KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
The OHA trustee investiture took place at Kawaiaha'o Church yesterday. After receiving their lei hulu (the official symbol of office), from left, Rowena Akana, Dante Carpenter, Linda Dela Cruz, Boyd Mossman and John Waihee IV applauded a performance by Punana Leo students.
OHA reduces A new Office of Hawaiian Affairs board of trustees -- which includes a retired state judge and a former Big Island mayor -- wasted little time in changing how OHA does business.
committees to
improve efficiency
By Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.com
In its first board meeting after being sworn into office yesterday morning, a majority of trustees approved a preliminary plan that reduces OHA's current five-committee structure to just two committees for all of its work.
Proponent Oz Stender said the plan eliminates the proliferation of OHA committee meetings that he says are inefficient, take up too much time and are not well attended by trustees.
Instead, Stender said, by having every trustee serve on just two committees of the whole -- one for fiscal issues and the other for programs, services and advocacy -- every one has an opportunity to speak on every issue, and no one trustee decides issues for a committee.
Seven of nine trustees approved the plan yesterday, including Boyd Mossman, a retired state judge who was elected as trustee from Maui. Mossman said OHA's committee problems were because trustees tried to be like the state Legislature or a county council -- and they should not be.
"We have an opportunity to see if this will work," Mossman said. "Let's do something."
Kauai trustee Donald Cataluna, however, said there was no real reason to change and opposed the plan. He is worried that quicker action by the board may never achieve lasting results.
"It centralizes power and I'm against that," Cataluna said.
Trustee Rowena Akana was also skeptical and wanted assurances all trustees will have input before a decision is made and that it will not just be a matter of formality decided earlier by committee chairmen and the administration.
"There is so much room for monkey business," Akana said.
The OHA board takes a final vote on the two-committee structure Tuesday at a meeting on Maui.
Yesterday, the board chose Stender to head the Committee on Asset & Resource Management, and Colette Machado to lead the Committee on Beneficiary Advocacy and Empowerment.
Meanwhile, the board voted 8-1 yesterday to select Haunani Apoliona as board chairwoman for at least one year. Apoliona said the 12-month proviso is a public commitment from the OHA board that it will not tolerate the numerous changes in board leadership that have taken place in the past years.
Apoliona said this board, which includes Dante Carpenter, a former Big Island mayor and state senator, is quite different from years past, and she expects it will show in its work.
"We are at the threshold of great possibilities, and we need to work diligently," she said.
Office of Hawaiian Affairs
