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Interim OHA The terms of the interim board of trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs expire on Election Day, but the nine appointed trustees will still remain in office until Nov. 28, according to state attorneys.
board to hold power
till Nov. 28
Trustees elected Tuesday
will need to be certified, then
sworn into office
General Election Guide
By Pat Omandam
Star-BulletinAlthough the terms for the nine appointees legally expire Tuesday, they will remain in office as de facto trustees until those elected to OHA this year are certified by the Elections Office and sworn into office, Deputy State Attorney General Charleen Aina said.
Aina said the same thing happens following the election of Board of Education members.
"What happens is, those nine who sit today are deemed hold-over officers" with all the powers of the office, she said yesterday.
Since being appointed in early September, the board, under the leadership of veteran trustee Clayton Hee, has revisited action taken up by past boards or paved the way for new proposals.
The board yesterday approved a draft of a formal letter to the U.S. Post Office that states OHA wants to place a reservation on the downtown Post Office Building if and when the U.S. Postal Service puts it up for sale again.
Also, an OHA ad hoc committee on a community-based bank presented the board with a report that raises questions for OHA financial and legal officers on how the state agency could establish a community-based bank.
OHA Budget Chairwoman Hannah Springer said some of the questions include whether a community-based bank would have to be a for-profit institution, and if so, how OHA would create one.
Interim trustee Charles Ota, a retired businessman and former banker, continued to urge the board to consider setting up a bank similar to those in Switzerland, Panama and the West Indies, where accounts are identified by numbers only and not by names of individuals.
Ota said such a bank here would draw a lot of interest from Asia. Interim trustee Dante Carpenter said the idea for an offshore bank is worthy of exploration.
Meanwhile, the interim board raised qualification requirements and capped loan limits for Hawaiians who participate in OHA's down-payment program for Hawaiian Home Land leases. Trustees said they were losing money on the program because there were no income limits and because of its low interest rates.
Trustees also spent several hours discussing whether it should rescind an April 27 decision by the former board that awarded a lease of the Kekaha Armory to the state Department of Education.
A few interim trustees want the lease returned to Ke Kula Niihau o Kekaha, a Hawaiian immersion program operated by 'Aha Punana Leo, which was originally got the lease on April 27, 1997.
