Bishop Estate
critics reject
worship service

Na Pua leaders pause at a
'healing' over the chapel's 100th year

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

Critics of Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate trustees say they will not attend a worship service Thursday sponsored by the schools because they think it is politicized.

Invitations were sent to parents, faculty and alumni to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Memorial Chapel.

"As part of our support to the 'ohana, a worship service of healing and thanksgiving will be held ...," the invitation says.

But members of Na Pua a Ke Ali'i Pauahi, critical of trustee management at the $10 billion estate, say original discussions did not include a celebration of the chapel and referred instead to "forgiveness."

Toni Lee, Na Pua president, said: "I don't have anything to forgive. I don't feel a need for us to go. Maybe there's a need for them to go."

Invitations to the chapel were sent by Kamehameha Schools' Rev. David Kaupu, said estate spokeswoman Elisa Yadao.

Lee said she found the invitation odd because Na Pua sponsored an Oct. 3 service at Kawaiahao Church in honor of Kamehameha Schools founder Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop.

"Why couldn't we have done it together?" Lee asked. "We would've loved to have had it on campus. But of course it would have been done for different reasons. It would not have been done as a healing service."

Tomi Chong, Na Pua's second vice president, said she responded to a telephone call from Kaupu to Na Pua.

"He told me that the purpose was for healing and for forgiveness," Chong said. At no point was there discussion that the chapel is celebrating a century of service, she said.

"I mentioned to him that I didn't think in light of all that was going on maybe our perceptions for healing are different," Chong said.

She was told by Kaupu that about 1,000 invitations were mailed.

"I don't know what they're trying to do, but it sounds like a public relations thing to be quite honest," said Beadie Dawson, Na Pua attorney.

"I'm not sure I want to be a part of it."

She added: "It's a wonderful time for the trustees to get together, go down on their knees and do some introspection and communication with God."

Dawson said the estate is trying to emulate what was done at Kawaiahao. "It wasn't really a forgive-and-

forget type of service," she said. "It was put aside your politics and issues and focus on something else."

The Rev. Charles Kekumano, an author of the "Broken Trust" article that set off a state attorney general investigation into allegations of trustee wrongdoing, also was critical of this week's gathering.

"In another most peculiar attempt to confuse the situation, the trustees now want to invite all of us xxx to come to a prayer service to 'heal,'" Kekumano wrote in a letter published Thursday in the Star-Bulletin.

"The trustees need 'healing' and need it badly," he wrote. "They surely need God."

Yadao said it was Kaupu's decision alone to hold this service and that trustees had nothing to do with it. Yadao could not say if all five trustees would attend. "This is something the kahu (priest) decided he wanted to do," Yadao said. "It's an observation of significant dates within the Kamehameha family."

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Bishop Estate records
sent to judge, Bronster

Only documents under lawyer-client privilege
have been withheld, the estate's lawyer says

By Star-Bulletin staff

Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate has submitted records it believes are proprietary information to Circuit Judge Kevin Chang and Attorney General Margery Bronster.

Bronster is investigating allegations of mismanagement on the part of trustees.

Estate attorneys are seeking to keep at least some of the documents out of the hands of the public despite Bronster's assurances that she has no intention of releasing them.

"The only documents (Bronster) didn't get are those in which we are asserting attorney-client privilege," said estate attorney Bill McCorriston.

Bronster did get a log identifying attorney-client communications, however. Whether those documents actually get turned over to her will depend on Chang's rulings.

Cindy Quinn, special assistant to Bronster, confirmed delivery of a binder of documents yesterday afternoon.

Quinn said Bronster was reviewing the documents "to see if they've complied with the court order."

On Friday, McCorriston turned in an initial package of documents to Bronster's office.

The estate feels much of the information is proprietary and fears public release would result in financial harm.

State attorneys say they only want to see the information for purposes of the investigation and want the estate to follow the court order imposed by Chang last week.

New York Times article
tells story to the world

The New York Times, in an article published today, took the Bishop Estate saga to a national and worldwide stage. Headlined "Hawaiians Clash With Trustees of Estate-Run School," the article outlines the evolution of the Bishop Estate story from Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop and her will, to the present.

It touches on the ongoing investigations, the trustees' alleged questionable investments, a trustee's fateful meeting with a Kamehameha Schools student, to the formation of a formal protest organization and the publication of the "Broken Trust" essay.

Full text of the article can be read at: http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/early/1014hawaii-school-dispute.html. Free registration is required for access to the Times Web site.

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