2 trustees refuse Former Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona said she will refuse to serve on an ad hoc committee on strategic and master planning, as proposed by new Chairman Clayton Hee.
to serve on
OHA committees
Apoliona and Stender fault
Hee's leadership and philosophyBy Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.comAnd trustee Oswald Stender, who also is in the board minority, stated he will not serve on any OHA committee because of philosophical differences with Hee and because he believes the committee process is inefficient.
"If you disagree with the philosophy of the chairman, it's counterproductive then to try to support the chair by being on a committee," said Stender, who resigned this week as OHA budget chairman.
The OHA board meets again Monday to approve committee assignments following a coup last Tuesday in which Hee and four others ousted Apoliona and her supporters from the board leadership.
Following the reorganization, Hee said he intended to name Apoliona as head of a new ad hoc committee on strategy and master planning. Apoliona, however, said the panel would be duplicative to the strategic planning process that started in January and is now 75 percent complete.
Hee's offer, she said, was just "busy work" that will only create confusion as well as more red tape. The OHA board made it a priority to complete this planning process, given the results of three scathing state audits over the past decade that criticized OHA's management and administrative practices, she said.
The board, no matter who is in charge, is obligated to finish the process, she said.
"This is not a personal project of Apoliona," she said. "It's a requirement."
Hee could not be reached for comment yesterday. His new majority includes trustees Rowena Akana, new vice chairwoman, John D. Waihee IV, Charles Ota and Linda Dela Cruz.
Akana, board vice chairwoman, said Stender had the opportunity to change the committee structure while a member of the board majority. Instead, he went along with the status quo, she said.
Akana added there is no excuse for him not to serve on any committee just because he disagrees with leadership.
"Whether you are in the majority or minority, if you're elected to serve, you serve," she said.
"You don't sulk and say, 'Well, I'm not in charge, so I'm going to take my ball and go home.' That, in effect, is what Mr. Stender has said he's doing," Akana said.
Nevertheless, Stender believes all decisions by OHA should be discussed by all nine trustees and not left to smaller committees for approval. The current process, he said, makes it more difficult for good ideas to gain approval, as he has witnessed during the past nine months.
"There are things that get killed at the committee level which are perfectly great programs, but the trustees that don't participate in those particular committees have no access to that," Stender said.
"By the time it gets to the board, it's so watered down or manipulated that it's no longer what was the original request," he said.
Office of Hawaiian Affairs
