Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
OHA Panel offers
budget and 3rd
reorg plan
The budget proposal
By Treena Shapiro
is for the fiscal year
starting July 1
Star-BulletinBudget Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona has presented a six-division organizational plan for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs after two previous streamlining plans were shelved.
Under the plan, agreed on by a majority of her committee last week and sent to the board of trustees, OHA's 11 divisions would be restructured into a six "clusters" that would allow for collaboration among the elected board, administrator, staff and state agencies servicing OHA beneficiaries.
"Clustering provides for clear accountability to the Legislature and clarity of program focus for the beneficiaries," Apoliona said.
The committee also sent a $7.2 million operating budget plan funded by OHA's trust fund for the new fiscal year beginning Saturday.
Last week, the Budget and Finance Committee voted down a four-division reorganization plan OHA Administrator Randall Ogata had worked on for the past year, then discarded a seven-division plan proposed by the committee.
Trustee Mililani Trask questioned the committee-approved restructuring plan.
Trask asked the staff to give it a thorough analysis and also requested that Ogata's plan be brought to the board for discussion.
Trask also raised questions about the proposed operating budget, which she said appeared to be a line-item, rather than a bottom-line, budget such as the board used this fiscal year.
Apoliona said the board was required to provide a detailed budget by the Legislature, but she and other board members discussed submitting the budget as a summary sheet with the line-items attached as justification.
A board meeting to discuss the budget has yet to be scheduled, but while a budget is not likely to be pass before the 2001 fiscal year begins July 1, the lack of one isn't expected to affect OHA operations.
"We're going to operate off the assumption that the trustees want to continue the operation, not let their work be affected," said Ogata, whose staff will work on adjustments to the line items this week.
Office of Hawaiian Affairs
