally, Hee said lawmakers have suggested ways to settle OHA's lawsuit against the state Department of Education over the Hawaiian Immersion program.
"It's easy when you're a committee chair to focus on one area, but when you as the chairman of the board work with several different issues that have strict time lines, particularly with court, you have to have that cognizance and awareness that there's certain things that need to be done," Hee said.
Trustee Rowena Akana, a Hee ally, said the reorganization is unfortunate because it comes in the shadow of the Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate investigation. She said micromanaging by the estate, if any, has a long way to go to match what DeSoto, Beamer, Apoliona and Machado are doing at OHA.
"Another Hawaiian agency in turmoil and in the limelight is going to be viewed as distasteful in the eyes of Hawaiians and the general public," Akana said.
Meanwhile, DeSoto promises native Hawaiians more community involvement, teamwork and stability under her leadership.
"I'd like to begin to look at the future with some passion," she said. "To begin to envision that everything is not lost, and empower the entire community to move forward together rather than continually beefing each other."
Leadership changes may occur again next year, when DeSoto, Beamer, Hee, Akana and Trustee Abraham Aiona are up for re-election in November. DeSoto said she wants to serve OHA as long as physically possible.
"As long as the doctor says I'm in top shape, I'm going," DeSoto said.
OHA's new majority
Here are profiles of the board members in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' new majority:
Adelaide "Frenchy" DeSoto, at-large trustee and proposed chairwoman.
Political experience: OHA trustee, 1980-1984, 1986-present; delegate, 1978 state Constitutional Convention; former member, Waianae Neighborhood Board No. 24.
Professional and community experience: Retired manager, Waianae Satellite City Hall; precinct chair, Democratic State Convention; jury commission, First Circuit Court; Waianae Model Cities Program; Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission; Kahoolawe Island Conveyance Commission; and founder, Waianae Bantam Football.
Education: Central Michigan University, Leeward Community College, and Farrington and Roosevelt high schools.
Political: OHA trustee, 1996-present.
Professional: chief executive officer, Alu Like Inc.; board member, Bank of Hawaii; also, Olelo: The Corporation for Community Television; The Nature Conservancy; Na Pua No'eau National Advisory Council of the Center for Gifted and Talented Native Hawaiian Children; and U.S. Department of Commerce Census Advisory Committee, Census 2000. Also, award-winning musician.
Education: University of Hawaii.
Political: OHA trustee, 1994-present.
Professional: professor, UH; chairwoman, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands; golf professional; hotel manager, Makaha Hotel; deputy director, city Parks and Recreation; author, "The Royal Torch" and "Ka Po'e Hawaii."
Education: Drake University, UH.
Political: OHA trustee, 1996-present; member, state Land Use Commission; member, Hawaiian Homelands Commission; and member, Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission.
Professional: president, Ke Kua'aina Hanauna Hou Inc.; Hui Alaloa Inc.; Protect Kahoolawe Fund; Molokai Health Foundation; and co-founder of Malama Mana'e Kako'o Kawela and Malama Molokai.
Education: UH, Tongue Point Job Center, Oregon.
Political: OHA trustee, 1996-present.
Professional: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; U.S. Soil Conversation Service; volunteer, Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site; board member, The Nature Conservancy; Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund; board member, Hospice of Kona; and Daughters of Hawaii.
Education: UH, Punahou School.
