Hee takes over again Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chairman Clayton Hee is counting on his longtime friendships with Gov. Ben Cayetano and state Attorney General Earl Anzai to help expedite a legislative fix to OHA's ceded-land revenue problem.
as OHA chairman
His friendship with Gov. Cayetano
may help find a solution to
the ceded land disputeBy Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.comThat relationship proved crucial in March 2000 when Hee persuaded the governor not to immediately remove trustees from office following the Feb. 23, 2000, U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down the state's Hawaiians-only restriction to vote in the OHA election.
"I think as friends we can talk about things like that, and we can talk about them very candidly," Hee said.
Hee, who replaced Haunani Apoliona as OHA chairman yesterday on what remains a deeply divided board, met with Cayetano yesterday afternoon to discuss the Sept. 12 Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a 1990 state law defining ceded-land revenue payments to OHA.
One possible solution, Hee said, is an interim law that sets revenue payments at a fixed amount until a long-term legislative solution is reached.
That occurred in 1998 and 1999, when OHA received $15.1 million in annual revenue payments while a task force tried to resolve the ceded-land dispute.
Hee believes legislative leaders are more likely to support such a plan if it already has the backing of the governor.
Meanwhile, a new five-member board majority backed Hee, including trustee John D. Waihee IV, who just nine months earlier backed Apoliona as chairwoman.
Waihee said with OHA's revenue payments eliminated and its $325 million investment portfolio taking a hit in the struggling economy, Hee is the better person to lead OHA through this crisis.
The political reality, Waihee added, is that the nine-member board may never be unified.
"It wasn't a knock against the current chair," explained the son of the former Hawaii governor at yesterday's reorganization meeting.
"I know it's a cliche, but there are great wartime leaders and great peacetime leaders. And I think we're in crisis, and I just believe that trustee Hee was a better wartime leader," Waihee said.
Others in the new majority are trustees Rowena Akana, who is the new vice chairwoman, Charlie Ota and Linda Dela Cruz.
Trustees now in the minority -- Apoliona, Colette Machado, Donald Cataluna and Oswald Stender -- worry that efforts such as OHA's strategic planning process and ways to diversify the trust may lose direction.
Apoliona said in her outgoing report as chairwoman, "The crew paddling a poorly designed and hastily built canoe and lacking a navigation plan will not reach the destination regardless of the skill of the paddlers."
Stender said the leadership change comes at the worst time, just as the ceded-lands ruling, the Akaka bill and native entitlements all face challenges. He said no organization can withstand the heavy toll on its employees as OHA has with six reorganizations since 1997.
"This so-called 'reorganization' reinforces the public's view of the dysfunction at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs," Stender said. "And with so much at risk, this is the worst time to demonstrate this dysfunction."
The board will meet again Monday to work out committee assignments. Hee said he intends to name Apoliona to a new ad hoc committee on strategic and master planning.
Office of Hawaiian Affairs
U.S. Public Law 103-150
