Ontai to head
Pacific research
center

The center will focus on
Pacific Americans and
Native Hawaiians

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By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.com

State Rep. Guy Ontai will be project director for the new Pacific American Research Center, the first national research center to focus on information about Pacific Americans and Native Hawaiians.

The center was announced yesterday by Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono at the center's new headquarters within the downtown offices of the Pacific American Foundation.

The new center will use information about Hawaiians and Pacific Americans gathered for the first time from the 2000 census.

"This new research center will serve as the foundation resource about Pacific Americans and give a clearer picture of the community's social and economic condition," Hirono said.

Hirono served as the honorary chair for the 2000 census.

The center will serve as "a nonpartisan research center to inform policy makers at the federal, state and local levels about the education, health employment and housing needs of Pacific Americans," Hirono said.

Ontai (R, Mililani), who is a freshman House member, was a physics teacher at Kamehameha Schools and was forced to take a leave of absence from that position while he is in office.

An agreement between the school, Kamehameha Schools (the former Bishop Estate) and the Internal Revenue Service precludes the school from employing people who are holding political office.