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Let us start Newly elected trustees say the work's piling up at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and they need to get down to business soon.
our work, OHA’s
still-unseated
trustees plead
Seven gather to urge the
Hawaii Supreme Court to
oust the challenge that
halted their swearing-inBy Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin"Time is of the essence and it's very precious to us," said trustee-elect Rowena Akana. "We have to move forward on so many fronts."
Seven of nine trustees gathered yesterday to publicly urge the Hawaii Supreme Court for a quick dismissal of an OHA election challenge that has kept them from being sworn into office, the first step toward organizing a legal and functional board.
They support a motion by the state attorney general's office asking the justices to dismiss the complaints raised by unsuccessful OHA candidate Kaui Jochanan Amsterdam.
Amsterdam filed the challenge in late November claiming the election results do not express the will of the Hawaiian people, because non-Hawaiians voted in the OHA races and a non-Hawaiian was elected to the board.
The attorney general's office filed a motion yesterday that Amsterdam's complaint doesn't qualify as an "election contest," and even if it did, the state must comply with U.S. Supreme and District court rulings that allow non-Hawaiians to vote and run as candidates for OHA. Amsterdam has seven days to respond in court to the state's motion.
"We are here expressing to you not disappointment, but anxiousness, and we want the Supreme Court of the state of Hawaii to move quickly," said Colette Machado, one of three appointed interim trustees who were then elected to their seats.
"One, we need to get ourselves organized," said trustee-elect Oswald Stender. "Second, we need to address the issues that we need to present to the Legislature. That's one of the top priorities."
Another pressing issue is the ongoing litigation that threatens the existence and the funding of OHA as well as the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. OHA faces legal challenges in January and trustees need to minimize any erosion of the agency's trust assets, which are valued around $375 million, Machado said.
Trustees say state law should be changed to assume their offices the day after a general election and not wait for a 20-day election challenge period which, in this case, has delayed certification of their election, their investiture and reorganization.
"It's very frustrating," said trustee-elect Linda Dela Cruz. "By all means, it has been something of a disappointment. But we'll live with it and we'll continue working as much as we can."
The seven trustees who attended yesterday's news conference declined to discuss whether they comprise a new board majority and instead stuck to questions about the election challenge.
Absent from the gathering were interim board chairman Clayton Hee and Charles Ota, the first non-Hawaiian ever appointed and elected to the Hawaiian agency.
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