By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Bishop Estate trustee Lokelani Lindsey looks for
the meeting room at Ward Warehouse last night.
Hawaiian leaders
meet face to face
with trustees
Participants won't talk
By Rick Daysog
about what went on at last night's
four-hour meeting
Star-BulletinLocked in a small conference room for more than four hours, trustees of the Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate butted heads with Hawaiian community leaders last night over the controversy surrounding the multibillion-dollar charitable trust.
In a four-hour summit at Ward Warehouse, trustees Richard Wong, Lokelani Lindsey, Henry Peters, Gerard Jervis and Oswald Stender met behind closed doors with more than a dozen members of Hawaiian civic clubs and student, alumni and faculty groups that have criticized trustees' management of the estate and the Kamehameha Schools.
Most participants characterized the meeting as productive. But they declined to disclose issues discussed, saying all took an oath. "It was a family affair and I'm looking forward to following it up," said Peters. "It was a good meeting."
Besides trustees, attendants included Roy Benham, Oahu president of the Kamehameha Alumni Association; Beadie Kanahele Dawson, attorney for Na Pua a Ke Ali'i Pauahi, which represents alumni, faculty and parents who are upset with the management of Kamehameha Schools; and Winona Rubin, former state Department of Human Services director and co-author of the recent "Broken Trust II" article that criticized Lindsey's management of the Kapalama Heights campus.
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Trustees Gerard Jervis, left and Henry Peters arriving.
Na Pua has called for the removal of all five trustees, while the alumni association has sought the removal of all but Stender. Dawson, Rubin and Benham declined comment.Also attending last night's meeting were local attorney Allen Hoe and the event's organizer, Kamaki Kanahele, former Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee and head of the Hawaiian Homestead Council. Kanahele also declined comment.
The meeting marked the first time in months that trustees have met with dissenting groups to discuss the turmoil at Kamehameha Schools.
It also comes at a time when the estate is under intense scrutiny from insiders and government officials.
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Trustees Richard Wong, left, and Oswald Stender
show up for the 4-hour closed door meeting.
Last week, trustees Jervis and Stender threatened to file a petition in Circuit Court seeking the removal of Lindsey, saying she breached her fiduciary duties and was unfit to serve.The charges by Jervis and Stender came after the estate's court-appointed fact finder, retired Circuit Judge Patrick Yim, found that Lindsey abused her authority as lead trustee overseeing Kamehameha Schools.
Lindsey denied many of Yim's allegations and said she would not resign voluntarily.
Besides the Yim report, state Attorney General Margery Bronster is investigating allegations that trustees mismanaged the estate, while the Internal Revenue Service is conducting an audit.
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